From Construction Chaos to Code: Kurt Shank on Building Smart Builder 360 from the Ground Up

Kurt Shank (00:02.872) Quinton? How are you? Quinton Comino (00:03.737) Hey Kurt. I'm doing very well. How are you? We're at Custom Homes. I like that. Very nice metal looking it appears to be. And I like the shadow that it casts. Kurt Shank (00:07.49) I'm doing great. Great, great. Yeah. Kurt Shank (00:16.248) Yep. Yep. Kurt Shank (00:21.006) Yeah, it's pretty cool. We had it in of our houses. I thought, I'm going to bring it back, put it in my office. Quinton Comino (00:25.913) Yeah, that's good. is that look you you guys were builders before you did smart builder 360. Yeah. Kurt Shank (00:33.516) Yeah, actually we're still builders. So yeah, yeah, we still do. We still do both and I love it. I love it. Quinton Comino (00:35.249) Okay, I haven't been adding as much. You got that in the background. Quinton Comino (00:43.773) That's great, man. So we can cover kind of both of those topics in this conversation. Just to give you an overview of this podcast and the idea behind it. The idea behind it is pretty simple, just to get information out there to customers who are interested. We post this on Home Nation. kind of run things, the company, my father founded Home Nation. We're a dealer of mobile homes and we do some new construction as well. Not custom stuff though, really. Kurt Shank (00:47.798) Sure. Quinton Comino (01:10.469) really simple products, entry level housing. And we post this podcast on our website and customers love to see it. They, have customers of all sorts, investors, developers, builders, everyday customers. So anything that has to do with contractors, anything that has to do with builders, just the people in the business, innovators, software companies, they're interested in that. And then additionally, this does well for Facebook, excuse me, for Google. Kurt Shank (01:30.798) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (01:39.218) We post it on all our socials because Google likes to see just regular content that's human generated, particularly in the age of AI. It just makes a big difference. So it'll be beneficial for us. It'll be beneficial for you to have that. And when everything's done, we post it to our socials and we can send it all to you. And it's just positive. Kurt Shank (01:47.488) Yeah. Kurt Shank (02:03.169) So where are you guys located, Quintin? Quinton Comino (02:05.271) I'm here in Cocoa, Florida, so east of Orlando. And you're not too far away, are you? Kurt Shank (02:07.871) OK, great. Kurt Shank (02:11.821) Central Ohio, right near Canton. OK. Quinton Comino (02:14.277) Yeah, well, we have a location in Ohio and in Indiana. We actually started in northern Indiana. So you're actually close to us. Maybe not me physically, to our location there. That's good. Do you have a website for Aurora Custom Homes? Kurt Shank (02:27.863) Great. Kurt Shank (02:34.247) Yep, roracustomhomes.com Quinton Comino (02:37.157) Well, that makes sense. That makes sense. I'm pulling it up. I'm just curious to see. Nice. I love it. Canton, Ohio. Yeah. Is it Akron, Ohio? Kurt Shank (02:59.654) Yeah, we're about 20 minutes away. Quinton Comino (03:02.767) Yeah, I drove there one time to pick up supplies from a supplier for one of our homes. And now we needed stuff right away. I'm like, I'm going to drive all way out there. Kurt Shank (03:11.437) Isn't that great? The day in the life of a builder. We do it all. Quinton Comino (03:18.305) Yeah, seriously. I did not want to have to do that. And I'll tell you what, there was nothing between, you know, the Indiana, Ohio border and Akron. just, just fields. Yeah. Well, great. So I will do a, I'll do an intro apart from this. Okay. And then when, when we end and say goodbye, it'll be kind of a mock ending. Don't hang up. We'll chat a little bit more then I'll recap things. and then we'll formally end it. So that'll be a mock. if there's anything that you are like, Hey, can we redo that? Kurt Shank (03:21.12) You Kurt Shank (03:25.773) It just failed. Kurt Shank (03:33.174) Okay. Quinton Comino (03:47.76) That's fine in post editing. can cut some things out or edit however needed. So don't worry about that. I'll have some questions for you. Typically how I like to start. If you just introduce who you are and the company that you're with, you might mention both companies and just kind of explain, Hey, here's what we do. Here's how this all started. And then I'll have some questions for you. Is that all right? Yeah. So whenever you're ready, Hey, Kurt Schenck, da da da da. Kurt Shank (03:51.972) Sure. Kurt Shank (04:03.116) Sure. Kurt Shank (04:09.217) Sure. Kurt Shank (04:15.089) Hey, my name is Kurt Schenck. I'm the owner of Aurora Custom Homes and Smart Builder 360. We build custom homes here in central Ohio and I also have a construction organizational software. Quinton Comino (04:22.075) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (04:31.811) Okay. And so you started Aurora Custom Homes long before Smart Builder 360? Kurt