The AI Assistant for JobTread That Makes Your Company Worth More

For most builders, it leaves when you do, and that's a pretty big problem.

I talk to guys every week who are running ChatGPT on their personal phone.

Their estimators got a totally different setup.

Their PMs doing something else and nobody's sharing anything.

So when one of them leaves, all of that knowledge and all of those workflows just vanish.

Today's guest looked at that mess and said, I'm not doing this.

I'm going to build one AI that belongs to the company.

And he did it while still running high end custom builds in Nashville.

Milan Vladek grew up cutting rebar by hand on his dad's sites in San Diego.

One day he's watching another crew roll up with a power cutter, goes to his dad, says, hey, how come we don't have one of those?

His dad goes, well, I have you.

And that seemed to have stuck with him.

Fast forward.

He taught himself to code and built an AI agent called Nash that lives in Slack and plugs straight into jobtread, basically running most of his jobs.

But later in this conversation, Milan drops a warning about who's actually coming for your business.

And it's not a robot.

That part alone is worth sticking around for.

If you're new here, hit subscribe.

We do this every week.

And Milan, welcome to beyond the Bid.

Let's get after it.

You're listening to beyond the Bid, the show by Go first, where we share the systems, strategies and practical AI for builders.

Keep listening to learn how to win more of the right projects, boost profitability and scale.

Beyond the Bid.

All right.

And we are live.

Welcome in Milan.

Thanks so much for being here, man.

Hey, no problem, Grant.

Thanks for having me.

yeah, we were just, right before we hit record, we were talking about just, like, how podcasting has become this, I don't even know, like, big part of how everybody runs, like, marketing and, you know, just storytelling and, there's so much hype around it, too, but at the stem of it, it's just, you know, two or more people just hopefully having a good conversation.

Just having a chat.

No, it's.

Man, podcasts are awesome, man.

Like, you know, you get to really see some many different things from so many different people.

Right?

You have all these different hosts who have all these great things to talk about and all these.

These voices coming from, you know, like, perspectives you wouldn't see normally growing up.

This wasn't around, so it's just, The world's changing, Grant.

The world's changing.

Yeah, man.

It's moving quick, too.

Well, it's almost the.

The world is moving faster than ever before, that's for sure.

Speaking of moving quick, man, it's already April, right?

Doesn't it just feel like we just had New Year's?

And here we are, April Q2.

So I.

I was literally talking to.

We had 30 people at my parents house for Easter over the weekend, and that was a big topic of just like, how is it Easter already?

This is crazy.

Just flying by.

Just flying by, Grant.

Flying by.

Yeah, but, yeah, yeah, so many things, man.

So, yeah, I guess back to, back to the topic at hand.

what are we talking about today?

we're talking about, artificial intelligence in construction and how we don't have to hang drywall anymore or solder copper pipes.

It's just that, hell, you just tell Claude, hey, hey, go, you know, go set that tile over there.

Right.

But, we're not there quite yet, but, we're.

We're.

Some really cool things are happening in the space.

I mean, just.

Just all over the place.

Every industry is going to be impacted by this stuff, but it's interesting to see how construction is taking this on.

And, you know, it's fun to be a part of that.

It's fun to, you know, kind of feel like a pioneer in a way where it's like, there's no.

There's no direction.

It's like, here's the technology.

We don't know what to do with it.

Have fun.

And that's, that's what it's been.

So, you know, we're building homes, technology.

We're just, going every day, doing our best, you know.

Absolutely, man.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, construction is, it's a fascinating one because it is, you know, it's probably one of the, if not the most complex industry or at least one of the hardest to run a company in because there are so many moving parts and you know, like the age of AI that we're in, it's amazing how much can be augmented or streamlined with AI and how little of it, of the actual work can actually be done with AI versus so many other, white collar or just different roles where it's all knowledge based and so much of that can be kind of augmented or taken away with AI.

Construction is, you know, one.

I would say it's, it's definitely one of the, the safer bets.

It is, yeah, it definitely is.

you know, something about construction I always found interesting is that this is one of those industries where you have a wide spectrum of, of, people, right?

You have engineers and you have architects, you have bankers, you have, you know, business owners, entrepreneurs, you have investors, and then you.

All the way down to, you know, you have, you know, you know, it's just not all the way down, but it's just a wide spectrum.

And then you have your guys who are working on site.

So it's like the type of language that's used, the way you talk to people, how you talk to the guys in the field, is different than the way you talk in a client meeting when you're meeting with the architects or you have know, when you're, you know, you know what I'm saying?

Like you're, you're meeting a whole wide spectrum of people and you got to handle everybody differently.

And this is where AI does help, because we're able to be in the field, talk how we want to talk, and then it gets translated to a nicer, more pleasant, more formal, you know, communication.

So it's, Absolutely.

Yeah.

And that even that component alone, you don't have to necessarily be so dependent on email or just bringing your laptop everywhere you go, but being able to communicate in the way that you're comfortable, in your natural tone, and then know that AI tool is actually going to decipher your mumbo jumbo and turn it into language that the client is actually, you know, that would resonate with them or it would resonate with your subs or your partners or whatever, whoever it is.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

it sounds so good, too.

It's like.

It'll, like, pick up on your speech pattern, so it'll.

It'll get to know you a little bit.

So it sounds like a better version of you.

So it's like, man, I could.

I could actually sound really good if I tried.

But.

Right.

We just kind of, you know.

But, So for those who, who might not be familiar with you, who are you and what's.

We'll try.

What's one fun fact about, Milan?

One fun fact about Milan?

Well, I'm Elon Vladik.

I am a, you know, lifer in construction.

I was, you know, my father was a custom home builder, so I was, you know, born and raised in the job site, swinging hammers and digging ditches my whole life.

I, you know, I got into, some technology stuff.

And here's.

Here's a fun fact.

Here's kind of what, you know, people ask me, like, well, what got you into, you know, your construction?

What got you into computers and programming and all this stuff like that?

