Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Hodson.
Hi Ben, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a long-term entrepreneur. I have started 10 companies in my career. I grew up in the Seattle Washington area and went to the University of Washington. I got a degree in business administration and a second bachelors degree in computer software systems so I’ve been able to be a highly technical CEO and CTO of my various companies. My current company I have been at the longest and that is JobNimbus. I start a JobNimbus in 2013. We make software for construction contractors, specifically home exterior contractors, like roofers and siding and gutter companies. Typically these companies are great at their trade, but not as good at running a business and that’s what JobNimbus solves. We let them focus on their trade and we handle all the processes to ensure that they get great reviews and super happy customers. Our mission as a company is to make contractors heroes, and we do that through tools that helped them automate their entire business to drive more profit, more time with their family, and allow them to get back in their community more jobNimbus has about 300 employees today. I am the founder and CEO of JobNimbus.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As with all entrepreneurs, I have definitely had ups and downs in my career. I’ve had to short sale a house. I’ve been nearly bankrupt. Multiple times. I’ve had to dig out of huge amounts of debt when businesses didn’t work out. But I’ve also had some great successes. I learned a lot more from the failures than the successes.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about JobNimbus?
JobNimbus is a very rewarding company to run. We get to work with some of the most wonderful people in this country, blue-collar workers who in many ways are the people that make this country work. And as a software company, we get to help them in a way that’s truly meaningful and care about them frankly more than any other type of tech company does. A lot of of the blue-collar workers of the forgotten man in technology. And we feel like it’s an honor to be able to help them achieve their goals and build businesses that can last generations. We are also a highly mission driven and values aligned company. We have the best technology in our industry, by far the best team, and we do work every day here that makes a difference in real peoples lives. We also have a culture that is a built around the concept of each employee on a heroes journey. We truly want each of our team members to level up during their time at JobNimbus and for JobNimbus to be the most impactful experience in their career history. We believe we are building the future leaders of Silicon Slopes. Culture is the biggest predictor of long-term success and so it’s a top priority and focus for me. We are also building a business that is not designed to just be flipped or sold, but something that we hope could last 50 to 100 years so we think a lot more long-term at JobNimbus and we strive to do the right things for both the customer and for the long term success of the team.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I have always been entrepreneurial, even though I didn’t think of myself as an entrepreneur until college. But I think back to, even as a kid, I would rally the other kids in the neighborhood to go accomplish a goal or to build a little mini business for the summer or to go out and make a movie together or two make a band and play songs. They’re just countless times that I can look back now and realize that I will always been somebody that had a vision and was able to persuade others to join up and do something that was greater than one person could’ve accomplished on their own. I think my favorite memory is me in high school convincing several of my friends to learn how to play instruments along with me, learning how to play guitar, then learning how to write songs, then learning how to source recording gear, then learning how to master and mix songs, putting together a full album, figuring out how to create the artwork and work through duplication services to create CDs, and then releasing our own album without a record label and I was 16. And what’s so crazy about that is that we ended up making a good amount of money that paid for a lot of my college off of the sales of that album while still in high school
Contact Info:
- Website: https://JobNimbus.com