Shank (04:37.997) I actually started doing this back in 1990 and shortly after I got started I was in very difficult times because I didn't have the experience and so I started a version of Smart Builder 360. Quinton Comino (04:42.075) Yeah. Quinton Comino (04:53.136) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (04:57.445) Now 1990 you start as a contractor doing custom homes in Ohio, right? So you've been doing this 35 years pretty well. So you know what you're doing. You started the software company, how many years after? Kurt Shank (05:04.545) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (05:10.829) Probably one to two after I was just so young and making all these mistakes and I needed something and I knew I knew how to write some code and So I I made my first version of smart builder 360 and it's great. I was using it. I still use it to this day for our company and Yeah, it was it was very challenging times Quinton Comino (05:16.335) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (05:21.478) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (05:26.447) Quinton Comino (05:31.962) Quinton Comino (05:36.09) Yeah. So, I want get to that very challenging times, but it's so interesting because 1990, right? A couple of years later, there are not a lot of software companies. It's just very new. There was not a lot of, you couldn't probably go and find a software for builders. Probably that's why you built it. And so, yeah, I was curious, like, how did you find someone to build a software for a custom home builder in the 90s? Kurt Shank (05:43.245) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (05:54.953) No. Yeah. Kurt Shank (06:04.139) I did it myself. Quinton Comino (06:05.244) Yeah, yeah. How'd you learn to code? Kurt Shank (06:07.974) College college. Yep. Yeah Quinton Comino (06:09.039) Yeah, OK. So you would have been an early adapter of that by today's standards. Kurt Shank (06:12.958) Yeah. Yeah, was very crude in some aspects, but it got polished up through time. But as time developed, so did the software. Quinton Comino (06:18.834) huh. Quinton Comino (06:22.725) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (06:28.433) What code did you write it in? Okay. And is that held pretty strong throughout the years? Kurt Shank (06:30.637) C plus Kurt Shank (06:35.341) No, no, we actually it's it's changed now I actually have a colleague that's a actually another builder and He approached me about rewriting it and in react in Linux and so that's we we I got a partner I got some great ideas with him and we decided to Rewrite it with react and I have I have a programmer now Quinton Comino (06:45.37) Uh-huh. Quinton Comino (06:50.829) Yes. Yep. Quinton Comino (07:03.181) Okay. Yeah, yeah. So you, so have you, has it been rewritten in React? Wow. That's okay. Yeah, that's pretty ahead of, because React's kind of, it's a very popular code now a lot. And so you were, you were kind of ahead of that then to... Kurt Shank (07:03.99) It's much above my pay grade. Kurt Shank (07:09.875) Yes, yes, yes, for about four years now. Kurt Shank (07:17.783) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (07:21.645) I saw the shortcomings where I knew that in order to scale this larger, getting my new partner and friend, we said we're going to have to do this right. And so we jumped in. And it's been great. It really has been. Quinton Comino (07:24.783) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (07:30.416) Yeah. Yeah. Quinton Comino (07:37.605) That's so cool. I love that. it is a software by builders for builders. Kurt Shank (07:45.657) Absolutely. And that's the thing that over 35 years, obviously, I don't have everything figured out, but I have been around the block a few times. And we have seen, you know, I've seen all the other guys out there, all the other players in the software market, and they're fine and don't have anything bad to say about them. But I'm a builder. I know what the challenge is, what my colleagues go through. And we call it noise. And a lot of these other programs have a lot of noise. We stripped all that down. We made it. Quinton Comino (07:52.337) Hehehehe Quinton Comino (08:05.423) Yeah. Yeah. and Kurt Shank (08:15.404) Simple to use. There's practically no learning curve, Quentin. Builders see it, and they're like, this is so easy, I can do it. I said, I know. Quinton Comino (08:20.208) Yeah. Quinton Comino (08:26.328) So you've been selling it for some time, right? was in the 2000s, sounds like. Kurt Shank (08:30.428) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. More regionally, but now since we've scaled it, we're everywhere. We're everywhere now. And so go ahead. Quinton Comino (08:42.265) Yeah. So do you anticipate being more of a software company in the future or, we still build homes and because it sounds like the software has been kind of for your use and then as sales sort of a thing on the side. Do you ever anticipate shifting? Kurt Shank (08:48.044) I do. do. have a son that works with me in the construction