I was thinking about it, and then somebody said something also along the lines of like, well, what happens to you.

To you in your childhood impacts who you are as an adult.

And I thought about that, and I'm like, you know what?

I had these memories of working with my dad.

And, you know, I remember cutting rebar by hand.

You know, like that big bar.

You know, you put the piece in and you pull the bar down.

I was cutting rebar for days.

Like, that's what my job was as a kid.

And I'll never forget the day that I saw our concrete guy roll up with the rebar cutter.

And I'm like, what is this.

What is this thing?

Right?

And, And I go to my dad, I'm like, hey, hey, hey.

You know, they have a.

They have a tool for this.

He's like, yeah, they do.

I'm like, how come.

How come we don't get one?

He's like, well, I got you.

I'm like, fine.

You know, and I think another moment when I was.

I was watching this guy, like, thread up in a black steel pipe.

Like, he had actually had a rig on his truck that would spin the pipe.

I'm sitting there watching that because we just got done doing a job where, like, we had to do it, like, you know, with the wrench, like.

Like manually.

You set it up on the lathe, and you.

You manually crank that thing.

And again, it's like, hey, how come we don't get one of those machines.

He's like, well, you know, I got you for that.

So it's you.

So that is kind of my, My, my upbringing and a fun fact of like, hey, like, I, I grew up doing things the hard way.

And, my goal, I guess, was always to say, hey, look, I want to use technology.

I wanna, I want to have something do the job for me in a sense.

Right?

Yeah.

So, you know, and, that's, you know, that's, that's a little bit about my background.

But, you know, I've always really enjoyed programming and building tools.

And you know, when AI came along, it was just, you know, just, just worked out, kind of all hit at the same time.

Yeah.

And did you, did you have a tech background at all or is it just kind of, you know, you're just doing, like you said, doing it the hard way, learning it from the ground up?

No, not for me.

A little bit.

Like, I was into, I was into some, you know, computer stuff growing up, but I, it was when I was using.

I started working for another building firm in 2017, and we're using, you know, we're using, at the time, builder trend at the time and, you know, good platform at the time.

It came a long way, but I felt like it wasn't like being in the field.

It just wasn't super.

Like, it just wasn't intuitive.

It felt like.

So outside of, outside of the flow.

Right.

Like, I'm a.

I was one of those project managers or superintendent at the time where I'm all over the place, I walk fast, I, I try to get the job done.

I'm all, I'm all over there, all over the job site.

So having to.

And I used to never do my schedule, I used to never do all that kind of stuff.

I'd get, I'd get, you know, they'd get on me for it, but I just never found the time to do it.

It was just outside of my, my flow.

Right.

So I was like, you know what?

I'm gonna learn how to build stuff software, and I'm gonna build something different.

So.

And, and that's when I started learning how to code.

I was back in like 2017, you know, and, yeah, and then it just kind of evolved into building.

I want to build tools that are quick to use and easy to use.

And again, AI was just that missing piece.

It was like, okay, this is the final component to the dream software that I just always envisioned.

And that's where we are today.

That's amazing, man.

That's so cool.

And then just constantly making iterations, just making it better and better and better.

doesn't stop.

It doesn't stop.

Grant.

Sometimes I'll be like, okay, I'm gonna focus on optimizing this thing, making this thing stable.

Just keep.

Do the right thing here.

And then I just end up adding more features, you know, making it better, making it a little bit.

A little bit more.

More, you know, you know, capable.

But yeah.

So what was the.

What was like, the impetus or the beginning of Nash?

Was it you just.

You were thinking of kind of that next evolution of software and how you, like, ultimately the tool that would.

That would benefit you the most or how did you start with it?

Yeah, so it was.

It was built to help me.

It was built to, do.

Do work for me.

And it's.

I needed an interface.

So the idea was this.

The idea was this.

You look at, like, carpenters and plumbers and electricians, and they have their tools, right?

The framers, they have their hammers and their nail guns.

They have their tools.

And when they have their tool, when they work with their tools, they're in.

They're in that.

That flow that was kind of mentioning, right?

And I'm like, well, what is my flow as a project manager, as a superintendent?

What am I doing?

And it's.

It kind of boiled down to like, hey, it's the fault.

You know, it's.

It's.

It's communication.

Like, that's my tool is communication.

So if I want to manage my schedule, if I want to manage my budget, if I want to do these things that are required of me by the higher ups back of the office, I want to do it in a way that's native to how I work and through communication.

So I want to just.

And.

And the communication is phone calls, text messages, emails, right?

So I want to be able to just message somebody as if I had, like, an assistant.

Hey, like, when is this happening?

Or move this to this date.

I want to just.

Just like I talk to my subcontractors.

I want to talk to my schedule.

Cool.

So that was the initial goal.

And it started out, and then because I was using Slack, and.

And I got our team on board using Slack, which is an incredible tool for communication even without AI, you know, that was.

Slack had the ability to not just talk to team members, but also talk to servers.

And if we could talk to a server, we could talk to AI.

And the name Nash Just came from, you know, the company I was working for at the time and still do work for.

Built Nashville and we're in Nashville.

So it just, I just, I needed a name for the bot so I just named it Nash and it's stuck.

And you know, start out with just slash commands really just using AI to be in the back end where it would, I was using it in a way to, you know, when you would say something like rough plumbing in the system, it may be plumbing roughing.

And the way traditional software works is it has to be exact.

If you want to match things, they need to be pretty much exact.

so I was using the AI to translate that to take on what the person is saying and try to figure out what they're, you know, compared to the schedule, what do they mean.

So if I do say something like, you know, like rough plumbing and this plumbing rough in.

It'll.

It'll figure out what I'm trying to modify.

So I was using AI to just help with the back end.

And again, it was all slash commands which is just a, you know, it's not a chat interface.

You just send, you just send a message somewhere.

And then the goal was always hey, I want this thing to actually talk to me like ChatGPT was at the time.

