While quoting jobs is an essential but costly part of business for tradespeople, customers are seeking timely and accurate estimates for work in a world where nearly everything can be found on a smartphone.

After running his own successful tiling company based in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Josh knew that ‘it’s a pain in the butt’ for tilers to go out to quote jobs. The workload of organising appointments, travelling to sites and then creating the quote can be a barrier to growth for some businesses. “I decided to start a new tiling venture, Tiling.co.nz, to provide accurate online quotes for work then manage the tiling projects that were accepted by clients,” says Josh.

“Our quoting technology we developed for Tiling.co.nz worked for us and the tiling arm of the business was growing. We started thinking that our platform could work for other tiling businesses,” says Josh. “Before you know it, we were on the tech start-up journey with KWOTIMATION.”

The technology behind KWOTIMATION’s Online Pricing System (OPS) allows business owners and contractors to upload customized pricing and then their customers are able to quote the tiling work online for themselves. “This removes the need for tilers to actively manage the quoting process. It’s good for the business, the clients and the environment,” says Josh.

KWOTIMATION are currently seeking early adopters to help validate their product and get feedback from tradesperson and their customers using the pricing system. The next industry they are looking to enter is painting and decorating in Aotearoa, says Josh. Opportunities to take the platform overseas and create international relations are part of the team’s long-term business ambitions.

Joshua Faraimo (Ngāti Toa) and Jarome Cavubati are the brains behind new software that can help tradies save costs and time while getting accurate quotes to potential clients before their competitors.  Co-founders Josh and Jarome are joined by team member and operations-extraordinaire Rayleen Elliot (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Kahungunu).

The proven business acceleration processes used during the 12-week Kōkiri prorgamme, have helped the team reflect on their start-up journey so far and get a clear pathway for future development and business sustainability. “Because we’re a business that’s be born from solving a real problem, we were solely focused on that problem,” says Josh.

The structured sequence of the programme has helped the team critically review all aspects of their their start-up including strategy, pricing and customer segments. “Working through the sprints has forced us to review how our business was progressing and to stay focused on the customers core problem that our software can solve”.