Welcome to the construction disruption podcast, where we
Intro:uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.
Ryan Bell:I'm Ryan bell of Isaiah industries, manufacturer
Ryan Bell:of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
Ryan Bell:And today my co host is Ethan Young.
Ryan Bell:How are you doing today, Ethan?
Ethan Young:I'm doing good, Ryan.
Ethan Young:How about you?
Ryan Bell:I'm doing great.
Ryan Bell:Uh, kind of getting back into the flow here with recording season two.
Ryan Bell:I do have a dad joke for you to kick things off.
Ryan Bell:What do you call?
Ryan Bell:A pig that does karate.
Ethan Young:Something with pork chop.
Ethan Young:It's gotta be something with pork chop.
Ryan Bell:Okay, you got it.
Ryan Bell:You got it a pork chop.
Ryan Bell:You got it.
Ryan Bell:Good.
Ryan Bell:I was gonna say, I'd be a little disappointed if you can't get that one.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, that's a good one.
Ryan Bell:All right, well, let's dive in and get started.
Ryan Bell:Um, today our guest is John Sibley, CEO of Tru.
Ryan Bell:Built a venture-backed startup, leveraging the latest in AI and NLP
Ryan Bell:technology to deliver pre-construction and takeoff software solutions to
Ryan Bell:residential and commercial builders.
Ryan Bell:Faced with high inflation, pricing, volatility, and supply chain issues.
Ryan Bell:Builders now more than ever need robust software solutions to drive profitability
Ryan Bell:and true built increases the speed and accuracy of the pre construction process.
Ryan Bell:John, it's great to have you on the show today.
Ryan Bell:Thank you for joining us.
Jon Sibley:Thanks for having me.
Jon Sibley:And thanks for the great intro.
Ryan Bell:Well, let's dive right in.
Ryan Bell:And, uh, can you start by giving us a.
Ryan Bell:a kind of overview of what your mission is at Truebuilt.
Ryan Bell:And could you tell our listeners a bit about what Truebuilt does
Ryan Bell:exactly and the problems you aim to solve in the construction industry?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So Truebuilt's mission is to minimize risk and win more
Jon Sibley:business for American builders.
Jon Sibley:We do this by providing an end to end pre construction platform.
Jon Sibley:Um, in those last two, call it three years, pre construction itself, that
Jon Sibley:active Understanding, you know, what goes into that construction project really has
Jon Sibley:never been tougher or, or more crucial.
Jon Sibley:And there's a lot of market forces at play, right?
Jon Sibley:The supply chain issues of COVID pricing, volatility, the rising
Jon Sibley:cost of building the labor shortage.
Jon Sibley:Um, I'm sure you've talked about all of those on, on this podcast.
Jon Sibley:Um, but the other problem, problem with pre construction is that
Jon Sibley:estimators and pre con managers are forced to use a patchwork
Jon Sibley:approach to the software that they.
Jon Sibley:Um, leverage and so they end up using, you know, 4 to 6 different
Jon Sibley:platforms to complete the entire pre construction phase.
Jon Sibley:And what ends up happening is you lose data.
Jon Sibley:You have to do double manual entry.
Jon Sibley:A lot of these softwares were literally created in 1999, 2005, and, you know,
Jon Sibley:they haven't been updated as much sense.
Jon Sibley:So the very 1st thing we do is bring pre construction managers and estimators.
Jon Sibley:To modern software, cloud based software, you can collaborate much better.
Jon Sibley:You can leverage that data much better.
Jon Sibley:Um, and then we've developed some innovative AI and NLP features
Jon Sibley:that you mentioned before.
Jon Sibley:That really automate and speed up the pre construction process.
Jon Sibley:Um, in particular, we reduce take the time spent on takeoff by about 200%.
Jon Sibley:And so that frees estimators up to be a bit more thoughtful about how they're
Jon Sibley:going to present that bid, um, or even go after more bids and ultimately
Jon Sibley:win more business, which obviously boosts revenue and profitability.
Ryan Bell:That's awesome.
Ryan Bell:Um, Can you talk about the AI and NLP a little bit more?
Ryan Bell:Uh, like what exactly, what, what other things does that do
Ryan Bell:to help speed up that process?
Ryan Bell:And also I'm assuming there's probably some accuracy that is, that
Ryan Bell:comes along with using that as well.
Jon Sibley:Yeah, there definitely is.
Jon Sibley:And, um, yeah, I'll start with the accuracy piece.
Jon Sibley:Cause that's, that's really interesting to me as someone who
Jon Sibley:came from the AI and NLP world.
Jon Sibley:Um, AI models are only going to be as good as the data that it's trained
Jon Sibley:on one and two that's provided.
Jon Sibley:And so when it comes to takeoff, for example, our AI AI models really
Jon Sibley:depends on the quality of plans that are presented to the general contractor or
Jon Sibley:subcontractor that that's using TrueBuild.
