David Steckel

Scaling isn't hard. Scaling without culture is. Most founders obsess over growth metrics. ARR. Headcount. Funding rounds. But they forget the invisible foundation that holds everything together. Culture isn't ping pong tables and free snacks. Culture is belonging. And belonging comes from one thing: Cadence. The Monday email you send to your team. The weekly culture call where someone shares a book they love. The consistent appreciation you show for the janitor and the COO equally. Every Monday. Every week. Every interaction. When systems break (and they will), culture forgives. When you write that email on a bad day... Culture gives you the benefit of the doubt. When market conditions shift... Culture rallies around the vision. Here's the truth most leadership gurus won't tell you: You can't define culture before it happens. You can only build it through the daily cadence of communication and care. I write my top 10 wins every Friday. We used to have 30-minute culture calls every week. Someone would share one thing they loved. Could be a book, a story, a Wikipedia page. Simple? Yes. Easy? No. Transformative? Absolutely. While your competitors chase vanity metrics... You're building something that scales infinitely: People who believe in the mission more than the paycheck.

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They couldn’t even spell ARR.   Then they sold for $500M.   Before Levelset became Procore’s biggest acquisition… ‣ They were sending bubble mailers with letter openers ‣ The founder wrote 100s of blog posts on lien law before a product existed ‣ Their early pricing strategy? "Ask what they pay now — beat it by $1"   No fluff. No “stealth mode.”   Just relentless execution.   This week’s Bricks & Bytes Bulletin unpacks the real sales playbook (courtesy of Martin Roth) that took Levelset from $0 to $500M: ‣ The Dream 100 system that closed $100K+ deals in under 14 months ‣ How they scaled with reps who knew nothing about construction ‣ Why “help first” was their unfair advantage ‣ What to do when you hit the dreaded $3-5M ARR stall   Get the full breakdown. Join over 1,600 founders, construction-techies and investors by signing up to our newsletter   Link in comments.

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Predevelopment costs are often the biggest obstacle for a new developer getting started. The process of getting a site approved and built-ready often costs $200k - $1M +. That is “at risk” capital that you don’t get back if the project doesn’t start. Fortunately, if you get the project moving, you can recoup those costs through the construction loan. But if you don’t, you are on the hook. Proceed carefully. You’ll incur architecture, engineering, environmental, legal and city submittal fees at a minimum. On many project there are many more. Experience to navigating the process and not spending money at the wrong times is crucial.

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 Construction is hard enough without slow draw approvals and clunky inspections grinding everything to a halt. It’s a broken process—lenders wait on delayed reports, borrowers burn cash while projects stall.   Everyone loses.   One of Hamilton Ventures portfolio companies, Sitewire, is tackling this head-on.   They’ve built a platform for same-day virtual inspections, real-time budget tracking, and automated draw approvals—tools that help keep capital flowing.   What’s that look like in the wild? (+) Funding in under 24 hours (+) 90% lower inspection costs (+) 1.5X revenue growth for lenders   When you remove the bottlenecks, everyone moves faster—with less risk and fewer surprises.   If you're in construction lending (or navigating it), worth a look: https://www.sitewire.co/   #hamiltonventures #ConstructionTech #PropTech #Lending #RealEstateInnovation

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$20,000 checks can hold-up a $20,000,000 project. • I’ve seen developers lose financing, • I’ve seen developers delay closings, • I’ve seen developers get replaced. Simply because they neglected to collect lien releases from subs and vendors (as well as the GC). Here’s how it usually happens: • The GC gets paid. • But the sub doesn’t. • Or the supplier doesn’t. • The sub/supplier wants to get paid. • And now there’s a lien on your project. Even if you did nothing wrong, title is now clouded. • You can’t sell. • You can’t refinance. • You can’t draw on your loan. And the lender starts asking questions. That’s why we have a strict rule: No payment without all lien releases. And not just one kind—both: • Conditional lien waiver: submitted before the payment clears. • Unconditional lien waiver: submitted after the funds hit. It’s basic risk management. But I’m shocked how many operators skip it. And don’t verify supplier waivers downstream. The standard you set for lien releases says everything about your readiness. If you’re trusting a handshake over paper, you’re betting your project on luck. And that’s not a strategy worth investing in. P.S. What’s your protocol for lien release tracking? Curious how others handle this.

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I feel like I shouldn’t say this out loud, but most products fail because the founder refused to sell it. Over the past year I’ve met a ton of founders just getting started. Roughly the same pattern every time... - They show me the product. - Talk through the roadmap. - Explain what they’re building next. And I keep saying the same thing: “Before you keep building, just cold call some people. Cold email them. See what they say.” Very few actually do it. Instead they go back to polishing. Tweaking flows. Adding features. Working on the part that feels productive and safe. Where you're "heads down building" Obviously, selling is uncomfortable. Cold outreach is embarrassing. Demos fall flat. Follow-ups get ignored. You have to explain the same thing over and over until someone finally gets it. Building is easy. No one ever tells you you're wrong! Selling feels exposing. But only one of those makes revenue go up!! I’ve watched technically solid products die quietly because the founder stayed in the comfortable work. And I’ve watched messier products survive because someone was willing to keep selling them anyway. Founders don't like admitting this because this means failure was their own doing. It’s easier to hide in the product than to risk hearing no. But comfort doesn’t move numbers. Personally, I think you should be getting told no daily if you're really trying to put up sales. #founders #startups #saas #proptech #vcs #multifamily

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“We just grew our MRR by 60%” “I expect to hit $3 million in ARR by year-end” “I have to hire 3 more engineers next month to keep up with demand” ^ soundbites I heard at a Soho House event when I was a founder by other founders. Coincidentally, all guys. The only other female founders there listened politely, pretending to sound impressed. Because as soon as we asked about actual performance? 90% of those guys had less ARR than we did. The lesson here? Ladies, we need to be puffing our chests as much (or at least half as much) as our male counterparts. Whether you're starting a business, running a team, raising money, etc. It may feel strange at first, but look and listen: they’re getting attention from prospects, VCs, other industry leaders. You don’t have to lie. You just have to talk about projections. And you may have to pretend to be more confident than you feel. The good news is that the more you pretend, the more you believe it, and the more you become.

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