And that's, you know, it just eventually evolved into to an agent and now, now it's my agent or you know, what are.

So I agree with you.

Slack is such a crazy tool, especially for just like team collabs and communication as a whole.

but I guess what are the, and from what you've been able to decipher, what are the biggest problems or pain points that builders and contractors really turn to Nash for?

Is it, is it truly like similar to you like maintaining and managing that schedule or is it, you know, has it expanded out as well?

No, I think.

Well one of the things that's used for in the field a lot.

So I start when I started building this I was out in the field.

So I used it a lot for the schedule.

Like we talked about getting access to budget.

Sometimes you need to know what the numbers are.

But also it connected to our Slack, I mean to our, to our Google, spreadsheets.

And that's where our designers kept all the selections and, and you know, all the paint colors and all the fixtures and all the, and all that stuff.

So it was very easy to just, instead of going on my phone to Google sheet and try to try to figure that out.

Because it's, you know, a little screen.

I just asked Nash, like, hey, like, you know, what's the paint color in this room?

Or what is the, you know, what's the.

What's the name of the flooring?

Or, you know, what's the finish on the.

Stuck on the hood, on the.

The kitchen hood?

Or just whatever questions I needed to ask it that was, you know, and it would read our selection sheet and then give me the answer.

And then eventually when email got connected to it, I was able to say, okay, now just, you know, write an email.

Send that email to so and so cool.

And then it just became really.

It just became really useful in that sense.

So that's what people in the field are using it for a lot of is, like, selections and to see when things are happening with the schedule.

We've changed who controls the schedule now.

But, you know, they can.

They can ask it, hey, when is this event happening?

When is drywall starting?

Or when is just kind of query the, schedule.

But in the back office, I mean, people are using it now just like, instead of like a chat gbt, they go to Nash and just.

It's.

It's Claude, right?

So it's built on top of anthropics models, and it's fine tuned to construction.

So it's.

It's gonna.

It knows who we are, it knows what, what people are doing here in this company.

And it just.

It'll, it'll give them an answer from this perspective of the builder from the company, the construction company.

That's awesome.

I think, Nash actually solves or helps solve one of the biggest issues with AI on a company perspective, which is how do you get people to actually adopt AI in their workflows?

And I think you guys nailed it by starting with the tool that everybody uses, which is Slack.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

it was definitely helpful because we communicate internally through there as well.

So you have a conversation, and then you can just.

If a question comes up, you can just tag Nash.

And then Nash just jumps in the conversation and says, okay, well, here's the answer to that, or here's what the selection says, or here's what's on the schedule, or here's what the.

Whatever tool you needed to use.

It'll pull it right into the conversation.

Or you can have a summarize a conversation, you can have an email, or create a daily log and job tread from it.

So it's.

Yeah, it worked out really well.

That is really neat.

you mentioned on our last call you kind of have this framework.

The.

I don't actually, I just called it a framework.

The truck, not a Mercedes.

Yeah, yeah.

So people would always ask me, they'd say, well, why don't I just use Chat GPT?

Why don't I just use Claude?

And you could and they do.

but those, those tools, they're.

I kind of look at them as like they're like the Mercedes, right?

Like they're real nice, they're real fast, they operate very, you know, very well.

but the difference is, is that they're very general use tools, right.

Like, you know, you could be working on your business with Claude and then your neighbor is, you know, planning their son's birthday party, their son is upstairs cheating on their homework with the same tool.

And then two, two doors down around the corner, somebody's using it as a therapist.

And it's all the same tool, right?

Where.

So you know, Nash, there's a lot of features in there, a lot of logic in the in the programming that keep it in the construction domain.

Like Nash is a terrible therapist.

Don't, don't, don't tell Nash your life problems.

Right.

But if you have a construction question, if you have you know, anything related to your project, you know, it's fine tuned for this field.

So it's kind of goes to that.

Yeah, Chat GPT and Claude are Mercedes.

But this system here, this is the work truck, this is the utility truck.

You know, you don't go to work in a Mercedes in the job site.

You go in a truck that has your toolbox, it has your, your equipment rack, has a lumber rack, has your, you know, your cooler in the back.

You know, like this is, this thing is purpose built for what we do.

I love, don't use it for, you know, it's, it's it's not good for personal stuff.

I mean you can.

But it's like it's fine tuned for this.

Yeah, it works best in, with these boundaries, with these constraints, is designed for that.

I think that's really powerful that allows us to be on the, on the front side of that.

We're able to predict, we're able to gain speed.

And because context engineering and managing your context window and there's all these things that help improve your answer whether it's speed or accuracy, when we know what world you're working in, we're able to really fine tune those things even more so we don't have to predict as much.

It's not like you're Talking about construction.

So we're able to fine tune it to be, to be a construction tool.

Yeah, it makes sense.

So one thing that I know every person on a job site or working on a house really appreciates is what you said earlier, when they can actually just turn, you know, turn to a tool where they can just talk into it to provide context or insights or to ask questions and get answers to.

I think there's so much power in literally being able to turn talk into, you know, progression or insights.

that's a big component of what you guys are building.

Yeah, you know, it's, again, this goes back to, know, communication is, is, you know, key and that's how a lot of, you know, when it comes to project management, that's, you know, good communication is how you get the job done.

And you know, when you're out there and you don't have something or you know, you want to just take notes, you don't want to type, you just hit the record button and, and talk to it and then you send it.

Just like, like when you send a audio recording, like you hit the share button, you can share the slack, you can share right to Nash.

So you can just walk around with the memo recorder, record your, what you're observing in the field or like a list of to dos, like making a punch list or whatever.

Yeah.

and then you just send that off to Nash.

It'll transcribe it just as if you typed it.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

So it's just, just fast.

It's just we're trying to be so we're trying to be efficient, we're trying to be fast, we're trying to, you know, be accurate and just get more work done.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

And for, you know, again, going back to like one of the biggest problems that I know a lot of con construction companies face is how do you get people to adopt the tool?