Jon Sibley:We're trying and really putting a lot of R& D resources into training our
Jon Sibley:AI models on plans that, you know, might not be as developed, um, as
Jon Sibley:others, ones that are more in that, you know, early phase of construction,
Jon Sibley:you're still in that design phase.
Jon Sibley:And so we're trying to improve that as well.
Jon Sibley:Um, but even with that said, our AI models are highly accurate when it comes
Jon Sibley:to takeoff, you know, You can take off all the walls, um, in just a few seconds,
Jon Sibley:um, you can do area just by one click.
Jon Sibley:So instead of having to do that, you know, manual, um, drag and point that
Jon Sibley:you have to do with other software, you can just do one click into the room.
Jon Sibley:It'll pick up the area perimeter, you can add height to that.
Jon Sibley:Um, so it's pretty, pretty powerful stuff for, for 2d takeoff.
Jon Sibley:And then on the NLP side, and that's natural language processing.
Jon Sibley:We have a variety of use cases.
Jon Sibley:One is our AI spec assistant.
Jon Sibley:Probably the most important feature that's leveraged there right
Jon Sibley:now is our auto renaming tool.
Jon Sibley:So when you upload a plan, you know, huge massive file.
Jon Sibley:Oftentimes it takes estimators and pre con managers.
Jon Sibley:Hours, sometimes even days to go through, rename every single page, split out the
Jon Sibley:different page pages, figure out where those pages need to be hyperlinked.
Jon Sibley:And our software can do that renaming and hyperlinking with
Jon Sibley:about 100 percent accuracy.
Jon Sibley:And processing a 1000 pages in 5 seconds.
Jon Sibley:So it's literally saving hours just up front on the upload.
Jon Sibley:And then from there, we're going to take off, which I already discussed estimation.
Jon Sibley:Pre construction is the 1st time that there's been all this
Jon Sibley:great data about the project.
Jon Sibley:It's really important that estimators and pre con managers can leverage that data.
Jon Sibley:And with a cloud based solution like TrueBuild, you're able
Jon Sibley:to do that much easier.
Jon Sibley:We have some cool machine learning features that really
Jon Sibley:can pull in that historical data.
Jon Sibley:And you can also engage with our AI spec assistant and ask, you know, compared to
Jon Sibley:a previous project I had, let's say it's another, you know, K through 12 school.
Jon Sibley:Um, how does this compare?
Jon Sibley:You know, in terms of the cost of gypsum, you that answer right away.
Jon Sibley:So it's very, very much focused on reducing time spent on
Jon Sibley:the pre construction process.
Jon Sibley:Um, and boosting, boosting accuracy as well.
Ryan Bell:So I struggle with this a little bit, and I've been kind of diving
Ryan Bell:into the AI world and even like through this podcast, uh, trying to utilize AI
Ryan Bell:to speed up the editing process, writing the, the questions, all that stuff.
Ryan Bell:And I'm, I struggle with kind of putting my trust in it.
Ryan Bell:Do you have any, you know, I kind of feel like it's a nice
Ryan Bell:chandelier hanging from a wire.
Ryan Bell:Um, and I just don't trust it yet.
Ryan Bell:Do you have any tips or advice for that about, you know, what sort of human
Ryan Bell:involvement is still required there and overseeing things, or, or just, is
Ryan Bell:it something you should put your trust in and know it's going to do its job?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So we actually talk about AI as augmented intelligence at Truebill.
Jon Sibley:Okay.
Jon Sibley:And that's because we think, you know, our estimators and pre con
Jon Sibley:managers who are using our platform, oftentimes have, you know, 20 years
Jon Sibley:of real world job site experience.
Jon Sibley:Like that.
Jon Sibley:That expertise is is completely invaluable.
Jon Sibley:Um, and so what we've done is trained our AI models on the more annoying parts
Jon Sibley:of the workflow, like understanding door schedules and assigning those accordingly,
Jon Sibley:or picking out the texture types and reflected ceiling plans automatically
Jon Sibley:instead of having to do the manual job.
Jon Sibley:So we focus on the more annoying, cumbersome, um, Unnecessarily
Jon Sibley:manual parts of the workflow.
Jon Sibley:But you as an estimator and pre con manager still need to come in with
Jon Sibley:your own expertise, your experience, your opinions on the project.
Jon Sibley:You know, something that might not be in the plans, but you heard from the
Jon Sibley:architect or the general contractor, you know, that, that information might
Jon Sibley:not be captured, uh, on the plans for the AI to do something about it.
Jon Sibley:And so we encourage our estimators and pre con managers.
Jon Sibley:So yes, Trust it, test it out, but you still need to look over it because,
Jon Sibley:you know, no machine right now is going to be as powerful as an estimator
Jon Sibley:with 20 years experience on the job.
Jon Sibley:We all still have to do our job, right?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So for us, it's about improving that productivity of the estimator and freeing
Jon Sibley:up their time to go after more bids or, you know, make that bid better.
Jon Sibley:Um, and less about fully automating the process.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:I think that's the strongest argument I've heard for AI in my time.
