Company broadened tech focus beyond construction lending software
Built Technologies was once primarily a construction-lending software provider. Things began changing around the time Bill Parker arrived as chief technology officer (CTO) two years ago as the company started broadening its digital focus.
“As I joined, we were pivoting to being a multi-product company and beginning to serve others in the capital stack [including] owners, general contractors and specialty contractors,” Parker (pictured) said. “That pivot required both a technological and mind shift change [toward] truly building a platform – no longer just a product.”
Parker’s initial mission as CTO was to guide the design and software construction of that platform, following a five-year vision outlined by Built Technologies founder and CEO Chase Gilbert. The idea was to create a full “ecosystem” with which to solve problems for clients.
Built still provides construction and real estate finance technology, but its platform has a much wider reach, connecting commercial and consumer construction lenders, property developers, commercial general contractors, residential homebuilders, specialty contractors, title companies and other critical industry vendors. The goal: to improve the flow of capital through the whole construction and real estate system.
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Built (based in Nashville, Tenn.) touts its platform as helping to mitigate risk, fuel faster draws and payments, ensure compliance and inspire customer loyalty by connecting key stakeholders in the financing process in real time. The platform, known as “Onward,” has allowed the company to transform, and it remains a work in progress, Parker said.
“Development of this platform has allowed us to enable more digital collaboration with other stakeholders,” he said. Those have included owners, general contractors, subcontractors and others.
The process of building the platform has been challenging, with a need to “think differently” and “think about things that don’t exist yet,” Parker said. Technologies also needed to be “reusable and scalable, not new apps for the job at hand,” he added.
Data trumps all; Tech plans
According to Parker, one of the most important technology areas that Built is focused on today is data.
“Ultimately it boils down to the data,” he said of the information gathered for the 175 or so financial institutions and hundreds of others in the contractor space that use Built’s platform today. “When you aggregate all of that we are positioned to be able to remove a lot of the information asymmetry that exists.”
Longer-term, however, Parker has his eye on other technologies he expects Built will develop and nurture in the coming years.
“There are certainly areas that need to grow quite a bit more,” he said. “If I look at the data space, there’s still so much to do in the advanced analytics area. I think about things like [machine learning] and AI. There are still areas that we plan to invest heavily in over the coming years.”
Prioritization
Parker is tasked with leading Built Technologies’ engineering, information security and infrastructure teams. He brings more than 20 years of fintech experience to the table and has helped to build, automate and scale one of the nation’s largest mortgage and consumer loan origination systems at Quicken Loans and its successor, Rocket Loans, where he was CEO for his final three years at the company.
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He is the main technology executive at Built, which listed 350 employees as of December 2021, doubled from the previous year. Of that list, Parker’s engineering team numbers 125.
As the company continues its rapid growth, Parker said he focuses on delivering for the business, Built’s stakeholders and his team. Key responsibilities include management and technology prioritization and recruiting and retaining top talent.
Hiring has been particularly important in an age where companies are competing fiercely to fill positions. Parker said finding top talent is of particular importance for him.
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“When you bring folks on that have the right experience and skills, you can traverse challenges that other companies can’t,” Parker said. “That’s why it is so important to make sure that you have people that are going to build things and stand the test of time and are going to build with a velocity that delivers for our stakeholders and delivers the outputs fast enough.”
One of the easiest parts of his job is motivating the technology team and “reminding them of the mission” when needed, Parker said.
“We’re short [in the US] about 5 million single family residences,” he said. “When you think about solving a problem that large, providing homes for that many families or at least assisting in the development of those homes, it’s pretty easy to motivate folks when you have a mission like that.”
