From Sheet Metal to Software with Phil Ogilby

In today’s episode, Jeff interviews Phil Ogilby in Cincinnati, OH. Phil is the owner of Stack Construction Technologies. His career started after High school when he moved to Dayton, OH and started working as a sheet metal worker. After inflation was running rampant, Phil shifted from sheet metal work to roofing and construction. Then from roofing and construction to software development. Phil shares his journey and how the ups and downs of each transition in his life brought him to where he is today.

Phil and Jeff discuss:

1. Graduated HS in 1978; his parents saved $2500 for him to go to college.
2. But they gave him an option, he could go to Dayton Ohio and work in the sheet metal workers union or take the $2500 and go to college.
3. He chose to go to Ohio and worked in construction.
4. Some time after when Jimmy Carter was in the white house and inflation was running rampant, he lost his job and found himself unemployed.
5. So he drove to the unemployment office a couple times and applied for multiple jobs; felt it was demoralizing.
6. Purchased a book on how to put a roof on your house although he had never done roofing before but seen it in his sheet metal trade.
7. Decided to go to the Yellow pages office and he spent $600 a month on yellow pages ads, hired his buddies and bought a truck.
8. Fast forward 10 years, he brought home his first personal computer with a Lotus spreadsheet on it, which he used for his estimating.
9. Traveling and saw a book called Quick basics for kids he found at the airport bookstore.
10. His older son Justin was into it and so Phil bought some more books so they could create some estimating software.
11. Justin started coding at 13 and  by the time Justin was 17 he created and sold half million dollars in software.
12. Phil left roofing and transitioned to software after a light bulb went off and he realized  the impact the software was having on people's lives.
13. Phil wrote a business plan and hired an exchange student to create an online portal for contractors during the dotcom era.
14. Traveled all the time looking for investors and found an investor in Cincinnati who gave him a half million dollars.
15. Fast Forward, sold the first business and started Stack Construction Technologies in 2013 and the business has exploded.
16. Stack - What is different today than before? The last business sold construction news and Stack was the first take-off software company in the cloud.
17. Stack has expanded beyond take-offs to add project management.
18. One of their core values is optimism, you need to believe it will get better to survive.

Fast Five Questions

1. If you woke up and your business was gone, you have $500, a laptop, a place to live, and food, what would you do first? “I would probably walk down the street and look for a roof that needs to be replaced and walk up to the door and ask if I could repair it.”
2. What is the biggest mistake that you have made in business? “Not having enough confidence in himself.”
3. What is a book that you would recommend? “The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz;  EMyth by Michael Gerber.”
4. What is a tool that you use everyday that you would recommend? “Slack and SalesForce.”
5. What is your definition of freedom? “The ability to do what you want to do.”
6. What is the best way to contact you? “Email: POgilby@stackct.com.”

Jeff spent the early part of his career working for others. Jeff had started 5 businesses that failed before he had his first success.