Meet the Founder | Bo Dillon of BuilderBid
Welcome to our Spark! Meet the Founder series, where we introduce you to the amazing entrepreneurs who are participating in our 2022 Fall Spark! program with a quick Q&A!
Spark! is a small business accelerator that puts the right people, opportunities, and access in place for local entrepreneurs in Arkansas to take their ventures to the next level.
Please meet Bo Dillon, founder of BuilderBid, a construction technology startup that provides home builders & contractors with modern tools to quote jobs faster.
The Venture Center: Tell us about BuilderBid!
Bo Dillon: BuilderBid is a construction technology startup that provides home builders & contractors with modern tools to quote jobs faster and more accurately. We are aiming to streamline pre-construction with simple-to-use software that has best-in-class features.
Why did you choose to become an entrepreneur?
After college, I started off in the corporate America world for 5 years before joining my parent’s custom home-building company to help them take it to the next level. Their passion for small business has been inspiring and building something from zero has always been a challenge I wanted to take on. I have a passion for both software & business. BuilderBid was an attractive opportunity to combine my expertise in construction and technology to solve problems for small building companies across the nation.
What are your biggest challenges as a business owner?
As a first-time founder, there are probably too many challenges to list here. Not having a background in marketing & sales, such crucial aspects of growing any company, would probably be #1 on the list. It has been super fun diving in and learning more about these areas. Finding the right strategies and expertise to shortcut those learnings is a huge prerequisite to any future success we will unlock.
What do you hope for the future of your business?
I’d love for BuilderBid to become the go-to estimating solution for builders across the nation. Helping residential contractors compile more accurate budgets in less time will allow them to setup their projects for success, improve profit margins, and enable more happy customer experiences.
What are you proudest of so far?
I am most proud of my first full-time hire Edgar Castorena: he has provided a ‘spark’ to our early successes and given me renewed inspiration to persevere through the challenges. Having someone to collaborate with and innovate with along the way is extremely energizing. Especially since I started this journey alone mostly just building the product and he has been an important aspect of our go-to-market strategy and execution.
What do you hope to gain from Spark?
I hope spark can introduce me to new connections in the startup world- fellow founders and mentors that can help my business succeed. I would like to use this program to achieve profitability and full product-market fit. As a stretch goal, i’d like to formulate the framework for BuilderBid to add an estimating service component in 2023. So builders can outsource any project estimate with the click of a button and allow our platform to facilitate the entire process.
Huge thanks to Bo for participating in Spark! We can’t wait to see your business grow!