business. And at some point, maybe he'll take the reins and I can concentrate more on the software. Quinton Comino (09:01.285) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (09:08.145) Yeah, because I mean, mean, you custom home builder, I'm sure it's great, great margins. You you've been in the business so long, I'm sure you got plenty of business. But as a, you know, software as a service, those types of companies have the biggest margins historically. And it's just, but, but the trade-off is there are not going to be as many players. You know, you'll have the few top companies servicing. Kurt Shank (09:24.331) Yeah. Quinton Comino (09:33.965) everybody, whereas custom home builders, you know, you'll be a different custom home builder in the county next door, you know? So it just depends on kind of what you want to focus on. Pick your battles. Kurt Shank (09:34.892) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (09:39.853) Exactly, Right. Yeah. I love construction. Obviously, I've been doing it for 35 years. But I also like the challenge of what Smart Builder 360. It's new. It's exciting. And I know that I've been around, rounding third, coming home. It's nice that I can talk to younger builders and kind of mentor them. Quinton Comino (09:51.473) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (09:57.71) Mm. Quinton Comino (10:04.12) Hehehe Yeah. Kurt Shank (10:08.916) and share my experiences and maybe make their journey a little bit easier than what mine was. Quinton Comino (10:14.319) Yeah, you said you had you said it was pretty tough there at the beginning. Very trying. Kurt Shank (10:17.548) Yes, yeah, very trying. after I graduated college, I went into the family business. It was a different construction company. And my father, actually, we had a mortgage company and we had a construction company. And so I worked a lot of the mortgage company right after graduation, but my father passed away. So I transitioned. Quinton Comino (10:27.088) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (10:36.017) well. Quinton Comino (10:42.031) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (10:45.649) Mmm. Kurt Shank (10:46.656) solely into the construction company. And I was probably 24, 25 years old. And I had no idea what I was doing. And it was tough. It was tough. Quinton Comino (10:48.529) Mm. Well... Quinton Comino (10:55.054) my goodness. Quinton Comino (10:59.109) Yeah. Wow. And you were, you, you were running things. Kurt Shank (11:04.285) I was 100 % running things and didn't have my mentor there who I thought would be around forever and retire at some point, but it all came very abrupt. So. Quinton Comino (11:06.81) Wow. Quinton Comino (11:10.415) Mm-hmm. Wow. Quinton Comino (11:17.903) Wow. Why did you step up to that instead of saying, we're not doing this? Kurt Shank (11:26.028) You know, I knew that I always wanted to be in the construction and my father actually encouraged me to go out and work for somebody else first. I didn't want to. Quinton Comino (11:34.299) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (11:36.31) So this is kind of like, okay, this is what I know what I can do. I just have to, it was sink or swim and I had to survive. Quinton Comino (11:40.454) Yeah. Yeah. Wow. How many employees did you have at that point? Kurt Shank (11:48.684) Three. Myself, my dad, and one other person. That was it. And so now was down to two. Quinton Comino (11:50.277) Yeah. Yes, yeah, and you were probably in the field as much as in the office. Kurt Shank (11:59.501) Oh, I was. And that's a story in itself because I didn't know what I was doing in the field. Quinton Comino (12:01.713) Yeah. Yeah, good point. You'd only know how to do so much at such a young age. Wow. Kurt Shank (12:11.417) No, yeah. So I was around it always growing up, going to the job sites with my dad. But now fully being in charge of the job sites, making sure this house or this project was going to be complete on time, it was trial by fire. It was. Quinton Comino (12:26.457) Hmm. Wow. I'm so sorry, man. That would be such a stressful time. That would be extremely stressful. You know, I had not quite exactly the same, but somewhat similar. I moved here to Florida. My father owns this business and we started building. We started, you know, with mobile homes, installing them, pulling the permits, doing the septic, doing the well, driveway, all that stuff. Right. Kurt Shank (12:32.54) It was, yeah. Yeah. Kurt Shank (12:52.607) Mm-hmm Quinton Comino (12:54.735) And I had a mentor, his name was Al and he was a Vietnam vet. He was a great guy. Call him big Al. was like early seventies, six one 250 pounds like Al, gotta watch your weight. Anyway, he did pass away suddenly and I was very green, very fresh. Like I didn't know my left hand from my right. I, and he passed away and then all of a sudden, boom, I have all of these jobs to do. Kurt Shank (13:00.94) you Kurt Shank (13:16.265) Right. Quinton Comino (13:21.585) Some of them starting, some of them in the middle, some of them finishing, some