Ethan Young:He's, you know, just a tool that we can use to enable us to spend more time on
Ethan Young:the meaningful stuff, you know, I think that's a great, a great way to put it.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, I agree.
Ryan Bell:So, uh, with inflation, you know, there's a lot of pricing volatility
Ryan Bell:and supply chain issues that have been impacting, you know, the
Ryan Bell:construction industry for a while now.
Ryan Bell:Um, is there anything that your software does to kind of
Ryan Bell:help builders navigate this?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So pre construction being the phase, um, that it is where all the stakeholders
Jon Sibley:and all the data are coming together for the first time, we need one single
Jon Sibley:tool for those stakeholders to interact.
Jon Sibley:And for that data to live in and be leveraged.
Jon Sibley:And that doesn't really exist on the market today, because, like I said before,
Jon Sibley:they use this patchwork approach to software where, you know, they're using
Jon Sibley:something for takeoff, something for estimation, something for bid management,
Jon Sibley:something for bid leveling, they're stitching it back together in Excel,
Jon Sibley:which the colleague, you know, might have trouble accessing or that might be.
Jon Sibley:Disparity in terms of what they, they did a takeoff on.
Jon Sibley:Um, and so having that end to end solution, we think gives a better
Jon Sibley:view into that, that pre con workflow.
Jon Sibley:Um, you know, obviously we can't directly, um, Directly impact
Jon Sibley:the supply chain issues that the industry is facing, but we can make
Jon Sibley:our estimators and pre con managers more informed and more productive.
Ryan Bell:This always kind of frustrates me.
Ryan Bell:The con you know, the construction industry as a whole, um, home, whether
Ryan Bell:it's home improvement or, or building or commercial has been traditionally
Ryan Bell:been pretty slow to adopt new technologies and stuff, especially in.
Ryan Bell:In the world of online stuff and all that jazz, but is there anything that
Ryan Bell:you guys have done with Truebuilt to kind of encourage and maybe remove that
Ryan Bell:hurdle or some of that hesitancy that, uh, contractors or builders can have?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So I think, I think there's two things.
Jon Sibley:Um, number one, our design approach has been let's balance
Jon Sibley:the familiar with these innovative features that we want to develop.
Jon Sibley:It is a very hard task to ask someone who's been on the same software for
Jon Sibley:15, 20 years to switch over because that's what they're used to, that's
Jon Sibley:what other colleagues are used to.
Jon Sibley:And when we first started TrueBuild, we made the mistake of, I think,
Jon Sibley:redesigning and rethinking estimation and takeoff as a whole.
Jon Sibley:What we learned is that, in reality, everyone was very used to tables.
Jon Sibley:They were very used to Excel spreadsheets.
Jon Sibley:And so we had to take what they were familiar with, put that into our
Jon Sibley:platform, and then pick and choose these spots that I talked about earlier
Jon Sibley:where we can impact the more cumbersome, annoying, painful parts of the workflow.
Jon Sibley:Through AI and through some more of these innovative features, so that balance
Jon Sibley:of, you know, what, what's familiar to our users versus where can we push the
Jon Sibley:envelope, um, is very, very important.
Jon Sibley:1 of our customers told me this Henry Ford quote, and it goes
Jon Sibley:something like, you know, if they had asked me what they wanted, they
Jon Sibley:would have said, uh, faster horses.
Jon Sibley:And there is an element of that of, you know, we need to design something
Jon Sibley:that is different from what's existed, but we can't totally forget what
Jon Sibley:people are used to in the construction world, because that adoption is, like
Jon Sibley:you said before, quite quite slow.
Jon Sibley:And then the 2nd thing that we've done is we've really tried to start with
Jon Sibley:the top of the construction industry.
Jon Sibley:We're focused on commercial construction.
Jon Sibley:We work with a variety of 400.
Jon Sibley:Cut customers right now, and I think it was my theory is that the
Jon Sibley:technology queues throughout the industry are taken from the top.
Jon Sibley:And so us focusing on enterprise, you know, top tier customers kind
Jon Sibley:of goes against the grain for what someone in the software world would
Jon Sibley:advise a young startup like us to focus on, but impactful because these
Jon Sibley:larger companies are more innovative.
Jon Sibley:They're more willing to try new technology.
Jon Sibley:Yes, they are set in their current software, but they're also willing
Jon Sibley:to invest in the next great thing.
Jon Sibley:And what we've seen is that as more and more of these enterprise customers have
Jon Sibley:used Truebilt for say bid management, they send out bids to different
Jon Sibley:subcontractors, um, via Truebilt.
Jon Sibley:And so all these subs will, you know, find out about Truebuild,
Jon Sibley:uh, just via that organic process.
Jon Sibley:Um, so it's been this great network effect as well.
Jon Sibley:Uh, and then we've started to get a lot of referrals because, you know,
Jon Sibley:some of these larger customers, you know, are happy and impressed with
Jon Sibley:the innovation that we are doing.
