Founder CEO
HippoBuild was founded in 2021
The Birth and Evolution of HippoBuild
I left the fintech, mostly due to my own ambitions. I spent about 1 year immersing myself with constructors in Colombia. As my wife’s family is in the construction space as well, I had a direct line to the pain and problems they experience on a day to day.
It was during this time that Felipe and I got introduced. Initially, we agreed that Felipe would join as the first employee, and General Manager of the company. Leveraging Felipes passion, network and knowledge, he quickly proved to be the soul and engine of Hippo, hence why he is fully acknowledged as a cofounder and COO. None of this would have been possible without Felipe`s relentless chase and energy.
During this year, I spent some time working at Tul, helping them build up their fintech department (the first 3 months of Hippo, we worked from the offices of Tul).
We launched HippoBuild the summer of 2021, where I had convinced a few people to place bets on us, and our bold vision. And this vision has stayed the same.
Vision
"Revolutionize the construction industry by championing the cause of the overlooked medium constructors in Latam, ensuring they are empowered with cutting-edge, real-time data and technology to optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and drive sustainable growth."
Mission
"Fuelled by a profound sense of urgency and responsibility, HippoBuild is committed to breaking the status quo that has unjustly neglected medium constructors due to their limited software budgets. Our mission is to democratize access to innovative software solutions, enabling constructors to harness the power of real-time data for enhanced decision-making, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage. We aim to bridge the technological divide, facilitating a more equitable, data-driven, and prosperous construction industry."
Where others see medium constructors as a minuscule software market, I see a colossal opportunity in supply chain and financing. For me, the software isn’t the end goal; it’s the pivotal key to unlocking immense potentials and transforming the overlooked into industry leaders.
Against all odds we were accepted into the Y Combinator Winter Batch 2022.
We undoubtedly learned a great deal, but participation also came with its own set of disappointments. After YC, the uphill battle of raising funds was real. Blaming the shaky market seems like an easy out, but honestly, we weren’t quite there yet. Our spending wasn’t strategic enough, causing the desired results to fall short.
Staying true, but changing focus.
We discovered in July 2022, that we needed to be provider of materials first, and a provider of software second. As we started to strike deals with major providers of materials in the region, like Gerdau, Cemex, Alfa, Holcim and others. We realised that we could be that powerful helper the constructors needed much sooner than anticipated.
From July 2022 to January 2023 we were figuring out how to be this purchasing partner efficiently. And from February onwards, we started to increase our take-rate, from 1% to around 5%.
The tough and hard decisions…
Around the same time, we had to make some very tough decisions. As the product was not performing how we had expected, after a lot of time, and high HR costs, we decided to let the entire engineering team go. Lowering our monthly costs from $30-40K to around $10K. We did this, all whilst maintaining our revenue.
After a few months, we decided to swap our tech start from PHP, Laravel and React to FlutterFlow, a low-code tool. This decision resulting in over a 10x efficiency increase in bringing new features to market, and significantly lowered the bugs our users experienced. You can see more about our product here.
Where are we today
Today, we are profitable. Modestly profitable, but profitable nontheless.
We are developing unique solutions for our biggest supply partners, and some large constructors. All in the name of bringing better tech, and more control to the medium constructors. We are working on a larger credit line from a commercial bank in Colombia, this line would roughly double our operational capabilities.