First bid, first crew, $215K to actually start
Andre had bid on a small commercial job for almost two years before finally winning one. The award letter came on a Tuesday. The mobilization deposit was due in 30 days. He owned a truck and a license — that was it.
The win was a $640K mid-rise interior buildout. He needed working capital to cover materials and the first month of payroll for a four-person crew before the first draw release.
His personal file was a 712 — strong, but inquiries from a recent home refinance were dragging it. The business profile was effectively new: an LLC formed 14 months earlier, no furnished business accounts, and a bank line he had never drawn on.
Two banks told him to come back when he had two completed jobs in his trade history.
The platform reframed the conversation away from 'new business' lenders and toward construction-specific lenders who underwrite to the contract, the bond, and the GC's payment history. The same file that read as thin to a generalist read as bankable to the right specialist.
- 01Built a packet around the executed contract, the GC's payment history, and the projected draw schedule
- 02Opened a Net-30 with two construction-supplier vendors that furnish to the business bureaus
- 03Cleaned up the secretary of state and the bank's signature card so they matched on every form
- 04Routed the application to a construction-specialist lender first, generalist second
- 05Held the personal profile clean (no new inquiries) for the 30 days leading up to closing
“The win was real. I just needed someone to read the contract instead of the LLC age.”