of them servicing after the fact. And I didn't even know how to pull a permit. No idea. And it's in Florida too, where Florida permits are a little, you know, they're not as easy compared to some other states. I'm not exactly sure how it is where you're at, but you got to have all sorts of paperwork. And like, I remember going to the building department and speaking with a lady there and I was young, right? I was in my early twenties and I was maybe 21. And she was older and she goes, and she gave me, I tried to submit this permit and I did it wrong. And she, she just spoke really sternly with me, not rude or anything, but she's like, don't come back here until you fill out, da da da da. Like do not come back here until you get this right. And I was like, yes, ma'am, I got it. Like, okay. And so I, and I did what she said and I came back with it filled out and it was, it was so sweet. She's like, I have grandchildren. So I know, I kind of know how to talk to da da da to, you know, to tell you what to do. And I was like, Kurt Shank (14:02.873) Ha ha ha. Quinton Comino (14:20.463) I thought it was funny. Like she was so much older. I was so much younger. She didn't say, I have kids. She's like, I have grandkids your age. So I know how to communicate. but it was tough, man. I remember I would just kind of stare at the wall sometimes cause I'd be so overwhelmed. Kurt Shank (14:27.379) Yeah. You probably thought to yourself like am I doing, what am I doing? know, am I doing, should I even be doing this? Quinton Comino (14:41.99) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I didn't know what I didn't know. So I made plenty of mistakes. My phone was blowing up constantly. had no structure to my day because I couldn't. I didn't know how to get my hands around it. I had no control of the reins. And I was just so overwhelmed. didn't, as much as I loved my father, he had other things that he needed to focus on. So I couldn't even go to him necessarily. Kurt Shank (14:51.983) Yeah. Kurt Shank (15:08.587) All right. Quinton Comino (15:13.241) Yeah, so was very difficult. Kurt Shank (15:15.711) Yeah. Quinton Comino (15:16.401) wouldn't really want to do it again. It learned a lot, paid off in that sense. So I imagine you had a much more intense experience because custom homes is a lot more detail. Kurt Shank (15:24.171) Yeah, it did. Kurt Shank (15:32.98) Yeah It was challenging not only from that, but from a personal level. I had already lost my mom when I was 15. and then taking over the business, I had to also navigate my siblings. have two siblings, a brother and sister, and their families, and how my father's estate was going to be broken up. The companies, and they really didn't, they weren't in the construction industry. Quinton Comino (15:44.035) Well... Quinton Comino (15:53.445) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (15:59.331) Yeah. Kurt Shank (16:05.568) They didn't want to be, and rightfully so, because I lack experience and knowledge. So I ended up having to buy them out. So I was cash strapped for a while. And so I had that thrown at me too. And it was interesting. Quinton Comino (16:07.761) Mmm. Yeah. Quinton Comino (16:15.813) Mmm. Quinton Comino (16:19.247) Yeah, you would have, yeah. Quinton Comino (16:25.711) Wow, have you been able to maintain those relationships with your siblings? Okay. Kurt Shank (16:28.363) yeah, yeah, everything was great. mean, everything's great. It's just that's not their thing. My brother likes golf and at the time he was golfing a lot and he was doing that thing and my sister had her own business down in Columbus. So yeah, it was all good. It was all good. Quinton Comino (16:46.064) Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you stuck with it. That's good because it be challenging. People want different portions of the pie and maybe they don't understand the complexity involved with it. And suddenly you have to make really big decisions and you don't have really any at the mentor that you thought you would have. Did the other employee stick with the business? Kurt Shank (16:54.993) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (17:01.406) Yeah. Kurt Shank (17:09.899) Well, the other employee, actually worked our, she kind of was an administrative lady that worked with our mortgage company a lot and did some clerical work. it, I actually ended up selling that mortgage company at one point. And so she actually left and stayed with the mortgage company. Quinton Comino (17:19.813) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (17:25.777) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (17:30.681) Yeah. Okay, okay. Do you... Okay, this seems like a pretty good pairing to have a construction company and a mortgage company. Was that a good decision to sell it? Kurt Shank (17:38.315) Yeah. As I look back now, yeah, because mortgage companies and financial institutions took a hit in 2007 and 2008. and unfortunately, that company didn't survive. So they lost, yeah. Quinton Comino (17:48.6) Yeah, that's true. Quinton