When we couldn’t find what we needed off the shelf, we developed it ourselves!

As I look back on how Sekady came to fruition, I realize there were many surprises and unknowns.

But one thing is certain: It was born out of necessity.

I had recently sold a successful invoice factoring company and had planned to take the next few years to raise my three young teenagers. The housing market was booming and for several years, I had loaned money to a handful of local builders. My husband had a small but successful residential building company, and after I sold my factoring company, he asked me to help him with the paperwork and money movement side of his business.

With my experience in invoice factoring, I understood the No. 1 rule in lending: Secure the asset. As I switched my focus from factoring to construction lending, I realized the lending I had been doing all along was not secure. I had been receiving a draw package from a general contractor, writing them a check, and assuming they were paying all their subcontractors. I understood the concept of lien waivers but not their importance until I was asked to sign an indemnity agreement at the title company. At that moment, I realized I was doing unsecured lending.

Not only was the lending unsecured, but the paperwork process in the construction space was highly inefficient. Money moved with paper checks, and chasing down lien waivers was a painful process. Subcontractors wouldn’t bill for six months and sometimes sent duplicate invoices weeks apart. Most of the documentation was still managed with actual paper. The 1099 process at the end of the year was the icing on the cake! I knew if I was experiencing these problems, others had to be experiencing them as well.

I searched for a software solution that could help me secure my money and make handling the paperwork more efficient. When I couldn’t find anything to meet my needs, I asked my small team of software developers to build something that would help me manage my husband’s projects and my growing lending portfolio.

The first iteration of Sekady was simply a digital lien waiver feature that allowed me to electronically capture a signature and make a digital payment. Subcontractors loved the process because they didn’t have to use their lunch break to sign a lien waiver or go deposit a check. Then we added features to make the building process more efficient for the general contractor. When general contractors started asking me if they could use the Sekady platform even if I wasn’t the lender, I knew we had done something right and I was going back to work!

Since then, we’ve grown to over 40 employees and continue to release features to securely move money and provide visibility to all parties involved in the construction process. I no longer worry about a general contractor making their boat payment instead of paying their plumber. I know all my money is secure before it ever leaves my account. I hope to continue building and releasing new features and ways to help my fellow lenders be successful because necessity truly is the mother of invention.