How do you get, you know, if you're working with subcontractors, how do you get them to actually submit daily logs through Job Tread or Builder Trend or whatever it is?

And I think, you know, tools like Nash and being able to, you know, meet your team halfway and say, hey, you know, we've made this a lot easier for you.

Yeah.

You know, it's the thing about AI is, you know, people either want to use it or they don't.

You know, those people who don't want to use it, they're gonna, they're gonna find out pretty soon here that they're gonna have to, But, yeah, a lot of, A lot of people, especially younger people, they're, they're open to it and they're already using all these apps on their phone anyway.

So it's, it's, it's just when you make something easier for people, they just are more likely to do it.

And when the process is simple and it's not so far outside of what they normally do anyway, like, they're text messaging people.

They're, they're, you know, sending voice messages to people.

So if you keep it close to what they know how to do and they do already, and you try to take the technical aspect out of it, it's, it's, it's going to, you know, people catch on a little bit more.

And especially when they see how useful it is and how, how, you know, how much work can get done, then they start to pick up on it, like, wow, I want to use this more.

You know, I want to learn more.

So it's, it's, it's.

It's a slow process for some people.

Some people catch on real quick.

but it's.

Some are still resistant, but they're coming around.

What do you think are some of those?

Like, what.

Why do you think that is?

Why do you think some people are still resistant to it?

I think that people believe it's harder than it is.

You know, I know there's some, some people we worked with, and these are the, the older, older guys out there where, I mean, they could build a house, but they will get upset on their phone, like, I can't do this on my phone.

It's like, man, you can.

I.

I know what you can do.

Like, I know the problems you can solve.

Like, just try.

So I think they have it in their head that I'm not technical, I'm stupid.

That's.

That's for.

Not for people like me.

You know, I'm in construction.

I'm not a computer wizard.

It's like, you don't.

But if you can scroll on Facebook, which I know you do, I can see you do it, you know, like, like you can do this.

So I think there's this block that they just think that you have to be so technical to, to do these things.

And it's becoming very, very simple to, to accomplish, you know, a lot of stuff just by trying.

I think that's a pivotal thing is, like, if you can help people, like, shift that identity, you know, I'm not tech savvy.

No, you.

You are.

You're on Facebook.

You're.

You're using your phone.

That's all you need to do now.

I think people aren't gonna have a choice soon, too.

I think it's just going to become so.

It's going to become everywhere.

It's going to be everywhere that they're just going to be.

They're not going to have a choice.

If you're going to want to.

If you're going to be working, you know, just the next, like, 12 months, you're going to start to see this become like a mandatory, you know, not just construction, probably less in construction, because we're still have that physical deliverable.

Right.

We're still going to build the stuff, but just across, like, the workforce in general.

Like, this This is a skill that you got to learn.

Absolutely.

Yeah, it is.

I mean, every single person I talk to, I know they're at some point, it's like, you know, this feeling of being left behind with it.

And, Yeah, I think you're exactly right.

I think it's It.

It's this gigantic tsunami that just keeps on growing and growing and growing, and it's just, you know, this.

This massive wake.

It's going to change.

Everything is changing everything.

It is, yeah.

but, yeah, if you're comfortable with it, maybe we could just do like a quick show and tell on, like, you know, just like a quick walkthrough of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let me just switch over here.

Let's see if this works here.

Press this button here.

You able to see that or is that.

yeah.

There we go.

Where we at?

Okay.

Yeah.

So here's.

So this is.

This is.

This is the Slack workspace over here.

Does it show backwards?

Is it inverted?

No, it's.

I can see it on the left side of the screen.

Okay, that's.

That's, odd.

Anyway, so, yeah, the way I'm seeing it is, like, backwards.

It's all good, though.

So over here.

So this is your.

Your typical Slack workspace, right?

This is just a channel where.

Where, you know, the team talks about the job.

But, like, if we would just have a.

What I If we would have a.

If we would open a direct message with.

A little laggy.

And.

So here's like.

So when you have a direct message with Nash, it's.

So when you're in a channel, it knows what project you're talking about, but when you're having a direct message, you have to tell it what project.

But before you do that.

You can have of global access to some things.

So if, if we, if I paste this in here.

So all what I'm going to ask now is, you know, hey, Nash, can you tell me how the weather is going to impact my jobs this week?

Are there any exterior tasks that need to be rescheduled due to weather?

So we'll send this off.

The computer's really laggy right now, but it's okay.

So it's these little emoji, icons pop up and they're, you know, telling me what tools are being used.

So right here, it's coming in.

It got the weather, and I was looking at all the jobs, and these here are the jobs.

So I have a Georgetown job, Chickering Templeton.

I have another Templeton Colorado.

So here's all the jobs they went through to look for exterior tasks.

Right.

So on Georgetown, you got siding, stucco, hardscape.

So the good thing is that the news or the weather is pretty good.

So it's not really flagging any.

Any issues here.

let's see here.

Like a Colorado, we have some concrete flat work happening.

So it's just rain, you know, might be raining on Monday.

So it's just giving you a heads up.

So just right out of the gate, we're able to see what schedule impacts we.

We have, with upcoming weather.

And of course, you can get, you know, as creative as you want with this stuff.

But so I'm gonna do a.

Another kind of global question here.

So I'm going to say hi.

Cool.

Can you tell me what jobs are currently in the finishing stage?

So anything that's post drywall, let me know exactly what, what exact tasks are going just to make sure that things aren't overlapping.

Right.

So let's say you want to just say, hey, anything that's past drywall, I want to know what jobs are there and what's going on.

So this would be essentially like, for Something, you could run at the beginning of the day just to get like an update on project.

Exactly.

So it's.

Think a little bit.

Yeah.

So it's going to grab all the information.

And this is pulling straight from.

It's cool that it's able to couple the weather data with the job tread data or even.

Yeah, yeah, it's.

Exactly.

So it's all live stuff.

So right here it's telling me, okay, so these are the jobs that are post tribal.

Right.

