Build To Run

Michael Trampetti

Build to Run is for the contractor who's still the estimator, the fixer, and the guy everyone calls when a job goes sideways — GCs, specialty contractors, subcontractors, who are tired of being the person their entire company depends on.  Mike Trampetti gets into what actually eats up a contractor's week: estimates only the owner can price, jobs that go sideways, teams that can't make decisions, and businesses that stall the second the owner steps away.  Some episodes are a problem that already got fixed, told straight.  Some are where business owners work through real problems with Mike while the answer is being figured out.  No textbook advice. Just honest conversations about building a construction company that can scale without everything running through you.  Built to Scale. Wired to Last. 

Episodes

  1. 3d ago

    "Why Didn't I Hire Earlier?" Scaling a Construction Business, with Andrei Turea | Ep. 6

    How do you scale a construction business when part of you thinks nobody can do it better? Andrei Turea and his partner grew Green Attic from insulation to about 65 people.  Andrei and Dima started Green Attic in 2009: Andrei on sales, Dima on operations, and a rule that neither one goes into the other's kitchen. For years, every team meeting ran through the two of them.  A big shift came through hiring: a first admin at about $500 a week, a sales follow-up person, and eventually an executive team they'd put off because a $100K salary felt like too much. Andrei walks through how he weighs a big hire now, and why he says his own ego was the hardest part to get past.  Chapters:  0:00 Meet Andrei Turea and Green Attic  0:37 Starting an insulation company in 2009  2:58 How two business partners split the work  4:14 The partnership rule about money  8:00 Running several businesses with an executive team  10:22 The first two marketing hires for a contractor  19:05 Selling honestly and paying salespeople  22:04 Building a sales team that follows up  32:30 Right people in the right seats  33:48 Why owners wait too long to hire  37:50 Delegating and letting go of your ego  39:13 What he’d do differently starting over  Take the Owner Load Test: https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test (8 questions, less than 2 minutes, and let's see how much of the business still runs through you)    Guest: Andrei Turea, Co-Founder, Green Attic Insulation & Green Attic Roofing  Follow Build To Run so the next episode lands in your feed.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  2. Oct 26

    The Real Reason Your Construction Business Is Slow Right Now | Ep. 5

    Revenue slid for about ten weeks, and every week the team had a new theory. The answer was a capacity problem sitting on the vacation calendar. Here are the two numbers to pull this week.  Head count tells you how many names are on the payroll. Capacity tells you how much work actually leaves the building. When you treat them as the same number, you bid jobs with a crew you don’t have and spend every August explaining a dip you could have planned for in February. I’ll walk you through the capacity math, the seasonal plan, and the hiring number almost nobody watches.  What we get into:  How a ten-week revenue slide came down to six operators on vacation the same two weeks Head count vs capacity, and how you end up bidding with a crew you didn’t actually have How to build your real capacity number on a piece of paper in about 20 minutes: name the unit, count complete units, subtract the known losses Planning for predictable soft weeks: set a target for the shorter year you actually run, or load the work into the months when everybody’s working Net adds over 12 weeks: the quiet number that tells you next quarter’s ceiling Why hiring funnels leak, and how to tell a speed problem from an offer problem when you post for a superintendent Chapters:  0:00 Intro: ten weeks of falling revenue  1:04 The weekly review full of theories  3:26 Head count vs capacity  4:33 Capacity in construction: the six-man crew  5:19 How to calculate your real capacity   6:51 Planning for predictable soft weeks  9:26 Net adds: the number nobody watches  11:40 Why your hiring funnel leaks  13:55 Five changes to make this quarter  15:22 Recap: the two numbers to pull this week  Follow Build To Run so the next episode lands in your feed.  Take the Owner Load Test: https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test (8 questions, less than 2 minutes, and let's see how much of the business still runs through you)  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  3. Oct 19

    Short on Payroll, Cut Off by the Bank: Contractor Cash Flow, with Tim Caballero | Ep. 4