Ryan Bell:So you're, you're focused mostly on commercial then
Ryan Bell:not necessarily residential or, or.
Jon Sibley:We, we do a little bit of both, um, but primarily
Jon Sibley:has been commercial so far.
Jon Sibley:Um, we do work with a few home builders, uh, again, or a bit larger, but our
Jon Sibley:focus has primarily been commercial.
Ryan Bell:Well, my next question was kind of going to be about scalability
Ryan Bell:then and how adaptable TrueBuild is.
Ryan Bell:To different projects and sizes.
Ryan Bell:But I guess that kind of answer, it sounds like it's more geared
Ryan Bell:towards the larger products.
Ryan Bell:Projects.
Jon Sibley:That's where it's just today, but we do have plans
Jon Sibley:to expand that in the future.
Jon Sibley:Um, we get a lot of requests from, from civil companies as well.
Jon Sibley:So going, you know, even to the more complexity.
Jon Sibley:Um, and then recently we've gotten more and more inbounds
Jon Sibley:from that residential side.
Jon Sibley:Um, so, you know, the, the platform is very, very flexible.
Jon Sibley:It can work with, you know, both anyone that's doing takeoff estimation and
Jon Sibley:bid management can use the platform.
Jon Sibley:Um, and so I'd say it's less about that, you know, specific type of
Jon Sibley:project and more about what is their current workflow and does that match
Jon Sibley:to a workflow they can achieve and
Ryan Bell:So collaboration is obviously an essential piece to, uh,
Ryan Bell:you know, any construction project that involves multiple people, companies,
Ryan Bell:um, contractors, subcontractors.
Ryan Bell:How does Truebill facilitate that collaboration and communication?
Ryan Bell:Throughout a project.
Jon Sibley:So first of all, our general contractors can send out bid requests
Jon Sibley:to sub contractors, VR platform, subcontractors can reply, um, general
Jon Sibley:contractors will level off those bids.
Jon Sibley:They can communicate directly in the platform.
Jon Sibley:Um, what's different from us and other bid solicitation platforms
Jon Sibley:out there is that it's not coming from, you know, true built.
Jon Sibley:com.
Jon Sibley:Um, because when that happens, oftentimes the subcontractor will miss it.
Jon Sibley:It'll get a spam.
Jon Sibley:It's easier for them to ignore with our platform.
Jon Sibley:We built an integration to outlook so that it can come from your personal email
Jon Sibley:from, from John at true built software.
Jon Sibley:com.
Jon Sibley:And we see a much higher response rate from subcontractors because of that.
Jon Sibley:And that response rate can be either via email and I'll be integrated,
Jon Sibley:pushed back into the software.
Jon Sibley:Um, or it can be through the true built app and the true built
Jon Sibley:subcontractor side of the portal.
Jon Sibley:That's like the very first area where they can start to, um, collaborate and engage.
Jon Sibley:Um, the other thing that we have, that's pretty unique in the industry too,
Jon Sibley:is something called multiplayer mode.
Jon Sibley:And that's where multiple estimators can be on the same plan at the same time.
Jon Sibley:And literally if they turn multiplayer mode on literally see each other's
Jon Sibley:mouse like performing takeoff.
Jon Sibley:Um, you can also invite a subcontractor to see that.
Jon Sibley:Um, and so being cloud based gives us that advantage to have multiple people
Jon Sibley:in the same project at the time and literally be able to see your colleague
Jon Sibley:if they, let's say your colleagues on the job site, you're in the office and they
Jon Sibley:want to show you something on the plans.
Jon Sibley:You can literally click a button and follow their mouse around and go
Jon Sibley:through the entire spec book together.
Ryan Bell:That's cool.
Ryan Bell:That's I use, uh, I don't know if you're familiar with Figma.
Jon Sibley:Figma was a big inspiration for us.
Jon Sibley:That, that follow button is, is very, very similar in how it works.
Ryan Bell:So if somebody is, uh, going to send out a bid request for
Ryan Bell:a bid to some contractors, are they choosing who the, who they're sending
Ryan Bell:that out to through their connections?
Ryan Bell:Or is that part of your platform that those subcontractors are
Ryan Bell:there like with the profile?
Jon Sibley:Yeah, again, different from.
Jon Sibley:What's out there today is that we have this dual directory approach where
Jon Sibley:there is this true built directory of subcontractors that we've curated.
Jon Sibley:Um, I would say the difference in that part of the platform as well is that we've
Jon Sibley:gone out and verified and literally called these subs to verify their information.
Jon Sibley:Um, some of the other software platforms for bid solicitation have
Jon Sibley:really become a mess of data because.
Jon Sibley:They allowed the subs to, you know, update your, your, their information themselves.
Jon Sibley:And all of a sudden you have a, you know, glass guy, glazier guy
Jon Sibley:in Washington, DC saying you can do jobs in Southern California.
Jon Sibley:Um, and that creates like all a whole host of problems.