Comino (17:53.709) No way. Yeah. How did you do during that time period? Kurt Shank (17:59.54) it's funny you say that. Well, we decided to finance the homes ourselves because we couldn't get construction loans. So we would actually spec the home, take a large down payment for people, and then they could go out and get permanent financing. So we'd have to front the money. It was a gamble. It was a gamble, but we did it. Quinton Comino (18:11.684) Yeah. Quinton Comino (18:20.905) man. man. That is such a gamble. my goodness. Okay, I'm really interested in that. So you couldn't get construction loans. Is that because that product didn't exist at the time or is a different reason? Kurt Shank (18:28.181) Yeah. Kurt Shank (18:33.777) Mm-mm. Banks the banks that pulled their pulled their wings in they didn't want to deal with builders and offer construction loans in our area So I thought well, I've got some money saved up. Let's let's spec some houses like too crazy, but we spec'd a few houses and and then people came in and I said, you know, I'll tell you what we'll take a huge down payment and We survived made money Quinton Comino (18:41.585) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (19:00.849) So was that now this was around the 08, know, in post 08 was that time frame. So you were getting loans before then and then things tightened up. Okay. Wow. That is crazy because that is you could, mean, it only takes a couple jobs and you're over a million dollars, you know, like it does. Kurt Shank (19:04.349) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kurt Shank (19:14.266) you Kurt Shank (19:19.817) Right, right. And it could have taken me down. And as I look back, I'm thinking, would today's Kurt really do that? I'm not sure I would have. I'm not sure I would have. Yeah, well, it was. Yeah, because we lost so many builders in that time frame. And when the market rebounded, my phone was slamming. It was great. Quinton Comino (19:28.782) Yeah, yeah really was the payoff worth it yeah Mm-hmm. Yeah. Quinton Comino (19:46.219) I bet man. Yeah, I bet because you were still in the business and it basically if you well what would have happened if you did not fund these yourself? Kurt Shank (19:53.759) We wouldn't have had business. Would. They weren't there? Yeah. Quinton Comino (19:55.162) Yeah, because the lenders were just they just weren't there. my goodness. Were there were there other construction companies doing the same thing as you? Kurt Shank (20:03.871) There was one that I was aware of. that guy, we kind of shifted markets. And we came to a different market over here towards the Canton, Ohio area. And there was an older established builder. And I kind of became friends with him. And he feed me some land occasionally and so forth to develop. And long story short, he did the same thing as I did. Quinton Comino (20:06.272) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (20:21.659) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (20:30.263) Yeah. that is so we have gotten ourselves in some situations doing similar things where, you know, how do you secure your position in that instance? Kurt Shank (20:45.454) I took a large down payment and at the time was $30,000 or $25,000 and hoping that they wouldn't walk away. Quinton Comino (20:48.239) Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Quinton Comino (20:55.631) Yeah, because they have skin in the game. That seems to be the biggest because I was actually talking about this with our finance manager the other day. I'm like, well, how do we limit our exposure on some of these deals? Because we'll fund certain things before the loan will fund and we have a of a dollar value to it. But in some cases, the customer doesn't have much skin in the game. And if they wanted to be difficult, they could where it's like, hey, I don't like that. This door is not level. Kurt Shank (20:57.471) Yeah. Kurt Shank (21:11.348) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (21:24.719) Therefore, I'm not going to close this out. And we've had that happen on some occasions and like, you know, we want to make it right. and so we always take care of it, whether it's before or after all the details are finalized with the funding. So we always do take care of it, but customers don't know that. And, know, just customers are customers and sometimes it's challenging. So my, my answer, aside from owning the land, right. And then selling it back to them after building it would. Kurt Shank (21:38.024) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (21:54.278) would be because if you put a mortgage on the property, you'll run into complications with the lender. So the only other answer I can think of is taking a sizable deposit. Kurt Shank (21:59.048) Right. Kurt Shank (22:04.042) That's it. That's it. Quinton Comino (22:05.771) And it's not exactly the answer that I want, but it seems to be. Kurt Shank (22:09.77) It's not the best answer, but it seemed at the time, it seemed like, okay, we can make this work. But as I look back, I