Bootstrapped with Zebel

Every estimator is a walking database, and some day that database retires.

I sat down with Hamid Hajian, founder of Zebel, who grew up on job sites with his dad, a developer and GC. He saw a problem in precon at a big Bay Area multifamily builder and fixed it with a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet turned into a company.

He never took VC money. When COVID shut the checkbook, he cashed out his 401k and bet on himself.

We talk about:

• Why a “2020 project” is really a 2018 project (the date you bought out the trades is the date that matters)
• Why most companies use about 5% of their historical data
• Why the estimate and the budget never seem to line up
• The AI estimating tool that shut down because nobody could explain its numbers
• Why investors kept asking “where’s the AI?” and customers kept saying that’s the reason they buy
• How much time precon deserves before the cost of capital starts eating you alive
• Why only a small slice of every AI dollar goes into construction, and why you still can’t make toast without the electrician

Building the estimate is half the job. Defending it is the other half.

Real talk with real people about real work.