    Contractor cash flow, the hard way: in 2008 Tim Caballero was short on payroll and his bank said no. I asked how he got out of the hole, and what he has tracked every Monday since.  Tim started as a union ironworker in 1990 and founded Metropolitan Steel in 2003. Today it's one of the largest steel erectors in Chicago. In 2008 he maxed out a home equity line to make payroll and was months away from closing, until a call to fill jobs left by a closed competitor, paid weekly, started getting him out of the hole. He's run the company on the numbers ever since.  What we get into:  Getting paid weekly to climb out of the hole when the usual terms were 60 days Why other erectors closed without seeing it coming, and why collections can't wait: if you don't ask for your money, people sit on it What's on his Monday dashboard: cash on hand, aging receivables, payables, the line balance, ironworker man hours and insurance What a $5 million contractor without a controller should do: work closely with your accountant, get monthly financials done, and keep an eye on quarterly tax payments 12 years in a Vistage peer group, hiring for culture, and passing knowledge from veterans to new hires What he'd do differently starting over: quality hires, knowing your numbers, and a good mentor Chapters: 0:00 Intro: from union ironworker to steel erector   1:09 2008: short on payroll and cut off by the bank   2:23 Getting paid weekly to climb out of the hole   4:06 Knowing your numbers: the Monday dashboard   4:29 Why collections can't wait   6:28 What 12 years in a peer group changed   8:01 The numbers to track, even at $5 million   13:01 Passing knowledge from veterans to new hires   16:29 How he hires and screens for culture   17:59 Mental toughness and the cold plunge   21:24 Advice before starting a contracting business   24:06 What he'd do differently, and finding a mentor  Guest: Tim Caballero, Metropolitan Steel, Lansing, Illinois  Follow Build To Run so the next episode lands in your feed. Take the Owner Load Test: https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test (8 questions, less than 2 minutes, and let's see how much of the business still runs through you)  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  4. Oct 12

    From One Van to Three Companies: Hiring His First Salesperson, with Dima Nicolaescu | Ep. 3

    How to grow a construction business from one van into three companies? Mike Trampetti sits down with Dima Nicolaescu of Green Attic Insulation, Green Attic Roofing, and EcoBuild in Chicago to break down exactly how he did it.  If you're a construction business owner stuck doing everything yourself, this conversation on how to grow a construction business is for you. Dima shares how he started in 2009 doing subcontracting work, bought a van on his wife's credit card, learned advertising on Craigslist, and partnered to build Green Attic from zero. You'll hear how seasonal slowdowns forced him to launch new services, how ice-dam jobs led to roofing, and why he started EcoBuild as a general contractor so he wouldn't have to cut corners.  You'll also learn the construction business systems that let him scale:  First Zapier automation to kill copy-paste scheduling mistakes Hiring the first salesperson and stepping out of daily operations Building remote office staff + in-house IT for reporting Using AI for custom dashboards, sales coaching from call transcripts, and client follow-up Lessons from Vistage, Traction, and Good to Great on finding the right people Dima also gets personal on work-life balance, spending intentional time with his wife and kids, and what he'd do differently. Read the right books, join a peer group, and invest in people 5 years earlier.  Are you carrying too much of your construction company? Take the Owner Load Test - https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test. It takes 10 minutes.  Chapters:   0:00 Intro: from subcontractor to owner   5:03 Early struggles with leads and slow seasons   10:36 Adding businesses to beat the spring slowdown   17:04 How ice dam work became a roofing company   19:38 The first system that actually stuck   22:23 Hiring a salesperson and stepping back   27:35 Building a remote office team   31:42 Using AI to find problems and coach sales   37:09 Where a smaller owner should start   41:27 Peer groups, books and working less   53:03 What he'd do differently starting over  Guest: Dima Nicolaescu | Green Attic - greenattic.com  Follow Build To Run so the next episode lands in your feed.  Take the Owner Load Test: https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test (8 questions, less than 2 minutes, and let's see how much of the business still runs through you)  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  5. Oct 12