shake my head. Yeah. Quinton Comino (22:17.263) Yeah. Quinton Comino (22:20.805) Yeah, that's crazy. So you started Smart Builder 360 around the time that you were going through figuring things out and you would have been hitting roadblocks in certain areas. Then you decided if I do software for this, this is going to solve a lot for me. Kurt Shank (22:29.18) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kurt Shank (22:38.954) Absolutely. and that kind of started because my dad was, he was old school. He was yellow pad and paper and no computers. And I remember asking him, I say, hey, how much do we make on this house? Well, I think we made X number of dollars here. I said, what do we know? And this was before QuickBooks as well. So I was like, man, we need a better way to keep customer selections in order. Quinton Comino (22:45.155) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (22:53.489) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (22:59.611) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (23:06.043) Yeah. Kurt Shank (23:08.938) project estimating. And I thought, well, I can do this. So that's how it started. Quinton Comino (23:14.331) That's, you have to be quite the visionary to recognize that. Cause it's not like you had all of these examples of companies doing the same sorts of things in different industries or anything like that. So that's, that's a lot of foresight for what's to come. Kurt Shank (23:17.053) Yeah. Kurt Shank (23:22.12) No. Kurt Shank (23:29.258) Yeah. as long as I've had it, and I've seen some of the other players out there, and I've used some of the other players, they're much, much different than mine. Even though they say it's all the same thing, they're not. I have certain features they don't even come close to. And I can't believe it. yeah. We have a weak. Quinton Comino (23:42.097) Mm. Quinton Comino (23:45.541) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (23:50.115) yeah. Hmm. What's an example? Kurt Shank (23:58.101) We can create a customizable specifications booklet or your scope of work. And it's detailed. If you want it to be 300 pages long, you can. Some of these other guys, they give you a little paragraph just to put how you're going to build the house. And the way that our spec book is generated, we call it a questionnaire. And once you answer this questionnaire, it creates this spec book in the background. Quinton Comino (24:07.299) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (24:22.0) Yeah. Kurt Shank (24:27.614) that is automatically sent out to all your trades, to your customer. It's so unique. It's the game changer, I think. It really is. Quinton Comino (24:36.017) Hmm. Yeah, was gonna say, yeah, what really sets Smart Builder 360 apart from these other, because there plenty of other builder software companies, plenty of them. Kurt Shank (24:45.934) sure, That in itself is worth its ticket to the admission. The software itself is super easy to use. There's practically no learning curve. When I get in front of builders, I share the stories. They're war stories, so to speak. They tell me all theirs. I can relate. I know what they've been through. And when I show them this, it's Quinton Comino (24:52.529) Mm. Quinton Comino (24:57.883) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (25:07.834) Mmm. Kurt Shank (25:14.77) It's great because they say, well, I've used this software, that software, and it's so complicated. And I said, well, they weren't built by builders. They don't understand. They don't understand what you need. I do. Quinton Comino (25:16.655) Yeah. Quinton Comino (25:20.911) Yeah. Quinton Comino (25:25.337) Yeah, that... Yeah, I love... It seems like simplicity is very important. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kurt Shank (25:31.498) Oh, yeah, 100%. Because when I get around some of the builders, if they're the middle-aged builder to older builder, they don't like technology at all. And they're like, I don't have time for it. I don't want to lose. So show my office person this or that. So I get that. I get that. But the younger generation, they like tech. So they want to have all those bells and whistles. And we do have bells and whistles, but we just don't make it difficult to operate. Quinton Comino (25:48.336) Yeah. Quinton Comino (25:53.382) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (26:01.105) Yeah, I mean there does come a point where the bells and whistles are they get in the way they're not necessary. It's just I like simplicity. mean, come on, think of Apple. Simple. You want to keep things simple. That's what made them what they are today. Simplicity. Kurt Shank (26:06.975) Yep. Kurt Shank (26:13.033) Yeah. It's funny you say that because I have been a Mac guy my whole life. And I remember getting my first Mac in the 80s. And I've always liked that whole simplicity thing. And maybe that's where subconsciously that's where I got that from. Who knows? But I love it. I love it. Quinton Comino (26:22.906) Yeah. Quinton Comino (26:36.305) Yeah, and even