ABOUT BIDSIMP
Built from the field.
BidSimp grew out of real carpentry, estimating, layout problems, and one carpenter's habit of always asking if there is a better way to do the work.
THE TRADE
It started with carpentry.
I started as a first-year apprentice carpenter, completed my apprenticeship, and became a journeyman. Over the years, I found that I especially loved ceilings, complex layouts, and figuring out better ways to get the work done.
I also noticed something about myself along the way. Whenever I was building something, I naturally narrated what I was doing to the people around me.
Not just what I was doing, but why I was doing it, and what would happen if you did it differently.
Eventually I realized that I loved teaching the work just as much as doing it.
I later became a project manager before starting my own carpentry business. Through all of those roles, one thing stayed the same. I was always looking for a better way.
THE IDEA
How BidSimp started.
One day I was lying on the couch thinking about a job I had just completed.
To somebody else, I probably looked like I was doing absolutely nothing.
In reality, I was obsessing over the job.
I was replaying the layout in my head and thinking about all the different ways I could have done it faster or better. I've always been an overthinker, especially when it comes to construction.
Around the same time, I had a lot of projects to bid. I was constantly thinking about how I could make my estimating process more organized and efficient.
That became the original direction for BidSimp: simple construction estimating calculators.
But it didn't stay there for long.
The more I built, the more I realized I didn't only want to give someone an answer.
I wanted them to understand it.
THE WHY
Knowing the answer isn't enough.
I love to draw things out.
I like explaining why something works, what you're looking at, and what happens when you get it wrong.
I don't want someone to know something simply because they were told.
That's why BidSimp has grown beyond calculators into visual lessons, interactive learning, layout tools, and training games.
The calculator can give you the answer.
The lesson should help you understand why.
The trainer should help you prove to yourself that you understand it.
WHO IT'S FOR
Anyone who wants to be better.
That's the honest answer.
You might be an apprentice seeing something for the first time, a journeyman sharpening a skill, an estimator trying to work faster, or a contractor double-checking a layout.
Your title doesn't matter.
THE PROMISE
Never detached from the field.
This is one thing I never want BidSimp to lose.
Everything here should exist for a real reason.
A feature shouldn't be added just because it looks impressive. A drawing shouldn't exist just to make a page look pretty. The tools and lessons should be built around situations that actually happen in construction.
Real scenarios should be considered.
Real problems should be solved.
I want someone using BidSimp to think:
This is real. Not just some software. Whoever made this must be a carpenter.
Because I am.
James Ferrentino
STUPID SIMPLE
Why "Stupid simple"?
It doesn't mean the work is stupid.
Construction can be incredibly complicated.
To me, "stupid simple" is a reminder not to make everything more complicated than it needs to be, and not to forget to have some fun along the way.
KEEP GETTING BETTER
If BidSimp helps people, it succeeded.
If BidSimp ever becomes successful, what matters most to me is what that success means:
I was able to help people.
So whether you're learning something new or have been doing this for decades:
Never stop improving.
The best things to do are the ones others say are impossible.