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So that's the, the true built directory.
Jon Sibley:And then we have this other directory that we allow.
Jon Sibley:Our customers to manage directly, um, some of our customers leverage,
Jon Sibley:both some of them, you know, roughly bid out to the same subs every time.
Jon Sibley:So they just kind of keep it separate.
Jon Sibley:Um, and then you can pass information and data back and
Jon Sibley:forth between those 2 directories.
Jon Sibley:Um, let's say, you know, someone.
Jon Sibley:One of your contacts moves companies, uh, you have to update the email address.
Jon Sibley:You can do that in, in either place.
Ryan Bell:Is there a particular success story that you could share
Ryan Bell:with us or like a case study of kind of, you know, where your, your
Ryan Bell:software has significantly benefited, whether it's a particular client that
Ryan Bell:you work with or a certain project, does anyone come to top of mind that.
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:Uh, we, we worked with a lot of, uh, a very large builder in, in Dallas.
Jon Sibley:Um, they're focused on municipal projects and K through 12 schools.
Jon Sibley:Um, so because they're, you know, typically bidding on a government
Jon Sibley:projects or they're bidding and their bids have to be very, very tight.
Jon Sibley:They have to be very informed, maybe more so than, uh, say
Jon Sibley:design build general contractor.
Jon Sibley:Um, and so they started using true built last year and have seen a
Jon Sibley:significant uptick in the accuracy.
Jon Sibley:Of their projects as compared to what the project ends up at.
Jon Sibley:Um, so every project they do, they have to do it with the city or county, whoever
Jon Sibley:they're working with, um, and do an audit of, all right, what did this cost?
Jon Sibley:And what did we estimate it to be at?
Jon Sibley:Um, and that accuracy has improved a lot.
Jon Sibley:It's improved so much of their main competitor also in Dallas.
Jon Sibley:Ended up coming to true vote because they heard from these guys that, Hey,
Jon Sibley:we're, we're using this new platform.
Jon Sibley:Um, so that was pretty cool to see, you know, sign up a new customer
Jon Sibley:just through, through word of mouth.
Jon Sibley:Um, the second story I like to tell too, is, you know, I think most of
Jon Sibley:the commercial construction world knows that pre con needs a shakeup.
Jon Sibley:Um, you know, it's, it's very, very rare that we can't get someone on the
Jon Sibley:phone or can't schedule a new meeting.
Jon Sibley:Um, and people are very excited about innovation in this space.
Jon Sibley:Um, we work with the largest drywall company there in, in
Jon Sibley:Texas, um, Merrick brothers.
Jon Sibley:Um, they were so excited about our vision that they asked to
Jon Sibley:also invest in the company.
Jon Sibley:And, you know, these guys aren't necessarily tech investors,
Jon Sibley:not necessarily looking to get into the venture capital world.
Jon Sibley:So they, they actually came in, uh, towards Stephen Brown last summer,
Jon Sibley:alongside our prop tech and VC investors.
Jon Sibley:Um, and they've been great, great partners as well.
Jon Sibley:And just seeing that excitement from folks who are excited about what's
Jon Sibley:possible in pre construction, uh, has been great validation for our own vision.
Ryan Bell:Very good.
Ryan Bell:Um, imagine let's imagine you have a crystal ball and looking into it.
Ryan Bell:What, what sort of advancements do you see on the horizon in terms of AI and
Ryan Bell:NLP technology that could further enhance and grow what you guys are offering?
Jon Sibley:Yeah, so I think there's been a ton of focus on NLP, uh, in
Jon Sibley:the tech world over the last year, and it's definitely improving.
Jon Sibley:I think an area that we haven't touched yet is being able to generate text,
Jon Sibley:um, out of an output of estimation.
Jon Sibley:So say let's complete, you know, take off estimation, run a job summary report.
Jon Sibley:You know, can we use leverage some NLP technology to create a proposal out of
Jon Sibley:that that is customized to that company and, um, is very intelligent and, you
Jon Sibley:know, how it presents that report.
Jon Sibley:Um, so I, I think there's a little bit in NLP.
Jon Sibley:What we're most excited about is that computer vision.
Jon Sibley:Um, technology that we're using on our, on our blueprints, I think with
Jon Sibley:computer vision and not saying true Bill's going to get into this, but off
Jon Sibley:the job side on the job site, like, that is a productivity game changer, like,
Jon Sibley:yes, generating texts and writing texts can, you know, save you some time, but
Jon Sibley:having a computer, you know, computer vision model monitor job site 24 seven,
Jon Sibley:there's a few companies out there doing that, I think is really, really huge.
Jon Sibley:The second part of this is how can AI and NLP produce our
Jon Sibley:own productivity at Truebuilt?
Jon Sibley:Um, there's a lot of software engineering co pilots out there that
Jon Sibley:are growing in popularity, uh, but also improving performance of, you
Jon Sibley:know, software engineering teams.