So we have this Georgetown, where these are the things that are happening over there.

The Templeton job, the other Templeton, the Colorado job.

So things, it's just, it answered the question, right.

It tells me what's, what's happening in all these jobs that are on that, closing that final stretch.

And then you can go deeper and say, okay, cool, now which ones are what, dates are overlapping and all this stuff.

So here's the overlap right here.

All right.

So then it came out and it gives me the overlap.

Right.

So we have, you know, these are similar tasks that are happening across jobs, But you really get control when you start getting into.

We're going to create a new conversation here.

When you tag a channel, that's what locks that job into Nash's context.

I have this sandbox job here, I call it Nowhere Drive.

This is our test job.

So you just load it and you can do it mid conversation too.

But you know, so see if I could paste in there.

So being able to pull in specific job context straight into Slack and then.

Yeah, exactly.

You're locking into a job so that when you, you don't have to keep saying hey, at Nowhere Drive this, at Nowhere Drive that, it just knows, hey, we're working on this job right now.

And if I want to work on another job, I just create a new conversation.

And the beautiful thing about Slack is I can open up several windows so I can have three, four of these things going at one time.

And when there is the.

And we have to wait for it to respond, that's when you jump to the next one and, and start talking to Nash.

yeah, you know, in another window.

So it's almost like a project in Claude, but that's specific and a little bit easier to, to navigate.

Exactly.

So I just, I give it a general question like hey, what's, you know, what are we working on?

So it's, it's it's.

It kicked off a sub agent.

That's curious but wonder why it's doing that.

But we'll see what it comes back with.

So the sub agent, it has the ability to call a buddy, basically spins up another agent to do work outside of the current context window.

And that one does take a little bit longer why I did that one.

But well, while that one works, start another conversation.

let's see.

I guess the real meat of this too is going back to that initial query that you threw in which was like, hey, which jobs are going to be impacted by the weather this week?

And the beauty of using something like Slack is that you can just immediately tag all the necessary parties Right into that thread too.

So it's like all of your project coordinators, right, that are, that we're going to be the ones who are directly impacted the most.

More than likely with that weather change.

Boom.

They get that notice right then and there.

And then if they need to change anything, they can take that information and run 100.

100.

So this one here.

So there's a feature that Nash has that if you're in Job tread.

And there's a file inside of job trade.

So let's go over here to, to know where to drive.

You can see it on this kind of split screen here.

go into files.

Let's go into Nash files.

Nash.

Okay, so this file here, I had Claude just make up this low voltage scope here.

All So this is just, this is, you know, it's just the scope sheet.

So, So right now it doesn't know about this one.

Right.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna show that.

So I'm gonna ask it if, you know, let's say, hey, do a doc search for a scope sheet related to low voltage on this job.

So it should come back and say it doesn't have one.

Okay.

No luck.

Okay, cool.

It doesn't find it.

But let's go back here to Job Tread.

So when you're in your files and you tag, so you can tag the agent.

So when you tag Nash, we tag it we close it.

Kind of give it a second.

Because now what's going to happen is that on the Job tread side, that file is now going to get pulled down and it's going to get brought into Nash's memory.

So cool.

If I.

So it probably should be done Hey Nash, do a doc search again for that.

Let's see if it's there now.

Little laggy.

So now that we tagged the document, it should have been loaded into its memory.

There it is.

Now it knows it.

Wow.

So just so when you are working on, when you have all these documents, we use jobtrad as our new, Dropbox.

Right.

We put all of our stuff in here.

This is the sandbox one.

So it's kind of like, kind of a mess.

But we when you're in there and you want to tag like a Ferguson portfolio or just any documents, invoices or whatever you have, or bids, you know, bid specs, you just tag it with Nash.

And then now Nash knows that file into.

It goes into a rag system, but you know, this whole technical thing.

But it becomes, this has Become a very useful thing a lot of us use here in the office, where it's like, let's just tag it with Nash and then talk to Nash about it.

Now, you can drag files in here as well, or photos into here, and it works just like the cloud or ChatGPT does, so it does that as well.

But this allows you to just take a look at what you have in your job tread files, and it becomes a permanent, memory until you untag it.

Once you untag it, then it goes away.

That way, if you have a duplicate, like if you updated, we would tag it as old and then remove it off of the Nash tag and then it goes away.

That's super cool.

Then if we want to do something like.

Here, let's just say sorry if it's noisy in the office.

Or, let's.

So with, your team, the design build team, are you guys meeting, like, pretty frequently to talk about Nash use cases at all in terms of brainstorming on how to continue?

Because you're in the cool phase where you're not only building out software that's helping so many other people, but you're also using it yourself.

And so you can almost get real time feedback from two different directions.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

we meet now and then, and.

Or I'll go help them.

Or I'll be like, hey, check this out.

Or I'll know that they do stuff because sometimes they, you know, it's a training thing and people don't know what it's fully capable of.

Or if I add a new feature to it, then I'll just kind of go up to and be like, hey, check this out.

Or I see you working on this.

and some people actually have suggestions too, I always, you know, include them as well.

So here's what we're gonna do.

We're going to ask it to.

Actually, before I even do that, let me.

I gotta again, tag the job.

So we gotta tag the job.

It knows where we're going.

All right, let's paste that stuff back in.

All right, so now we're going to do is we're going to ask it to make a change order.

So I just kind of gave it, I just gave it some.

Just numbers and some, Some tasks and stuff like that.

However, you can get this information from either uploading a file to it or tagging it and job tread or, doing a web search for stuff or however you get the information in there.

However, like, the conversation goes, as long as it's in there.

And then you ask it to do something like create a change order.

you know, it'll start to build it.

Now, this little thinking emoji down here, AI has thinking mode.

So we have certain things that will trigger that automatically.

We can do it manually as well, but, you know, I have a system built that in here that will automatically turn it on.

So when it comes to estimating things, anything with money, really, I really want the thinking mode on.

So it's going to take a second for.

It is.