    Why Your Team Is Losing You Jobs | Ep. 2

    Is your team losing jobs between departments? Three people from one company came to my house, and I ended up carrying their paperwork. Here’s the handoff rule that helps stop it.  I needed a mini split for a master bedroom that runs hot. By the third visit, the salesperson was asking me for the R-value from his own company’s attic inspection, and the reply to my email was an address for a different department. That’s a communication breakdown between departments, and nothing in their reports will ever say why they lost the job. If your home service business has grown into divisions, it’s probably happening in your shop too.  What we get into:  How growing into divisions turns every handoff into a place where information stops moving The cost nobody records: the job you lost without knowing it Why the person who sent the email isn't the problem. She was carrying a policy she didn't write The rule to write down: if it's in your building, it's your job to go get it SOPs for handoffs, same-day CRM notes, and the sick-on-a-Tuesday test What to do when your guys won't log it Chapters:   0:00 Intro: three visits from one company  1:32 When the customer becomes the filing cabinet  2:52 How growth creates siloed handoffs  3:57 The hidden cost, and who's really responsible  5:16 The rule for customer handoffs  6:03 Building the system: SOPs, CRM notes, and the handoff test  6:55 Getting your team to actually log it  7:49 Key takeaways  Follow Build To Run so the next episode lands in your feed.  Take the Owner Load Test: https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test (8 questions, less than 2 minutes, and let's see how much of the business still runs through you)  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  6. Oct 12

    Why Your Construction Business Isn't Scaling (And How to Fix It) | Ep. 1

    Struggling to scale your construction business? If every decision routes through the cab of your truck, you might be the bottleneck. Four questions to measure it and one handoff to fix this week.  It’s 4:00 on a Friday, three missed calls, and your PM, your estimator, and a customer are all stuck waiting on you. That’s owner dependency, the most expensive problem I see in construction and trade businesses, from $5 million shops to $50 million shops. Revenue’s up, the crews are busy, and the company still can’t grow without you in the middle of it. Whether you’re a contractor, a builder, or you own a home service company, this one’s for you.    What we get into:  How long you can be unreachable, and why that number is your company's operating range without you Sorting your last 20 messages into judgment and permission Handoffs where you keep the decision, and the second sentence everybody skips A note that never became a task, and the second sale that went to the next company Why hiring a strong PM moves the dependency instead of removing it Two small fixes: a list somebody actually works, and a notification that doubled follow-ups in a week   Chapters:   0:00 Intro: when every decision runs through you  1:44 What owner dependency is and why it's hard to spot  3:03 Four questions to measure your owner dependency  6:06 Why it's a design problem, and why hiring won't fix it  7:04 Two small fixes that took the owner out of the loop  8:50 Your one handoff to fix this week  Follow Build To Run so the next episode lands in your feed.  Take the Owner Load Test: https://trampetti.com/owner-load-test (8 questions, less than 2 minutes, and let's see how much of the business still runs through you)  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  7. Sep 30

    Welcome to Build To Run (Teaser)

    Andiamo. Welcome to Build To Run! I'm Mike Trampetti. This is a podcast for people who own construction and trade businesses and are tired of being the reason everything works. We talk about operations, finance, systems, and people, the unglamorous machinery that decides whether your company functions on a Tuesday when you're not there. You won't hear marketing advice here. What I do well is sit across from an owner who's stuck, listen for ten minutes, and tell them exactly what's wrong. Usually it's something other than what they came in worried about. Some episodes are me on my own. Some are an owner walking through how they built their company and what broke at every stage. Others are an owner bringing me a live problem, and the two of us solve it on air. Every episode, I want you to leave with two things: knowing you're not the only one dealing with it, and at least one thing you can do about it. Follow Build To Run so episode one lands in your feed.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel    Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

  • 1 Trailer
    6 Episodes

Trailer

About

Build to Run is for the contractor who's still the estimator, the fixer, and the guy everyone calls when a job goes sideways — GCs, specialty contractors, subcontractors, who are tired of being the person their entire company depends on.  Mike Trampetti gets into what actually eats up a contractor's week: estimates only the owner can price, jobs that go sideways, teams that can't make decisions, and businesses that stall the second the owner steps away.  Some episodes are a problem that already got fixed, told straight.  Some are where business owners work through real problems with Mike while the answer is being figured out.  No textbook advice. Just honest conversations about building a construction company that can scale without everything running through you.  Built to Scale. Wired to Last. 

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Trampetti
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Build To Run
  • Show Website
    Build To Run