Jon Sibley:And we're starting to leverage that a bit more and that will ultimately
Jon Sibley:speed up our own pace of development and make us more productive too.
Ryan Bell:Does it scare you at all how fast AI is?
Ryan Bell:Progressing.
Jon Sibley:It definitely does.
Jon Sibley:And I, I know that's weird to say as someone who's trying to bring that
Jon Sibley:to, uh, the, the construction world.
Jon Sibley:Um, but it, but it is shocking.
Jon Sibley:So I mentioned before that I started my career in natural language processing
Jon Sibley:and, uh, this was like 2015 and we were, you know, on this wave of AI being
Jon Sibley:the next big thing and that kind of dipped and now we're in another wave.
Jon Sibley:Uh, but back then we could organize data and we could contextualize written data.
Jon Sibley:Uh, but we couldn't.
Jon Sibley:Right.
Jon Sibley:And generate new, new, uh, text data.
Jon Sibley:And that's where, you know, something like chat GPT comes in.
Jon Sibley:And, um, I don't know if you've all seen some of like the AI
Jon Sibley:videos and, and deepfake stuff.
Jon Sibley:Like it's that, that, that's the part that scares me, especially when
Jon Sibley:it's applied to, you know, politics, uh, macroeconomic conditions, like
Jon Sibley:that, that's pretty scary to me.
Ryan Bell:Adobe just announced that they have a new version, beta version
Ryan Bell:of premiere that is doing some.
Ryan Bell:You know, kind of bringing their generative fill and stuff from Photoshop
Ryan Bell:into video, which is, yeah, I mean, I, I agree that that can be scary.
Ryan Bell:And the voices that you can fake someone's voice.
Ryan Bell:I mean, you know, a lot, a lot of bad, I think is going to come from all that.
Jon Sibley:I think so too.
Jon Sibley:I think there'll be a painful period.
Jon Sibley:Um, If you look at, you know, any new technology, often the regulation
Jon Sibley:comes like 10 to 15 years after.
Jon Sibley:And I think we're probably going to be in this unregulated or relatively
Jon Sibley:unregulated period for a while.
Jon Sibley:Um, but to give the other side of this, I mean, obviously the U S is
Jon Sibley:facing a massive deficit right now.
Jon Sibley:And, um, you know, there, there's been a lot of talk of like, how do you fix that?
Jon Sibley:Is it raising revenues, um, through, through taxation?
Jon Sibley:Uh, is it cutting spending?
Jon Sibley:And you know, my, my theory on it, it's improving productivity of the American
Jon Sibley:workforce through better technology.
Jon Sibley:And AI should be the technology that does ultimately solve that.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:I wanted to go back to that point.
Ethan Young:You're saying earlier about it being kind of a wild West unregulated.
Ethan Young:I think it's funny right now.
Ethan Young:We kind of look at it.
Ethan Young:Not everyone, but I think, you know, AI can be kind of like a jokey thing, you
Ethan Young:know, like use it for pranks, use it for whatever, but it is a little scary.
Ethan Young:Like you said, that regulation isn't going to catch up for a while.
Ethan Young:I think it's, we, we haven't really run into any huge, huge consequences
Ethan Young:or, you know, things like that popping up, but I think that's going
Ethan Young:to definitely come up in the future.
Ethan Young:So.
Ethan Young:Interesting to see where it goes.
Jon Sibley:I saw this old YouTube video the other day, uh, when they
Jon Sibley:started enforcing people wearing seatbelts and how, uh, frustrated
Jon Sibley:people, uh, were with that.
Jon Sibley:And, you know, we, we do need a seatbelt or bodyguard, if you will, for AI.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, definitely.
Ryan Bell:It's a good way to put it.
Ryan Bell:Is there any advice you would give to an aspiring young entrepreneur that may be
Ryan Bell:looking to disrupt disrupt traditional industries, whether it's construction or,
Ryan Bell:or something else with technology based on the experience you've had with Truebill?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:So the first thing I said, I'll say is construction and other
Jon Sibley:kind of verticals that are.
Jon Sibley:Call them industrials, oil and gas, agriculture are definitely
Jon Sibley:right for disruption as well.
Jon Sibley:Um, that tech adoption is slower, but that also presents a huge opportunity.
Jon Sibley:Um, I tell our sales team all the time, you know, our, our customers
Jon Sibley:don't really make software decisions that often, maybe once every 20 years.
Jon Sibley:So yes, it could be painful to get them on for the very first time.
Jon Sibley:But after that, we're going to have them for a long time.
Jon Sibley:Um, especially with the estimation data that we have.
Jon Sibley:I think my biggest learning, it goes back to what I said about balancing
Jon Sibley:that, you know, what's familiar with, with what's innovative.
Jon Sibley:Um, and that really comes down to following what the
Jon Sibley:customer is telling you.
Jon Sibley:Um, as we approach these, you know, other verticals that are more
Jon Sibley:industrialized, maybe a little.