It's calling the tools.

But while we're there, let's take a look at, some of the other ones.

We'll go back to the change over here a second.

So over here, this was the one that took.

Took a little, little longer.

When I asked, hey, you know, what are we working on?

And it called the sub agent.

It went.

It looked at the schedule.

It went and grabbed the budget.

Talk about action items, priority things.

So I was very broad.

What I asked it.

I said, hey, what are we working on?

So it just.

It didn't know.

So it checked out the schedule, the budget, you know, it went to, you know, daily logs or to dos.

So you gotta be real precise with what you want, or else it's just gonna give you, you know, a whole lot.

sure.

let's go backseat this.

Okay, so here we go.

So it's.

I can see just on your screen right now, so many threads.

How are you managing, like, just the sheer volume of threads and slack?

Well, a lot of this up here was not here.

Yeah.

the smart way to do it is to.

The first word is what gets titled up here.

So what I'll usually do.

A lot of the stuff here just comes from testing it before we had this call.

So I didn't really give it a good title.

But the first line is what shows up as a title here.

So sometimes I'll be like, okay, I'll call the job.

And then I'll be like, windows, or, you know, exterior siding or whatever we're working on, whatever that conversation is going to be about.

I usually try to put in that first line because that's how Slack will categorize it.

this is just you know, kind of a lot of, you a lot of unnecessary stuff here.

But let me kind of go here.

Close this over here.

Okay, so here's that change order that we started.

So we pasted this in.

It knows the job.

It's a fake job.

And here's the description it took all of our things lined it up with our Costco, got it all ready.

Now I can hit create a approve.

So it'll.

Now I'm going to switch over here because it should pop up in this window.

So now, you know, change order created.

And here's the link.

So when I click on this now this changes over here.

Take me.

It takes me right to that change order in job trend.

And here it all is.

And everything that has to do with customer interaction or especially money.

I always want human in the loop.

So it'll do all this work for us and connect everything to all the, you know, the cost codes and everything.

But I still want human eyes on it before it gets sent out to a subcontractor Or a client.

Sure.

But a Majority of the work is done and this is where we can upload files or, you know, plans to it or whatever we need.

But, you know, most of it's done.

We just hit, you know, approve or send it.

But it gets this, it gets us this far.

So it can really help with estimating too.

I know that's one of the biggest pain points most builders really struggle with is accuracy.

And then also just the follow through on.

Follow through on generating estimates.

Yeah, it's.

There's still, when these big projects and stuff, it's helpful.

It's very helpful.

but as far as like large things, we're not really using it for that yet.

This is.

If change orders is easy because it's quick.

It could be in the field.

You can just talk to it and say, hey, look, I need to add xyz.

Sure.

Can you dial up a change order and then you just send that off and then the process starts and it's easy.

so that's really what we're using a lot of these features for.

Okay, that makes sense.

And then.

Yeah, so let's see what else here.

Okay, cool.

So it did that and we can say.

And then it create data logs.

So if I would say, Let's go back somewhere else here.

Let's go back to another conversation.

So I know like, that's kind of the beauty of tools like this is it's not just so many times I talk to people who are.

Yeah, they're using AI in their operations, but they haven't really checked in with their whole team to see how the team has started to adopt it.

And what they don't realize is the end goal for a lot of people in the trades is ultimately know that dream of like selling that company or at least it could be to, a family member.

It could be to a private equity firm.

you know, it, at that point, it doesn't really matter too much, but, still being able to value as much as you can from your company.

And I feel like AI is such an integral tool with that because it helps you streamline so many workflows and just so much knowledge about your company where otherwise traditionally all of that context is kind of like in, you know, it might be written down or it maybe was written down in 1995 so many times those, that knowledge is just kind of lost.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

It's, 100%.

100%.

Actually, I'm going to show you a couple of things here.

So there's the Slack component, and that's what we looked at.

But then there's also automations that Nash does outside of Slack, things that just run on their own.

And I'm going to switch this over again and kind of show you some examples.

Sure.

Some of.

Where is it?

All right.

So every week we get an internal, update.

We used to have our project managers do this, and when you would, they would just do it really quickly because they'd be, you know, on their way out from the week and they just wouldn't put a whole lot into it and they wouldn't be giving us the detail that we need.

And so what Nash does is that Nash will look at every Monday morning.

It'll look at the schedule, the daily logs, internal notes, and, you know, a few other other, data points, and it'll create a weekly summary.

So this goes out to the entire team, just tells everybody, hey, where we are in the job, you know, what's coming up, some notes, what we're focusing on in the week, and then some questions.

Right.

It'll come up with things that we should solve.

It'll create an action plan.

So this gives people a idea of what to be working on or what you can be doing in your time.

This is the last seven days.

So this one goes out to the team every Monday.

Now, every single morning I get a digest.

It goes to.

Every morning I get.

Now this one here, this one gave me.

Okay, I got a C plus in this one.

So it gives you a grade on.

And here's the thing.

I, I have a couple jobs that had some major slippage because of, you know, just certain reasons.

So it's been tough to get this thing over C plus because of the major slippage we have.

Like, we're a couple months behind on Certain things because of things that are outside of our control.

You know, construction goes.

But every day I get this thing sent to me.

It'll go through all my jobs.

It'll compare the schedule to our daily logs.

The way that we operate is we have our, infield guys, our superintendents and project managers.

They.

They just strictly do daily logs.

They tell me what's happening, what they need, and all their observations go into there.

I manage the schedule.

Me and another senior, project manager, we actually dial in the schedule.

So what this will do is this will look at their notes and my schedule, and it'll tell me, like, right here, schedule versus daily logs.

Right.

So.

So this didn't have a daily log this day, but it'll compare the two together and say, hey, what is actually happening versus what is shown on the schedule?

So with that, you know, it just gives us something to work on today.

So this goes through all the jobs that are assigned to me, and it'll, you know, same thing.

Daily log versus schedule.

And it'll give me things to answer.

