Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Abeles.
Matthew, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
There are a lot of people, places, and businesses that truly got me to where I am today. That said, I would highlight one specific part of my career which introduced me to the entrepreneurial world, and that was during my time running a family office for my mentor Michael Silver. During that time I was in charge of investments in real estate, and involved in such items that included franchise investments, That experience got me excited to be more entrepreneurial, and fast forward a few years to 2014, and that was when my co-founder and myself started Builtworlds.
In 2014, Matt Gray and I began Builtworlds. At that time we started as a research company focused on helping companies understand what technologies would help them individually to help them not only be more innovative but also help them be more efficient in what is essentially the most inefficient industry, the building industry. We saw a large gap in the building industry, which consists of construction, engineering, architecture, and real estate, essentially a $9-$10 trillion industry that hasn’t changed its ways for almost a century. As we started to talk with presidents, founders, and CTO’s of these companies we realized, that it wasn’t that these companies didn’t want to spend money on investing in technology, but that there was a clear lack of understanding of what existed in the space as a whole. At that point, a lightbulb moment happened, and we realized if we were going to truly impact the building industry, we had to educate the industry as a whole.
Fast forward to today and we do a few core things to help the industry. We produce amazing content, both written and video, to educate the industry that is read by leaders, innovators, and next-generation professionals in the industry. We host nationally renown events for the industry, including a CEO summit that brings together the best thought leaders throughout the industry together for 3 days. We have the largest network of start-up tech companies, to thought leaders at the largest companies in the building industry. Our partners range from companies as large as Microsoft, GE, and Caterpillar to start up companies as small as one person and an innovative technology.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not! In the beginning, we hired too fast and ended up making some bad hires because of it. Now we hire slow and fire fast, to ensure both us and the people coming to the business are set up for success. I even wrote a story on this about a year ago, where we also use personality tests as well in that process. Other struggles along the way include merging with another business. With that merger, we had to mesh cultures, people, and have one goal we all were passionate about achieving.
Another struggle we have seen is that this industry is much different. Buildworlds has grown to what it is today because of relationships my partner and I have developed since our inception, however, some of the younger employees who did not succeed here, believed that relationships can take place over email. Maybe this is old school vs new school, but the reality is that real relationships happen in person, and over the phone to an extent, even via text, but I think the importance of that is lost on some. In an industry that is predicated on handshakes, and relationship driven success, the same is important with our business too, but some of our younger sales staff have struggled with that.
Builtworlds – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a new media business specializing in the building industries.
We produce written and video content focused on the future of the building industries, with a large focus on technology, and the next generation who will shape these industries which have not been disrupted for years. The written and video content we produce goes out on our newsletter every week to a group of about 85,000 subscribers who have signed up to read our material, vast majority of readers in the building industries (construction, architecture, real estate, and engineering).
We also produce amazing events throughout the year. Our marquee events include a CEO Summit, and a one of a kind building industry hackathon. These events are unique in that they both provide something no one else is to the industry. The Hackathon brings together industry leaders, with tech developers to build prototypes for the building industry at a weekend-long competition. Nowhere else to leaders in construction for example work side by side with developers to build something unique.
Developers see the opportunity in the building industry at this event, and industry leaders have their eyes opened to new possibilities. The CEO Summit brings the best thought leaders around the world in the building industry in a CEO to CEO event that has 250 people come together for the highest level of networking, education, and unveilings. Our other events focus on the major topics our readers want to hear about where we can bring thought leaders to talk on these topics which include; project management, smart cities, robotics and automation, future workforce, and venture.
We also have a large network. We have built directory pages to see what our members do, similar to glassdoor.com, but for leaders in the building industry that include the tech companies who serve those leaders.
End of the day, I am most proud of the support we have in the industry, and the large network we have grown in such a short period which now spans the globe. I am also very proud of the many connections I have made in this role to leaders throughout the industry.
What sets us apart from others, is that we are a new media company, in an old-school industry, who is truly agnostic. We don’t have our own technology for example we produce. We also cater to a younger audience, who is making those changes to the industry, and we have done things different with a fresh approach to our reports, events, and even with our new member to member log in state coming soon.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Public Speaking. In this role, I have been asked to do a decent amount of speaking to different organizations, conferences, and companies. I am very proud to be able to spread the wealth of opportunity in this industry and talk about how technology and the next generation will shape the building industry like never before.
I am also very proud of being able to put together a CEO Summit 3 years ago from nothing, to what has become one of the industry’s staple events.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1260 West Madison, Chicago, IL 60607
- Website: www.builtworlds.com
- Phone: 8473373777
- Email: matt.abeles@builtworlds.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuiltWorlds/
- Twitter: @builtworlds, @mattyabeles
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-abeles-2854a018/
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