Ellie Horvath
Luke Polach of Buildiro Tech UK Ltd..
Tell us about yourself?
My background is civil engineering and I was running a small building business in London between 2013-2017.
Construction is something that I really like, but I was always curious about the online world. I put these two worlds together (construction and online) and found Buildiro.com.
What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you?
When I was younger, I wanted to do everything and get everything at once. Being an entrepreneur, I had to learn myself to be disciplined and patient as the good things take time.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
As mentioned above – being patient. Also, if I would start again with some other business, I would definitely get more information and knowledge about the area I’m going to have a business in.
When I started Buildiro, I didn’t know anything about how to do an online and scalable business.
A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?
Yes, many times. And after four years in Buildiro, things have changed just a bit. It is all about the personal setup I believe, but the reality is that I am thinking about Buildiro 24/7.
Anyway, a kid is a good reason to stop thinking about your business all the time 🙂
Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?
Buildiro.com is a construction materials metasearch engine that allows tradespeople and DIY enthusiasts to locate and purchase building supplies online in minutes.
Just like Amazon for books or Skyscanner for travel, Buildiro.com aggregates retailers’ real-time inventories into a single online platform, saving users time and money.
What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?
Buildiro aggregates almost a hundred of websites across the merchants supplying construction and home owners, such as B&Q, Wickes and much more.
With these big players, we become the biggest online database with 1.5M products for construction and DIY enthusiasts in the UK and thanks to our algorithm, which we train since 2018, we can easily find and supply the right products to our users.
How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?
Buildiro has started generating revenue last year when we found an ideal business model that fits best to our needs and it’s extremely scalable.
Our revenue is based on the traffic we get on our website. So our biggest challenge in terms of sales is to get the traffic on our website.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far in your business, and how did you overcome it?
First of all, the biggest challenge was and always is to get the money for the business with reasonable conditions. We closed 3 investment rounds so far and every round was very similar.
And tough. It’s not surprising that raising money for the seed company is tough.
The other biggest challenge was to set up the right team with right people. After all, we are a well established team of 4 co-founders.
What do you find are the advantages of operating your business in London?
London is historically probably the strongest business city in Europe as well as the UK in general is sort of a “bridge” from Europe to the USA.
Also, I used to live in London for 4 years and this city taught me a lot about business and capitalism, which has created a really great relationship between myself and London.
Last year, we set up a London based TopCo.
Are there any issues with having a London based business? Have you experienced these?
Not at all. The advantages only.
How has the higher than UK average cost of living impacted your ability to work and live in London and how has this also impacted your ability as an employer?
It hasn’t at all. Non of our team lives in London. This is the big benefit of running an online business. You can live and work from anywhere and we all do.
We have the office at King’s Cross, but don’t use it much. Also, the pandemic changed the game how we used to work.
If you had to relocate your business to another city in the UK, which one would it be and why?
If we really had to relocate our business, it would be Edinburgh. There is no political or economic reason, I just like cold 🙂
How has BREXIT impacted your business (if at all)?
BREXIT hasn’t impacted our business directly, but we can see that the construction, especially the private (house refurbishments, etc.) has changed.
Many foreign builders left the UK back home so it’s a bit more complicated to find good tradespeople.
What is your vision for your company in the next 5 years?
Of course we aim to become the # 1 in the construction products online database and the first partner for all the merchants supplying the construction.
We are ready to join hundreds or thousands merchants and supply their product to their customers across the UK.
And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?
Easily email me on [email protected]. I’ll be in touch very shortly. (not able to put a hundrede words)
Follow Buildiro Tech UK Ltd. on Twitter or Linkedin.
