The Builders, Budgets, and Beers Podcast is where the construction industry comes to talk about the financial side of building — the decisions, the mistakes, and the systems that separate profitable companies from the rest. From regional GCs and high-volume builders to construction accountants and industry tech leaders, our guests share what's actually working and what they wish they'd known sooner. Produced by the team at Adaptive, it's real talk on the financial operations behind growing, scaling, and running a complex construction business. One budget, one story, and one beer at a time.
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Builders, Budgets, and Beers
A Construction Tech CEO on Why Builder Financials Break Down
Sep 29, 202635 min
Reece sits down with Matt Calvano, co-founder and CEO of Adaptive, to talk about why construction financials break down when the field and back office are working from different information. Unlike most businesses, construction accounting depends on constantly understanding what is actually happening on each project. They get into why buying software based on features alone rarely fixes the problem, how builders can give their teams more freedom to test better tools, and why workflow matters as much as the system itself. Matt also shares where Adaptive is headed after its $30 million Series B, including using operational context from schedules, daily logs, email, and the field to make financial reporting more accurate and proactive. Show Notes: 00:11 Matt Returns 02:11 Accounting Needs Operations 06:43 Where Software Breaks 10:46 Workflow Before Software 16:19 Better Buying Decisions 20:12 Rethinking Construction Tech 21:53 Define Success First 24:56 Adaptive's Next Chapter 29:06 Operational Context 31:58 Financials In Real Time Find Our Hosts: Reece Barnes Matt Calvano Podcast Produced By: Motif Media
4 Perspectives On When Why And How Builders Scale Profitably
Sep 22, 202635 min
This compilation episode revisits past conversations with Tyler Grace, Shawn Van Dyke, Isabel Affinito, and Paul Atherton to explore when, why, and how builders should scale their businesses. Across four different perspectives, the conversations cover profitable growth, knowing your numbers, building the right team, simplifying systems, getting the owner out of day-to-day operations, and deciding what growth is actually supposed to provide. The common thread is simple: more revenue and more volume do not automatically create a better business. Tyler Grace, TRG Home Concepts Know Your Numbers, Not Just Your Craft Listen to the Tyler Grace episode Paul Atherton Why Most Builders Stay Stuck at $2M Listen to the Paul Atherton episode Isabel Affinito Systems, People, and Profit Listen to the Isabel Affinito episode Shawn Van Dyke Know Your Numbers, Protect Your Margin Listen to the Shawn Van Dyke episode Show Notes: 00:11 Show Intro 00:58 Tyler’s Business Model 05:31 Scaling Fundamentals 08:04 Profit Before Growth 16:34 Fix Money First 20:20 Scaling Magnifies Chaos 21:54 Getting Out Of Operations 25:04 Building Self Management 28:04 Define Your Anti Goals 30:06 Build Around Your Life Find Our Hosts: Reece Barnes Matt Calvano Podcast Produced By: Motif Media
How Builders Get Control Of Their Numbers with Jared Westergard
Sep 8, 202634 min
Reece sits down with Jared Westergard of Blackline Financial to talk about why so many builders are still making financial decisions without fully trusting the numbers in front of them. They cover overhead, deposits, cash flow, bad data, and the systems that can make the financial side of a construction business easier to understand. The goal is simple: stop the financial guesswork and start making decisions with better information. https://blackline.financial https://www.instagram.com/jaredwestergard Show Notes: 00:07 Show Intro 00:52 Meet Jared 03:29 Money Conversations 05:59 Financial Blind Spots 08:10 Fixing The Foundation 12:07 Cleaning Up Books 17:26 Profit Without Cash 20:15 Deposits And Cash Flow 25:24 Feeding The Machine 28:18 Systems And Roles 33:16 One Number First Find Our Hosts: Reece Barnes Matt Calvano Podcast Produced By: Motif Media
What AI Means For The Future Of Construction Through 3 Perspectives
Sep 1, 202642 min
Reece revisits conversations with Julie Adams of Sage, Deepti Yenireddy of Boone AI, and Ryan Rademann of Wipfli about how AI is changing the work of construction. Pulled from three past episodes, these conversations explore estimating, financial reporting, outdated systems, workforce shortages, and AI literacy. Together, they point toward a bigger shift: AI is not simply replacing people or automating tasks. It is changing where people provide value and what contractors need from their teams, systems, and processes. Julie Adams, Sage The AI Opportunity In Construction with Julie Adams Listen to the Julie Adams episode Deepti Yenireddy, Boone AI How AI Speeds Up Profitable Bids with Deepti Yenireddy Listen to the Deepti Yenireddy episode Ryan Rademann, Wipfli How Contractors Can Adopt AI Agents Without Chaos with Ryan Rademann Listen to the Ryan Rademann episode Show Notes: 00:07 Show Intro 01:40 AI Adoption Rising 05:40 Where AI Helps 07:54 Faster Business Insights 12:12 Beyond ChatGPT 14:00 Jobs And Opportunity 17:12 Estimating Bottlenecks 20:43 AI And Workforce 27:42 Fix Systems First 31:24 AI Ready People 34:48 Contractors Become Tech 39:06 Redefining Human Value Find Our Hosts: Reece Barnes Matt Calvano Podcast Produced By: Motif Media
The Hidden Costs Of A Messy Back Office with Aimee Roden
Aug 25, 202636 min
Reece sits down with construction bookkeeper Aimee Roden to talk about the back-office mistakes that quietly cost contractors money, from poor cost coding to delayed billing and unreliable job-cost reports. Aimee breaks down why contractors overload their chart of accounts, how coding connects directly to AIA billing and accounts receivable, and why waiting until the end of a job to understand performance is a dangerous way to run a business. They also get into when owners become the bottleneck, why these problems grow with revenue, and how better systems and AI can make the financial side of construction easier to manage. Show Notes: 00:12 Show Intro 00:43 Meet Aimee Roden 03:33 Construction Job Costing 05:21 Coding And Billing 06:00 Chart Of Accounts 12:00 Cost Codes Explained 14:51 AIA Billing Problems 18:01 Tracking Real Performance 21:23 Getting Paid 26:28 Scaling The Back Office 30:22 AI And Efficiency Find Our Hosts: Reece Barnes Matt Calvano Podcast Produced By: Motif Media
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