Jon Sibley:slower moving on the tech side, it's very important that you reduce any
Jon Sibley:friction to them adopting that tech.
Jon Sibley:And that's making sure that you're taking what they like about their
Jon Sibley:existing product, integrating that into yours, and then picking and
Jon Sibley:choosing the spots where you can be innovative and can push the envelope.
Jon Sibley:A
Ryan Bell:good point.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, it's a good way to put it.
Ryan Bell:Thanks so much, John.
Ryan Bell:Uh, this has been great, really insightful and we're thankful, you
Ryan Bell:know, you're sharing your knowledge and experience here with us.
Ryan Bell:Um, we're close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.
Ryan Bell:Is there anything that we haven't covered today that you'd like
Ryan Bell:to share with our audience?
Jon Sibley:I guess for your audience specifically, What I'd go back to is
Jon Sibley:that approach of augmented intelligence.
Jon Sibley:That's how Truebuilt's approaching it.
Jon Sibley:But that's how, you know, you should approach it in your professional
Jon Sibley:and personal lives as well.
Jon Sibley:You know, how can this make me better?
Jon Sibley:How can this make me productive?
Jon Sibley:There are scary elements of that, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't, you
Jon Sibley:know, experiment and try and figure out what does help you, what does improve
Jon Sibley:lifestyle productivity, et cetera.
Ethan Young:Good advice.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:You got to figure out how to get a AI to take some strokes off the golf game.
Ethan Young:You know, maybe they'll get that one day, but
Ryan Bell:actually I, uh, I just got these, uh, they're called Arcos.
Ryan Bell:I think, I don't know if you've seen those, John, but they're
Ryan Bell:little things you put on the end of your golf clubs and they, I
Jon Sibley:have, I have seen those actually.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:But I live, I live in Ohio and it's, the weather's been horrible, so I
Ryan Bell:haven't been able to use them yet.
Ryan Bell:Okay.
Ryan Bell:Well, uh, so before we close out, we like to do something that's
Ryan Bell:a little fun kind of here at the end called rapid fire questions.
Ryan Bell:These are seven questions.
Ryan Bell:Um, some may be serious.
Ryan Bell:Most of these are kind of silly.
Ryan Bell:All you gotta do is, uh, give a quick response.
Ryan Bell:Are you up for rapid fire questions?
Jon Sibley:Let's do it.
Ryan Bell:Awesome.
Ryan Bell:Uh, Ethan and I will alternate turns asking Ethan, you can
Ryan Bell:kick us off if you'd like.
Ethan Young:Awesome.
Ethan Young:Um, all right, this is a fun one.
Ethan Young:If you could replace, or let's say if you had to replace your hands with any
Ethan Young:kitchen utensil, which one would you pick?
Jon Sibley:I think scissors and maybe spatula.
Jon Sibley:Okay.
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:That's a good shot.
Ryan Bell:That's a good shot.
Ryan Bell:I was going to go with knife and spatula, but maybe scissors
Ryan Bell:would offer a little more
Jon Sibley:knife.
Jon Sibley:Sounds a little dangerous.
Ethan Young:I was going to do tongs just cause I feel like that'd be
Ethan Young:nice to pick stuff up, but Oh yeah.
Ethan Young:That's a great one.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:I think that's a must have.
Ryan Bell:Good point.
Ryan Bell:Ethan.
Ryan Bell:All right.
Ryan Bell:Um, if aliens landed tomorrow and offered to take you to their planet,
Ryan Bell:what earthly possession would you insist on bringing with you?
Jon Sibley:I actually have no, no idea.
Jon Sibley:Um, my, my mind is going back and forth between something I need to bring so
Jon Sibley:that I can show them what, what humans do and something I would just want myself.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, that's a tough one.
Ryan Bell:I don't think I'd have an answer for it.
Ethan Young:What's a valuable lesson that you've learned
Ethan Young:from a failure in your career?
Jon Sibley:Yeah, so I think Listening to that voice, the customer that I alluded
Jon Sibley:to earlier, what was something we missed in the first, um, era of, of true built.
Jon Sibley:Um, and that's something that we've definitely corrected, but it did, you
Jon Sibley:know, cause some pain for our customers.
Jon Sibley:And, um, that's, that was a failure on my part.
Ryan Bell:Gotcha.
Ryan Bell:Question number four, this might be one of my new favorite rapid fire questions.
Ryan Bell:And GPT, by the way.
Ryan Bell:What?
Ryan Bell:Would, would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or a
Ryan Bell:hundred duck sized horses?
Jon Sibley:I think one horse-sized
Ryan Bell:duck.
Ryan Bell:Really?
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:I, I think I'd go for the horses.
Jon Sibley:I think I'd be overwhelmed by the, the horses.
Jon Sibley:There's a lot of horses.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:A a hundred is a lot.
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:Um, and they're, they're really, really dense and, and strong.
Jon Sibley:I feel like the ducks might be, uh, a bit weaker,
Ethan Young:a little bit.