So if I'm trying to get, you know, if I'm trying to get stuff done, I could look at these suggestions here.

You know, here's the other job.

So this goes out to me every single morning.

Cool.

This is kind of like my.

My work for the day.

now, every.

I'll show you that a little bit.

So now every Thursday, our clients get a client newsletter.

And this one, it does the same thing.

It'll go into the data logs and the schedule and a few other notes, and it'll create a weekly update for them.

It'll tell them what's happening.

It'll give them a little weather update, you know, because if we have delays, we want to just always, especially with the weather, especially here in Nashville, it rains a lot.

So we want to make sure that it's very clear that things are delayed because of the weather.

It tells them what's.

What's in progress, what's coming up.

And our interior designers, they leave a daily log, so, like, that's on Wednesdays, specifically for information that the customers need to know.

So when Nash goes through, it knows to look for Ava's daily log, which is going to hold all the designer, information.

And then it'll, you know, like, things that they say that they need.

You know, just whatever they need from the customer is going to show up here.

It's going to have, you know, milestones, and then it's going to give them an estimated completion window.

And, that's our customers really like that.

They really enjoy having this level of detail and it kind of keeps them off our back a little bit.

sure.

Especially sorry about the noise out there.

They are not okay.

Now here's another thing that I think is pretty cool.

So I can.

If I get an email from somebody and there's information on there that I think is important, I can forward it to Nash.

So I do, you know, Nash plus log.

I'll send that to Nash and then Nash will create a daily log out of this.

This, Email.

Email.

Yeah.

So.

And then, you know, these email chains, there's a lot of information there that, that's, that's, you know, you know, relevant and we need to have it logged.

And this is just a quick way to just kick it over to.

To job shred.

So, you know, and this one runs every 15 minutes.

So I'll send the email to Nash and then on the 15 minute mark, I'll get, you know, this thing coming back and says, hey, here's, here's the daily log, right?

Siding material delivery schedule for the week of April 13th from Timbertown.

So this is, you know, it's just another tool like in email.

There's so much information there that we want to capture because once it's.

Once it's in job tread, then it's going to be seen by Nash and other.

Other, you know, areas too.

That makes sense.

That's.

So those are like the automation things that we have going on that happen regularly, you know, daily or weekly.

So there's, you know, we're just trying to put this thing everywhere we can.

Yeah, it's sounds like it's.

It's super valuable.

Super helpful especially.

I like that the weekly and daily synopsis, I think that's.

That in itself is super valuable.

Even like company cam.

I know that was a big driver for them is, you know, doing the daily log reports.

but even better is, you know, not just creating those reports, but providing it in the space where people are already at, then they can actually make it super actionable, and consistent.

If you can build a whole meeting off of that one report killer.

Absolutely.

That's the mission.

Just speed and efficiency and getting work done.

An idea is if we can take away all the redundancies, if we can keep our guys in the field focused on the action that they need to, you know, keeping their eyes on and they don't have to worry about, you know, updating schedules or, you know, finding information or community.

Like if we could just make everything easy for them and let them focus on quality work.

That's the goal, you know, then that's a win.

So what's the, how's adoption going with it?

I know the job tread partnership seems like a perfect tie in.

Are you, are you getting a lot of people to reach out, just wanting to, to test it?

Yeah, yeah.

I have a pilot group going right now.

I have a builder in Denver, Missouri and Oklahoma City, a commercial electrician out there.

They're all using the system and it's just you know, like again this thing, I built this thing for myself and getting it to, to you know, work with other organizations, you know, it's, it's a process and they're finding things too that I didn't like.

I wouldn't, I just didn't need it so I didn't build it in there.

And they're asking, hey, can it do this?

And yeah, okay, that's a good, that's a good feature.

So we're just, we're testing it out.

We're finding the bugs, we're finding the, you know, how to onboard people.

And you, you find different challenges too.

So like this, this electrician, I'm working with a great, great team out there in Oklahoma City.

But in their job trancy, like as a, as a custom builder here we have, you know, we'll have like, you know, somewhere between 15 and 20 active jobs.

Right.

They have, in their system they have over a hundred because they put everything that they're bidding right.

So subcontractors have a whole lot and that they're using.

They're driving job trade really hard.

So now it's like, well I can't do a hundred channels on Slack, so how do we solve for this?

So and we're working through it and we're coming up with some really cool things and they have other software that they are, are using too and Plan Hub and how they bid as commercial contractors and stuff.

So it's like, okay, so now we're just, we're integrating more things and you know, it's been, it's been a lot of fun and they're taking it really well and they're, they're, they're using it and it's it's good to see it.

Do you generally recommend that people start with one use case with it when they're say somebody was interested in testing it out for their own, you know, design build firm?

do you generally, do you have like a process or a roadmap or anything like that?

That helps them to adopt it.

Yeah.

So the way this thing that I, I built this thing is that I could have different packages on there.

So I start everybody with just the job trade package.

Right.

So they're not, you know, we're just now getting some of them into the email stuff, into the other thing.

So there's some core capabilities.

Right.

There's some things that Slack does, you know, weather things like that, the memory stuff that, that's, that's all built into.

But there's like a job, the job trade is where I'm starting them.

Yeah.

You know, and, and then, so we can add other things in there as they, they get comfortable.

But that's, that's the current plan is like, hey, let's focus on, on the core stuff and the job trust stuff and then we'll get into the quickbook things and we'll get into the, you know, the email stuff and the calendar stuff and we'll get into, you know, all that, all that, that fun stuff.

So you know, we're kind of figuring it out as we go.

Yeah.

How many, how many, I guess groups do you have beta test or testing it right now?

Well, it's just those, it's just those, those three contractors and then the company I work for.

So a total of four right now.

Yeah.

That's cool.

That's great.

Yeah.

So it's, and then you know, you learn a lot too as far as like scaling and stuff like that and how we're going to make this thing, usable for multiple organizations.

