InstaBid 411
LaunchingLaunching soon — get on the list ↓
You’re on a roof.
You finished the tear-off an hour ago and the neighbor came over this morning asking what his would run. You know the answer. You knew it while you were looking at his house from up here.
What you don’t have is an evening to write it up.
So say it out loud.
You call your line, you describe the job the way you’d describe it to your foreman — 2,400 square feet, architectural, one layer to pull, gutters stay, chimney flashing looks rough. It asks the follow-ups a GC would ask. You hang up and go back to work.
The estimate builds itself, prices at your numbers, and goes to the neighbor. Itemized, under your logo. Fifteen minutes after you stopped talking, while you’re still on the roof.
Where you’ll actually use it
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Driving to work
, when you remember you never sent Mrs. Smith the one from Tuesday. You’ve been carrying that around for four days. Say it into the phone at a red light. It’s out before you park.
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Standing in a driveway
after a walkthrough, before the details go fuzzy — instead of six hours later at the kitchen table trying to remember whether she said maple or oak.
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Saturday, from a lake
, because you promised somebody a number by Monday and the alternative is Sunday night with a calculator.
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End of the day, in the truck
, clearing the three you owe from this week instead of stacking them onto next week.
That’s the whole product. It isn’t clever. It’s just the difference between a bid going out today and a bid going out never.
What happens after you hang up
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The estimate lands in your dashboard
, itemized at your prices, with your markup on every line.
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The material list is built
trade-grouped, ready for your supply house.
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Your subs get told.
Anyone in your black book who touches this job hears what’s needed, without you making a call.
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It sends when you say so.
Or automatically, if you’ve decided you trust it. That switch is yours and it starts off.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Harvard audited 2,241 companies to see how fast they answer somebody who’s trying to hire them. Twenty-three percent never answered at all. Another twenty-four percent took more than a day.
I ran my own version — got on a contractor marketplace like a homeowner would and contacted twenty guys.
Two called me back.
I’d been one of the other eighteen for most of my career, and not because I didn’t care. Because at seven at night, after ten hours on a site, the write-up is the last thing on earth you want to do. So it waits. And then it waits some more. And eventually she stops waiting.
411 exists because the bid you never sat down to write is the most expensive thing in your business — and you already knew the number.
- 23%of businesses never answer at all
- 24%take more than a day
- 20contractors contacted in John's own test
- 2called him back
The honest part
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411 is launching, not live yet.
It’s built and it works; it’s not open to everybody. When it’s ready you’ll hear from us, and not before.
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There’s no public number to call, and there won’t be.
This isn’t a hotline — it’s your line, wired to your account and your prices. That’s the whole point. A shared number that anybody can dial isn’t a product, it’s a support cost.
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And it never invents a price.
It listens, asks what a GC would ask, and hands the scope to the engine — 25,533 hand-walked prices, re-checked by 230+ automated estimates every day. It doesn’t guess at money. Nothing does around here.
Get on the list
Contractors get let in as it’s ready. No pricing yet, no commitment, no sales call.
One email when it’s your turn. That’s it.
Different job, different tool: if the customer wants to walk you through the space and see the finished room, that’s LIVE.