Every estimator has a workaround. A tab nobody else understands. A formula that saves a day. A spreadsheet that quietly becomes the way the whole team works.
Hamid Hajian turned his into a company. About 10 years ago, he was a cost estimator at a large Bay Area general contractor. He looked at the estimating tools on the market, and none of them solved the problem in front of him. So he built a spreadsheet that did.
That spreadsheet was eventually used on more than 300 estimates. It cut conceptual estimating time from two weeks to the same day. Today it is Zebel, a preconstruction and cost estimating platform serving developers and GCs across North and South America.
Hamid is a trained civil engineer, not a coder. He built the first version of the software himself, with a no-code tool, six months of training, and an IT budget of $16 a month.
Live from Procore Groundbreak 2026 in Orlando, Hamid joined Carli McCulloch of Constructionowners.com, the event’s official media partner, for an in-person episode of CO Pod.
They talked about how a spreadsheet became a software company, why trust closed the biggest deals, and the one piece of advice Hamid gives anyone trying to solve a problem the industry hasn't solved yet.
Carli: First, tell us what Zebel is.
Hamid Hajian: We are a preconstruction platform. To be specific, a cost estimating platform. We serve developers and GCs across North and South America now.
This is something I originally built for myself. It started as a fancy spreadsheet about 10 years ago, when I was a cost estimator working for a large GC in the Bay Area. I noticed a problem. I looked at the different estimating solutions off the shelf, and none of them really solved it. So I thought, I could build a spreadsheet for that.
That spreadsheet grew into a fancier spreadsheet, with more bells and whistles. At some point, a lot of people wanted to use it, and I was the gatekeeper. So I moved everything to Google Sheets. That sparked even more innovation because many more people at the company were using it.
Then I hit a technical ceiling. I couldn't do what I wanted with macros and JavaScript. So I decided to take it to the next level. I quit my job and started a company.
Carli: You really worked from the ground up. How did you get from point A to point B?
Hamid Hajian: I had already tested and validated the idea. At my last company, I used it on more than 300 estimates, so I knew it worked. Now it was about execution, turning it into an actual software company. You can't sell spreadsheets to people.
My first roadblock was that I'm not a coder. I'm a trained civil engineer. This was around 2018- 2019. There were no AI coding tools. So I researched no-code app development platforms. I tried a few, including Google App Maker and Oracle's Application Express. I spent some money on some of them. None of them worked until one did. It was called Bubble.
Even with Bubble, you had to really learn it to build a sophisticated app. So I hired a professional Bubble developer to train me over six months. I spent about $7,500, which was a big investment at the time. I was already out of the company and on my own. But Bubble itself was only $16 a month.
The company's entire IT expense was $16 a month for six months.
Carli: Listen up. All you need to get started is 16 bucks.
Hamid Hajian: Now it's even cheaper.
It took me about six months to build that first version. I took it to market and signed two companies. The first was $6,000 a year. The other was $14,000 a year—about $20,000 total.
That's all it took to convince an old friend of mine, Ramtin, a software engineer. We went to school together. He did computer science; I did civil engineering. I literally showed him the check. Look, people are paying $14,000 for something I built. Imagine if you built it. That's what it took, and he joined.
But when he joined, we didn't have money to pay his salary, or even mine. I was hopeful, because now we had proof of concept. The VCs tell you, go build the MVP, show me some revenue, and we'll back you.
Carli: Then COVID hit.
Hamid Hajian: Even though we got hit by COVID, a lot of good things happened afterward. One critical step was our first major client. It was the largest real estate developer in California, and one of the largest owners in the whole U.S.
I had a relationship with them because the company I used to work for built their projects. They had already gotten a good taste of the spreadsheet I built there, and they really liked it. It cut our estimating time for conceptual estimates from two weeks to the same day.
My pitch was simple. You really like that spreadsheet. I'm taking it to the next level and turning it into software. It will be even better. They signed the contract before we officially released the product. I showed them wireframes and prototypes and said, this is how it works, but it's based on the same core concepts you've already experienced.
Their head of development, who signed the contract, is now president of the company. He was really supportive. He told me a lot of people who worked there went on to start their own companies, and they supported them by becoming their first clients. Those companies grew, and now the developer gets the benefit of working with them.
That paved the way for us to land a bunch of other marquee names. When you go to the next prospect, the question is, why should I trust you? And you can say, this other company trusted us.
Carli: Relationships are huge in this industry. You did so much on your own, but you had help along the way from people you could trust.
Hamid Hajian: 100%. You need help all along the way, from that first customer to my friend joining me. You say, believe me, people are paying for this thing. But deep down, you're tapping into the trust you have with that person. Without that trust, it's extremely difficult.
As we expanded and brought in more clients, I couldn't keep up with the demand on my own. So we started hiring. And guess who joined us? My own co-workers from that job. Now they're part of the company.
That helps a lot when we talk to customers. We tell them, this is the company we built together. We were the very first users of this thing. We're taking our own medicine.
That story helps a lot more than, you've got to pay attention to me because I raised $50 million.
Carli: Before we wrap, what's one thing you’d tell anyone trying to solve a pain point the industry hasn't solved yet?
Hamid Hajian: Chase the customers, and the VCs will chase you.
Hamid didn't start with a pitch deck. He started with a problem he faced every day as an estimator, and a tool he used to fix it. By the time he quit his job, the idea had already been tested on more than 300 estimates.
That proof did the heavy lifting at every stage. Two paying customers, worth about $20,000 a year combined, convinced a co-founder to join. A spreadsheet that cut conceptual estimates from two weeks to the same day convinced California's largest developer to sign before the product launched. And that name on the client list answered the question every next prospect asked: why should I trust you?
The lesson for anyone building in construction is the same one Hamid lived. The barrier to starting is lower than ever. What matters is whether you’re solving a real problem for real customers, and whether the people around you trust you enough to bet on it.
Build something people will pay for. Then let the customers, not the funding round, tell your story.
Hamid Hajian is the founder and CEO of Zebel, a preconstruction and cost estimating platform for general contractors and real estate developers. A trained civil engineer and former cost estimator, Hamid built the first version of Zebel from a spreadsheet he created on the job.