Ethan Young:In the same vein, if you could have any superpower, which
Ethan Young:one would you choose and why?
Jon Sibley:Yeah, power of flight is what I always say.
Jon Sibley:And it's definitely pretty basic and a cliche, but I just think it'd be awesome.
Ryan Bell:It's a classic, you know, it worked.
Ryan Bell:All right.
Ryan Bell:Question number six.
Ryan Bell:If you were a professional wrestler, what would your entrance theme song be?
Jon Sibley:I think Back in Black.
Ethan Young:Okay.
Ryan Bell:Good choice.
Jon Sibley:Another classic.
Ethan Young:All righty.
Ethan Young:Last question.
Ethan Young:Um, what's a book or movie that has profoundly impacted
Ethan Young:your perspective on life?
Ethan Young:And how's it, how's it done that?
Jon Sibley:I love this one movie.
Jon Sibley:I forgot what year it's made, um, but I grew up watching it with my dad.
Jon Sibley:It's called A River Runs Through It.
Jon Sibley:It's like a fly fishing movie about a dad and his two sons and it
Jon Sibley:kind of follows the sons through.
Jon Sibley:Different challenges in life.
Jon Sibley:And, um, it gives an interesting perspective on, you know, dealing
Jon Sibley:with hardship, getting through it, getting through things together as
Jon Sibley:a family and being united on, you know, something like fly fishing
Jon Sibley:that always brings you back together.
Jon Sibley:And I grew up fishing with my dad, so that's always been a special movie to me.
Jon Sibley:Do you fly fish?
Jon Sibley:I'm really, really bad.
Jon Sibley:It's like my golf game.
Ryan Bell:Uh, that's, that's so funny.
Ryan Bell:Like I, so we just had a guest a few weeks ago on, he lives in,
Ryan Bell:do you remember where he lives?
Ryan Bell:Nor Norway maybe, or somewhere?
Ryan Bell:I don't know.
Ryan Bell:Uh, he, he's an architect, but he, he hikes up into the mountains
Ryan Bell:there and goes fly fishing.
Ryan Bell:And I was, I've been wanting to get into fly fishing for like years.
Ryan Bell:I just never have done it.
Ryan Bell:But so we had some good conversation about fly
Jon Sibley:fishing.
Jon Sibley:So I actually live in Huntington beach, California.
Jon Sibley:So it's more, uh, more ocean for me,
Ryan Bell:not much fly fishing around there.
Ryan Bell:Well, uh, John, thank you again for your time today.
Ryan Bell:This was great.
Ryan Bell:Um, for anyone who wants to get in touch with you, what's
Ryan Bell:the best way they can do that?
Jon Sibley:Yeah.
Jon Sibley:Uh, truebuiltsoftware.
Jon Sibley:com is our website, or you can email me at John J O N at truebuiltsoftware.
Jon Sibley:com.
Ryan Bell:Awesome.
Ryan Bell:And we will make sure to get that in the show notes.
Jon Sibley:Awesome.
Ryan Bell:Um, recap of our challenge words.
Ryan Bell:We were all successful.
Ryan Bell:Um, John, your challenge word was bodyguard.
Ryan Bell:Bodyguard.
Ryan Bell:And Ethan, yours was
Ethan Young:mine was actually golf ball.
Ethan Young:So he gave me half credit.
Ethan Young:I had golf game or golf.
Ethan Young:So, oh, that's right.
Jon Sibley:I think we'll count it.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:You get credit for that one.
Ryan Bell:We round up, I guess.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Ryan Bell:And my word was chandelier snuck it in, in the beginning there.
Ryan Bell:Usually I wait till the end.
Ryan Bell:Uh, I find the challenge, uh, the rapid fire questions is the easiest
Ryan Bell:time to sneak them in sometimes.
Jon Sibley:That's true.
Jon Sibley:I meant to put it in the beginning and that I.
Jon Sibley:Forgot for a while.
Jon Sibley:It's
Ryan Bell:hard.
Jon Sibley:It's hard.
Jon Sibley:Came back to it.
Ryan Bell:Well, good.
Ryan Bell:We were all successful.
Ryan Bell:So congrats.
Ryan Bell:Well, thanks again, John.
Ryan Bell:Appreciate you being here.
Jon Sibley:Thank you guys.
Jon Sibley:It was great to be on.
Ryan Bell:And thanks so much for tuning into this episode of construction
Ryan Bell:disruption with John Sibley of Truebill.
Ryan Bell:Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
Ryan Bell:We are always blessed with great guests.
Ryan Bell:Don't forget to leave us review on Apple podcast or give us a thumbs up on YouTube.
Ryan Bell:Until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting and challenging those in
Ryan Bell:your world to better ways of doing things.
Ryan Bell:Don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter.
Ryan Bell:Make them smile, encourage them to simple yet powerful things we
Ryan Bell:can all do to change the world.
Ryan Bell:God bless and take care.
Ryan Bell:This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode
Ryan Bell:of Construction Disruption.
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