Builtie for Mergers and Acquisitions: Source Trade and Construction Businesses Worth Buying

The short version: The best trade business in the east end has no website, dozens of permits with its name on them, and an owner who has never returned a broker's call. Builtie finds that company through the permits. The method: watch the signals, qualify against a profile, identify the decision maker, reach them. For M&A the profile is an acquisition thesis rather than a trade, and the database is companies rather than projects: which firms of a given trade, size and geography are actually working, growing or slowing, and who owns them. Acquirers, roll-up platforms, search funds and business brokers use it to build a target list from real activity and to reach owners directly, under their own name.

Who buys this way

• Roll-up platforms and private equity consolidating HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping or another trade, and their business development teams.
• Strategic acquirers: a contractor buying a competitor, or a neighboring trade, to add territory or a service line.
• Search funds and independent sponsors hunting for owner-operated trade businesses with a real book of work.
• Business brokers and M&A advisors sourcing sell-side mandates from owners who have not listed with anyone yet.

What is in the file on each company

Builtie keeps records on the companies behind active construction across the United States and Canada. Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the founding market, runs deepest: more than 43,000 construction companies tied to over 225,000 permit records, with identified decision makers on more than 12,000 of them. Elsewhere, depth follows what each municipality publishes, so ask for live sample companies in your own city. Each record carries what an acquirer screens on first:

• Trade and type. Builder or developer, general contractor, architect, designer, engineer, landscape, or trade, with credited trades where they can be read from the work.
• Location and territory. Address, city, and where its projects actually are. The address is where the mail goes. The permits are where the trucks go.
• Size signals. Employee count from the company's public LinkedIn profile.
• Activity over time. How many permits and projects it has been attached to, whether that volume is rising or falling, and recent posting activity on its public social accounts.
• The people. The owner, principal or president and the operators under them, with email, phone and LinkedIn where they can be verified.

Five steps from thesis to first reply

1. Write the thesis as a profile

Trade, geography, size band, and the activity pattern you want: steady or growing permit volume for a platform acquisition, an owner-operated business with a strong book for a succession play, or slowing activity where a tuck-in may be on the table.

2. Screen on activity, not on a directory

A directory lists every registered business, including the ones whose last job was a decade ago. Builtie ranks companies by what they are actually doing: projects attached in the last twelve months and posting cadence on public social accounts. Imagine two plumbing companies of the same size, one attached to dozens of permits this year and one attached to a couple. A directory tells you a company exists. A permit tells you it worked last month.

3. Identify the owner

You want the person whose name is on the truck, not the info@ mailbox. Builtie names the owner or principal at that company, verifies contact details where it can, and labels anything it cannot verify rather than guessing. A guessed email is worse than no email: it looks right, and nothing downstream questions it.

4. Reach them directly

Personalized LinkedIn and email sequences to the owners on your list, sent from your own accounts under your own name, referencing what you actually know about their business. Replies are classified by intent and land in your inbox and on your Action Plan. The moment a real person answers, the automation stops and you take over. Nobody sells their company to a sequence.

5. Bring your own list

Already have a target list from a broker, a trade association or your own research? On the Custom plan, upload it and Builtie enriches it: website, phone, the owner and operators with email, phone and LinkedIn where they can be verified, and the projects each company is attached to. The same process took a 2,079-member association directory from 6% to 98% contact coverage.

What is not in the file

No financial statements, no revenue figures, no valuations. Activity signals are proxies for scale and momentum, not a substitute for diligence, and they come from public records and public accounts, never private data. And nothing goes out anonymously: every message carries your name, because an owner weighing a sale is deciding whether to trust a person, not a platform.

Plans

M&A teams run on a Custom plan built around the thesis: the company universe, the territories, the number of seats and the list-enrichment volume. Book a call to scope it, or see the standard plans for how the platform is priced for trades.

Frequently asked questions

What does Builtie know about a construction company?

Its trade and type, location, employee count from its public LinkedIn profile, the permits and projects it has been attached to over time, its recent posting activity on public social accounts, and the owner and operators with email, phone and LinkedIn where they can be verified.

Can Builtie tell me a company's revenue?

No. Builtie holds no financial statements or valuations. Activity signals such as project volume and employee count are proxies for scale and momentum, useful for deciding who to approach first. Diligence still happens after the conversation starts.

Can I upload my own target list?

Yes, on the Custom plan. Upload a list of companies or people and Builtie returns website, phone, the owner and operators with email, phone and LinkedIn where they can be verified, and the projects each company is attached to.

How does outreach to owners work?

Personalized LinkedIn and email sequences sent under your own name from your own connected accounts, referencing what you know about the business. Replies are classified by intent and land in your inbox and Action Plan, and automation on a thread stops as soon as a person replies.