We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edwin Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edwin below.

Edwin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

ZenHammer is a DBA of Perserbid Inc. When we ended Perserbid and were about to call it quits, the contractors we were working with told us not to quit and build what we were designing on the contractor side of the marketplace. They really didn’t like my naming conventions so I told them to name the company. We brainstormed several names and had several contractors vote on the name and ZenHammer won.

Edwin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into construction software sort of by accident. My mom had a bad contractor experience where a remodeler gutted her bathroom and then never came back. I figured that I could solve the problem and as a result, Perserbid was built. In short, it was like a matchmaking service where homeowners would post jobs, contractors would bid on them, and we’d hold the money in escrow as the jobs were done. Great on paper but bad in the market. ZenHammer was born out of that. Initially, we wanted to build an app for small subcontractors who were and still are very underserved in the market. As we started doing demos, we received a lot of input from larger specialty trades and general contractors, particularly the commercial GCs. Once commercial GC noticed a small feature in our app and asked us if that feature could be built out and they explained in detail their use case. We scrambled to build a mock up and we were ghosted. Around that time we were ghosted (lessons). Luckily, the mockup was a hit with other GCs and even the specialty trades we were working with. So now, ZenHammer focuses on real-time data and communication from the site to the GC and subcontractors. When we hit the market, there are some very key things I’m going to be watching that I’ll need to address.

The key problem we’re trying to solve is this, if you ask a GC with multiple sites or even a specialty trade with multiple sites, where their guys are, often times the answer is “I don’t know”. We want the GC to pick up their phone and be able to understand the status of their projects at a glance. That is the basic core thing we’re after. We do have more things we’re trying to solve that tie into the core problem but information and communication flow is the biggest issue we’re trying to solve. We haven’t abandoned the small subcontractor either. That’s the problem from the top down and there is a correlating problem from the bottom up and it boils down to transparency. In other words, the trades can say to the GC, we were here and we did what we said we were going to do.

The thing I’m most proud of currently is how I’ve been able to be involved in the industry outside of software. I’m currently in leadership positions on the state and national levels of the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) with the associate’s committee for NAHB and the associates council for the Home Builders Association of Tennessee (HBAT). As a result of my involvement, I’m not building a product for random people, I’m building it for friends and family. Once we get into the market, I’ll be very proud of that.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being there. The construction industry is a very hands-on industry and what I mean by that is you just can’t show up once or twice, you have to be there. Also, don’t be disingenuous. In this industry, they will sniff you out if you are. Since I didn’t ask this specific person if I could quote them, I’ll paraphrase something they said to a new entrant in the industry who was going to be selling services to general contractors and specialty trades. “Don’t just show up and expect to sell us something. I need to know you, who you are, your kids, and you need to know my kids, and then we can talk business.” In other words, be a part of the community you wish to do business with.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There is a myth in the regular (non-business) world that goes, if you build it they will come. When I first jumped into entrepreneurship, I had this notion that all I had to do was build a good product and people would buy. Easy right? It didn’t work like that. The main reason I had this idea was because in pop culture, you see all these success stories where a person starts a business and next thing you know, they’re a millionaire. I’ve unlearned that just from the experience of building a startup. It’s hard and as an entrepreneur, you wind up staring into the abyss more times than you care to admit where the next 5 decisions will determine if your business closes down or doesn’t. That’s hard and I wish it were talked about more because it’s not just hard on the entrepreneur, it’s hard on everyone connected to the entrepreneur as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://getzenhammer.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwin-williams-573414137/

Image Credits

Photo 1: Erie Fire & Ice Accelerator Cohort
Photo 2: Johnson City Area Home Builders Association’s Battle of the Build entry
Photo 3: Amplify Summit Startup Panel @ Lindenwood University
Photo 4: Arch Grants Judeg Badge
Photo 5: National Association of Home Builders Past Chair Alecia Huey