Mesh Quick Snaps - Alhadeff Group LLC

Who is the Alhadeff Group?

My name is Sam Alhadeff, and I own a small construction company called the Alhadeff Group. I guess for a little background, I went to the University of Washington and graduated in Construction Management. And, you know, everybody likes to build big, right? So, nobody wants to graduate and just go straight into homebuilding. So, I worked for a couple of larger general contractors out of college, then decided to move back to Seattle and started my own company about 16 years ago. And I haven't really looked back.

What did you do before Mesh?

So, before I started with Mesh, I was conducting an insurance audit at the end of every year. Along with that insurance audit, I would also audit all of my subcontractors and suppliers' licenses and bonds manually. I would gather all the paperwork sent to me and compile it in an Excel spreadsheet. Then, I would start emailing each of the subcontractors and suppliers from whom I didn't have that information. In addition to the insurance, I would ensure their license and bond were also up to date. This involved manually checking the L&I's website to verify their license status, as well as reviewing insurance certificates that I received either via email or as actual paper copies stored in my insurance file.

What does Mesh do for you?

Well, this is an important problem for me to solve because it's the law. I need to have subcontractors and suppliers that are all licensed and bonded. Instead of me going through the process four times a year and spending time making sure that each one has their license, has their bond, and everything is up to date, Mesh does it in almost real time. I am not bothered with anything except for when there's a problem

Which Mesh features do you find useful?

So, the most important feature to me is just that I don't need to worry about it. Everything is done in the background and I love the fact that I get one email when, again, something is going on with the license of XYZ contractor. So, I get one email saying ‘XYZ contractor's license is not valid today.’ And after it's resolved, I get one email saying, ‘Well, it looks like XYZ contractor fixed that problem. And now, they're legal and being monitored.’ I love that. I don't have to worry about it. It's something that's running in the background while I can go about my day, my week, or my month and I don't have to worry about it.

What has been your experience like with Mesh?

So my experience so far with Mesh has been truly seamless. I love the fact that they actually listen to new ideas. I will give you a quick example, you know, I sent out an email blast to let's just say 40 different companies, and I got responses back from, you know, a quarter of them at the beginning. And then I sent a second email out and then maybe three, four, or five signed up on Mesh after the second email. And I told the guys at Mesh, it certainly would be nice if I could do the work for them. If I could go through and sign each of these subcontractor and suppliers up for Mesh. And, you know, this was not something they offered in the beginning when I signed up and whatever they did, talk to legal, talk to this person, talk to that person... They got back to me in two weeks saying, okay if you just give us all the names of the contractors that you want to add onto your Mesh account, you know, maybe, it was names of contractors and license number and email or something like that, then they just did it all for me. So, I think that they're very receptive. You know, us being in the field or in the industry and actually doing this, you know, on a daily or quarterly or yearly or whatever basis. I kind of feel like we have real-world problems and possibly real-world solutions that we can come up with and oftentimes a company maybe would listen to it. Or maybe somebody, you know, you could email somebody a good idea, but it certainly seems like Mesh came through and actually fixed a problem that I was having.

How did you find Mesh?

So it's a funny story, how I found Mesh. I renewed my license, so rewind a little bit. I'm a verified contractor through Houzz.com, and Mesh verifies all of the contractors for Houzz. And I renewed my license and, you know, for whatever reason, labor and industries did not update all of the paperwork, or they didn't update the website as to the fact that I did renew my license and my bond and registration. And so, I got an email from Mesh saying, you know, unfortunately, your license is inactive. Long story short, we very quickly figured that out through labor and industries, and at the same time, or maybe it was a month or two later, I was going through a random audit with L&I, and one of the subcontractors that I used, unfortunately, was not licensed and bonded for a decent portion of my audit year. And it ended up costing me, I don't know, I think about $16K, $17,000 in fines and penalties and, you know, back payments, for using a subcontractor that's not licensed and bonded. So, I remembered Mesh, you know, from when my license, per L&I, was no longer valid. And I called Mesh and I said it certainly seems like you would be a perfect fit for me after I went through this audit. And they kind of did their little sales pitch, which was really not needed, and I signed up a few weeks later.

Why did you choose Mesh?

So, I chose Mesh because at least I think they are probably the only company that I know that does this. And when they came to me with what it was going to cost, and what the yearly subscription cost was, I simply just took that cost and divided it by what my bookkeeper charged me. And if my bookkeeper was going to charge me less, then I probably would have just let my bookkeeper take care of it. But the cost of Mesh ended up being less than the cost of my bookkeeper doing this quarterly. And that's why I chose to go with Mesh and not have my bookkeeper do it.

Why did you buy Mesh?

So I bought Mesh's product simply to take something off of my plate. I used to do a yearly insurance audit at the end of the year, and while I was doing the insurance audit, I was also auditing everybody's license and bond to ensure everything was up to date. As I went through my L&I audit, L&I told me that I should be doing that quarterly. So, you know, coming up with some sort of Excel spreadsheet and going through each and every subcontractor four times is just very, very time-consuming. And if I was not doing it, then my bookkeeper would be doing it, and I would have to pay my bookkeeper to do it. Again, you know, it's a bit of work upfront to, you know, kind of get the Mesh program set up, but once it's set, you literally don't have to do anything after that, except when Mesh emails me to say, 'Hey, XYZ contractor is, you know, there's something wrong with his license.' And then it is a quick phone call to that subcontractor. And, you know, 99 times out of a hundred, I would imagine it's resolved within a day or two.

What is it like to work with Mesh?

Everybody that I've come into contact with at Mesh - the owner and the salespeople and the behind-the-scenes - everybody has been very eager to work with me and take kind of a broad product and sharpen it into a product that will work specifically only for me. So, it's been a pleasure to get to know everybody at Mesh that I've been introduced to and it's just been seamless working with them.

What is the ROI?

So, the return on investment for Mesh is, again, the fact that I don't have to do anything, that it's all happening in the background. So, I don't have to pay my bookkeeper. Again, I used to pay her once a year to do my insurance audit. And along with that, I would do the license and bond. I would audit the licenses and bonds from my subcontractors. So, I don't have to pay my bookkeeper to do it. Not only do I not have to pay my bookkeeper to do it, which I thought was okay doing it once a year, but I don't have to pay my bookkeeper now to do it four times a year, because L & I told me that I should be doing these audits, quarterly instead of yearly. And again, just not wasting time. I don't want to say that labor in industries is a waste of time. But running a business, it's a waste of time, because I'm not making money doing all of this clerical stuff when I can be out in the field, picking up supplies for the guys or working through problems in the field with the guys or billing. There are many things I can do other than monitor licenses from all of my subs and suppliers.