- The Latino community is a very important part of the construction industry right now.

Over 30% of the workforce is Latino and it's rapidly growing.

- And yet, they're not very well connected to the market, and the market hasn't historically treated them very well.

- [Igor] Our mission is to improve the way that builders do new construction and, at the same time, improve business for our Latino subcontractors.

We started this company called Queblo, which was an app to build business for Latino craftsmen in the construction industry.

- It was an idea for an on line marketplace, really, where contractors, tradesmen, would meet homeowners, commercial property owners, and the app would allow people to show their work.

And they would actually bid, communicate, and pay on the app.

- [Igor] We realized that larger scale builders weren't totally comfortable using our service.

So, we had to shift and create a subcontractor entity ourselves, which is called Queblo Construct.

And we now engage with our builders through that entity.

- There's a difference between the business model and the plan.

The general plan was to connect the Hispanic craftsmen to the construction trades.

And that's still the plan.

The model has really changed.

So the model is how do you come to market, how do you price, what kind of profit margin do you take.

So, that's what we've been changing.

- [Igor] The good thing is that the construction industry is very active right now.

The market is good, and we're getting a lot of business.

Almost too much.

- When you say, too much, why do you say that?

- [Eapen] We have enough crews, right?

- We have enough crews, but the remodeling projects are taking up a lot of time.

- Yeah, give me an example.

- So, if we decide to frame a new house, everything is basically in the plan.

We know, more or less, how long it will take.

A remodeled project might pay more, but when you open up a wall, you don't know what you're gonna find.

So, it could end up being a time sink for us.

- My advise to you would be, let's not do those kind of projects.

You know, there's only one of you, there's only 24 hours, and you can't do everything, you can't take on every challenge.

Otherwise, you're gonna burn yourself out and you're not going to be valuable.

And so, you really have to make decisions about off-loading some kinds of work.

No one likes to turn down revenue, - [Igor] Yeah.

- But that's not really good business.

Let's find a way to maybe deemphasize that.

- Sure.

That's a good point.

- [Igor] It's very exciting to know that what we wanted to do in the beginning, and focusing on this community, has developed into something real and crews are finding our business so useful that they're sharing it with their friends and their family.

In short, there's a need for it in the market.

- [Eapen] And so we're focusing on three trades?

- [Igor] Yes.

- [Eapen] Why?

- [Igor] Framing, roofing, and siding are trades that we have a lot of resources in.

We have good crews, high quality crews, and some of the new crews that we've taken in there are autonomous.

- What do you mean; autonomous?

- Basically, they can communicate very well with us, with the clients, they document their work, they don't need any, or very much input from us, from our end.

- [Eapen] Okay.

- [Victor] I am Victor Pineda.

And I do siding installations for new houses.

For installations we work with Queblo.

- [Igor] Victor is a great example of an autonomous crew.

He's a very high quality siding installer.

He knows how to run and manage his project by himself.

So we are able to come in and just handle the business side for him.

We can find clients, we can find good projects, and negotiate good pricing for him, and he does the rest.

- I don't hear about Queblo, but I hear about Igor.

That's what I hear about first.

What actually he does for us is, as soon as we finish a job, he has, like, another job waiting for us where we can continue working with him.

So, it's one chain without breaking.

- [Eapen] You can have all the numbers you want, you can have all the big data, you can have models all over the place.

But ultimately, if you're gonna do business with somebody on a sustained basis, there's an element of trust.

That bond he has with them, you can't manufacture it, you can't study how to create it.

There's no formula.

You either have it or you don't.

And you have it by your behavior.

Because they know that he's out there looking for work for them.

And he's able to translate that into them being willing to work, to go that extra mile, to put in that extra attention to detail.

- [Igor] Without having good relationships with all of our crews, with the clients, the crews most importantly, there is no business,.

They wouldn't want to come back.

That's been a very vital part of the business.

Each crew member refers us people.

They refer us their friends, their family.

That has really allowed us to grow.