in, see, so my brother writes code for our company and we're actually redoing the website as well in I think like Node.js, React and Node and just trying to make it a little more future-proof. Kurt Shank (26:47.783) Yeah, yeah. Quinton Comino (26:52.323) because it's currently in PHP. So just redoing some things there. And he is all about simple code and like where anybody can read it and understand it. And you don't use a bunch of complicated ways to do things, really simple, clean code. That's what he's all about. So, and then that, and so, like that, I, that concept, it all the way down to this foundation, how Kurt Shank (26:59.908) Yeah Kurt Shank (27:09.673) and he's right Quinton Comino (27:20.67) Smart Builder 360 is even coded. Simplicity permeates through all that. So comes through on the user's end. Kurt Shank (27:26.169) yeah. I mean, you'll see it. mean, we gave you a, you could try it free for 30 days. And we've got a lot of, know, you can either buy it, purchase it monthly or annually. It's very straightforward. There's no, there's no hidden things. What's great too is when you have this, the software, we want you to use it. And so we, I help builders set it up. I almost help all the builders set it up. We give you templates. Quinton Comino (27:29.488) Yeah. Quinton Comino (27:32.778) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (27:37.456) Yeah. Yeah, I that. Quinton Comino (27:47.206) Mm-hmm. Kurt Shank (27:53.831) that are my templates that we use that you can customize. But in the unlikely event that you don't like it, you can cancel Smart Builder on your own. You don't need to call me because I hate those subscription-based things where you can't, they keep transferring you. Quinton Comino (27:56.955) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (28:03.08) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Call them. Exactly. Send it in, write it out and sign it. Like, dude, I'm not trying to. Simplicity. I like that. So, all right. So you've got this partner that has joined the picture with smart builder 360. Sounds like recently in the past few years, four years or so, is that right? Kurt Shank (28:11.271) Yeah. Yeah. People don't like that. Kurt Shank (28:26.601) He's actually, like I said, he's a builder. I could call him a friendly competitor. But we actually became friends many, many years ago. And we have some businesses together. And this was a natural progression. It's easy. He's a great partner. love his. He thinks things very similar to me, but yet different. So that's great for Smart Builder, because we can get two different sets of eyes on things. And it's been great. Quinton Comino (28:32.049) huh. Quinton Comino (28:44.602) Mm. and Quinton Comino (28:54.415) Hmm. Yeah, so I'm curious, what is it that he brings to the table that, what made you decide this is a good partner to bring into this company that I've already been doing for a couple of decades? Kurt Shank (29:06.505) It's just a different set of eyes. Sometimes you stand too close to the trees to see the forest. And I wanted a different take on things. Quinton Comino (29:08.966) Yeah. Quinton Comino (29:13.167) Yeah. That's good. So what do you see changing with Smart Builder 360? Kurt Shank (29:25.097) It's adapting. I'll tell you, Quinton, it's adapting because we have a little... checklist that we have, we give people say, do want to see as far as improvements and stuff like this? And if I keep saying the same thing, I get together with my partner, I say, maybe we should either rewrite this section here and adapt it or add this, I don't want to call it a module, but add this feature to it. So we're always adapting. And that's what I love about it. Quinton Comino (29:36.049) Mm. Quinton Comino (29:40.528) Yes. Quinton Comino (29:56.72) Yeah. So adapting, do you see growth for smart builder in the future? Kurt Shank (30:02.78) As far as what way? Quinton Comino (30:04.177) Getting more people signed up. You said it was regional to start with and now you're moving outside of that. Kurt Shank (30:09.703) Well, yes. So yeah, regional was more of the earlier days. And so when we rewrote it, now we're everywhere, because it's subscription-based and it's backed up on AWS. And so the Quinton Comino (30:15.439) Yeah. Quinton Comino (30:22.01) Yes. Kurt Shank (30:26.377) The idea of it growing, yes. We want to grow it big, big, big. Quinton Comino (30:30.555) So how do you do that? Kurt Shank (30:34.149) Well, what we're doing right now, we're getting on these podcasts, getting our name out. We go to trade shows. We were down in Atlanta recently at a trade show. And I go to the local HBAs, BIAs. We beat the path. And we call people all the time. have people that call. I call. I try to call people, a couple of builders, a week just to get it out there. Quinton Comino (30:37.817) Yeah, Yeah. Quinton Comino (30:48.901) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (30:54.448) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (30:59.717) Yeah. Quinton Comino (31:03.099) Do, would you