Because right now it's, you know, again I built it for my own use so we have to make this thing easier to onboard and you know what, and that there's like, I had to build programs that will go in and look at your job tread and then take all those job ID numbers and then build a Slack channel for everything.

So it's, you know, it's a journey.

We'll get it right.

But it's amazing like how how quick, quickly you can create action items from within.

Slack too.

Like with using Nash, there's just so much value that you can get at by just combining data sets together into a chat into a talk based thread.

That's awesome.

if people are interested in wanting to join your next cohort of testers, how do they get ahold of you?

The best thing right now is to Visit my site, BuildersEdge.

AI have a, a wait list there.

Go ahead and, and sign up and we'll keep you updated on, you know, the latest and greatest.

we're also always going to be, we're, we're also opening up to consulting contractors and how to bring AI into their businesses.

Nash is just one integration.

But I do believe that businesses need to start positioning themselves for, you know, for AI.

And I think there is, there's a lot of things that people can do and there's a lot of chasing right now.

There's a lot of you know, hey, what's the shiny object?

Let me get my hands on it.

And then you, okay, I'm using this thing and 30 days later it's, it's, you know, it's outdated already.

So, you know, we're putting together a kind of like a, like a roadmap or just a way to, you know, AI ready your company.

And there's, there's a lot of things that people can be doing to where you're not, always chasing, you're gonna start, you know, skating to where the puck is gonna go, right?

So that's, you know, and this stuff is happening really quick.

And a lot of, as you probably notice is that because if you remember like the first, the first tool, one of the first early tools with chat cbt, going back to those days was like, like people were making these chat with your PDF tools.

That was before you can drop it into ChatGPT.

And there's so many SaaS products out there.

And then here comes the frontier models and now you can drop PDFs into them.

And all those businesses stopped.

And this has been a pattern for the last two, three years where people will build and people will invest and they'll have these great ideas and then all of a sudden Claude can do it now really well.

So anticipating that and setting up how your company organizes their documents and their data and you know that is going to be very important.

And there's so many cool, there's so many interesting ways to do it.

There's a lot of traps out there.

There's a lot of like hype out there where people will be so into.

MCP is a good example of that.

It's like, this is a really cool part of the technology.

But if it's not, if you, if you're not using it correctly, it's, it's not going to be as efficient as you think it is.

Like, that's, there's ways to use it and there's other methods of doing the things that you're trying to accomplish.

Accomplish.

so helping People understand that helping them get their businesses in a position to get those, those three, four X's, getting those, as far as, like, productivity gains.

Right.

Actually realizing the promise of AI, I think it's a lot harder than people realize.

Absolutely.

I mean, it is like we were talking about before, it's moving so quick, but it's also, in part of that, it's so overwhelming to keep your finger on the pulse of, because there's so many things just coming at you in the world with AI.

and so it's great that, you know, that you're.

I think it's super valuable that your, Your team is starting to build out that process, that road map of, like, hey, you know, we're going to teach you how to skate to where the puck is.

I think that's super cool.

Yeah, you know, exactly.

And it's about just seeing what people like.

Working with these other contractors who are piloting Nash, hearing what their pain points are, hearing the things that they would like to see in their business, or just seeing how they organize their business is totally different from, like, all of them are all different.

Like, all businesses are.

So we are trying to find that middle ground, trying to find that, you know, way to steer people in the right direction, you know, no matter what they want to accomplish.

Because we all just want to build.

Build more and, and, you know, make money and, and have successful businesses.

And it's.

We're coming up on a time where things are going to get real crazy.

Real crazy.

you know, I also tell people, too.

It's like, people think that the trades are safe from.

From AI, like a lot of other knowledge workers.

They're going to be in trouble very soon.

So people think that, I have a contracting business.

No AI is going to take my job.

But you know what?

Because these other industries were disrupted, those entrepreneurs are coming your way.

Like, you're going to start to see these people.

They may not never have touched a pipe in their whole life, but they're very good business people and they're gonna.

They're gonna hire the right people and they're gonna market really well.

So competition is coming to the trades.

So.

And they're gonna have the AI skills, they're gonna have the marketing skills, and they're gonna poach your best guys.

So it's, you know, it's not gonna be AI that takes your job.

It's gonna be the other contractor who's using AI that can take your job.

It's going to be the entrepreneur.

The guy may Never been a contractor.

He just sees where there's opportunity, and they're very smart and they're really good, and that's.

They're going to come here to this.

This industry because there's going to be nowhere else to go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's like, hey, get ready for it.

Let's.

Let's get you.

Let's get you set up.

Let's get you on the right, path.

That's.

That's what Builders Edge really is about.

Yeah.

Nash is.

Is a part of it.

It's a good demonstration of what's possible, but it's based on how I work.

The idea is, hey, how do you work?

And we could take this.

The body of this work, and we can, you know, change it to fit your company.

But like, hey, what are your goals?

How do you want to accomplish them?

Let's figure it out.

That's what Builders Edge is about right now.

I can appreciate that.

Well, thank you so much, man, for doing the show and tell and, for coming on today.

I really appreciate this conversation.

And, yeah, I know there's.

It's a fascinating world we live in.

There's so much value that is untapped right now.

You're absolutely right.

And, Grant, hey, thank you so much for having me on your show.

This was.

This was great.

you know, I really appreciate the opportunity to show what I've built and to talk AI and appreciate you.

Thank you.

Yeah, man, it's impressive.

So, yeah, I hope, I hope quite a few people reach out and start jumping on that next wait list.

I'm excited to see it kind of take off for you.

I would love to talk to him.

All right, enjoy the rest of your day, and we'll talk soon.

You as well.

Thanks again.

Have a good one.

Take care.

Look, my entire mission with this series is to see talented builders and business owners stop getting run over by operational chaos and to actually start building the business they deserve.

If this episode gave you even one tool or 1% of a tool to fight back, please share it with a fellow builder.

Help me spread the word.

That is all I ask, so make sure you subscribe so you're ready for the next one.

Until then, systems scale your success.