anticipate coming down to IBS in February? Kurt Shank (31:08.489) Probably not yet. That's a big jump right there. And the financial outlet at that show is huge. The more the regional ones are actually have been great. They give us the same feel as IBS, just a little bit more intimate. And I still get the glad hand, talk to people, share the stories. Yeah, that's great. Quinton Comino (31:12.59) Yeah. Quinton Comino (31:16.658) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (31:21.402) Really? Quinton Comino (31:24.815) Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Quinton Comino (31:32.272) Yeah, and if it works for you for where you're at, that's great. Yeah, so it's going to be in Orlando in 2026, which it hasn't been for however long. And then I think it'll permanently be in Vegas from then on. Kurt Shank (31:36.071) Yeah. Someday, yes. We'd love to be there to answer that question. Kurt Shank (31:44.958) Correct. Kurt Shank (31:50.897) Yeah, yep. Quinton Comino (31:53.682) Do you have a path for how you want to grow or is it just like, let's see how this goes organically and we'll figure it out from there because I've got custom homes to build in the meantime. Kurt Shank (32:03.849) Well, we have a path of, you we have our goals where we want to be and so we're trying to achieve those. we feel that, you know, social media is going to be, huge. We see it. I mean, I see the competitors out there with their reels and all that good stuff. So we know we have to do that and we are doing that. We're just getting there. Quinton Comino (32:11.621) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (32:16.357) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (32:25.381) Mm-hmm. It's a lot. You'll have to have a team behind you sooner than later to do all that sort of stuff because if you try to do it all yourself, calling people, setting them up, helping them with questions they have, managing social media, mean, you just, yeah, it's going to be a lot. Kurt Shank (32:32.418) We do. Kurt Shank (32:40.365) Yeah. Kurt Shank (32:44.304) It is a lot. Quinton Comino (32:46.319) You to be passionate about what you're doing. Otherwise you'd be like, all right, that's it, I'm done. I'm not calling another person. I bet your phone is pretty busy. So you don't have a partner with Aurora Custom Homes, do you? It's just you. Will you ever sell that? Kurt Shank (32:53.884) Yeah. It rings a lot. Kurt Shank (33:01.676) No. Just me. Kurt Shank (33:07.152) all the company sure sure i'm not attached to anything Quinton Comino (33:08.155) Yeah. Quinton Comino (33:12.465) You mentioned, well, cause the reason I asked you mentioned you have your son and it's like, you know, what is, what's the future? Is the future going to be building the custom homes or is the future going to be building the software? Kurt Shank (33:25.256) I in my vision I would like to I'd like to have my son slide up into my position and then I can concentrate a little bit more on smart builder 360 Quinton Comino (33:33.627) Mm-hmm. Quinton Comino (33:37.892) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would be great. Yeah. It's similar sort of thing with my father where I took over kind of the main business so that he could work on some idea visionary stuff that has way more potential than what we're doing. Now that what we're doing doesn't have potential, it's just, hey, this is a bigger vision and he's the visionary to go kind of, he's a mover and shaker for it. Kurt Shank (33:40.796) That would be great. Kurt Shank (33:48.114) Right. Kurt Shank (33:56.093) Yeah. Kurt Shank (33:59.88) I think that was very well stated. That's kind of exactly where I hope to see things. Quinton Comino (34:02.299) Yeah. Quinton Comino (34:05.605) Yeah. Well, that's fantastic. Kurt, I appreciate it. I appreciate your time today. This has been great to hear the journey. You're a very experienced builder, so I can imagine that Smart Builder 360 accomplishes pretty much anything that anyone would need. And it sounds like if it doesn't, you're there to ride it and say, okay, let's make that feature available. Yeah. So if anyone's listening, and they're interested, and any builders are listening, where should they head to? Kurt Shank (34:10.9) Absolutely. Kurt Shank (34:25.381) Yeah, that's right. We're here for them. Kurt Shank (34:35.942) Markbuilder360.com Try it out free for 30 days Shoot me an email call me I'm here Quinton Comino (34:38.191) Yep. Pretty straightforward. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Yeah. I see all your info is there. Kurt's ready. Thank you. Well, appreciate it, man. That's a good place to end. Thank you so much for your time today. I might check in with you sometime in the future to see like, all right. Is that smart builder 360 growing more? you heading to IBS in 2027? You know, I'd love to hear. Kurt Shank (34:48.84) You Kurt Shank (35:00.732) Yeah. Yeah. Never know. Sounds great. Thanks for having me. All right. We'll see you. Bye. Quinton Comino (35:04.943) Yeah, thanks Kurt. We'll see you. Bye.