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Why Collin started NXT Build LLC.
Eleven years running post-frame builds for another contractor. One conversation at a kitchen table. Here is the story behind NXT Build, in the words of the person who started it.
NXT Build LLC was started in 2024. The longer story behind that simple sentence goes back about a decade earlier, when Collin was in his early twenties and just getting started in construction. This post is the version of that story we usually only tell in person, on a site walk or at a kitchen table.
Eleven years of learning the trade
Collin started in post-frame construction in 2014, running labor for a contractor based in eastern Iowa. The work was hard and the learning curve was steep. He learned how to dig piers, set columns, lay out trusses, sheath walls, hang roofs, finish siding, and run wire through stud bays. By year three or four, he was running a small crew. By year seven or eight, he was managing entire projects from foundation pour to final walk-through.
Eleven years is a long time to do one thing. Long enough to see the same problems show up over and over. Long enough to see what fails in year five, what fails in year fifteen, and what holds for forty years. Long enough to develop a strong opinion about how the work should be run.
What was not working
The frustration that eventually pushed Collin to start his own company was not about the work itself. It was about how the company he was running crews for was managing the work. Sales handed projects off to project managers. Project managers handed them off to crews. By the time the crew was on site, three or four conversations had happened that the people building the project did not know about.
Customers got told one thing by the salesperson, a slightly different thing by the project manager, and then watched the actual build happen in a way that did not entirely match either conversation. When something went wrong (a material delay, a design change, a budget overage), the question of who was responsible for fixing it usually went unanswered for a few weeks while the salesperson and the project manager pointed at each other.
Collin spent a lot of time over those eleven years smoothing over those gaps. Explaining to a customer why their build was three weeks behind schedule. Cleaning up a job site that had been left messy by a sub. Re-doing work that had been spec’d wrong by someone who never saw the actual building.
The kitchen-table conversation that started it
The actual decision to start NXT Build came at the kitchen table of a customer Collin was running a custom barndominium build for in late 2023. The customer asked him point-blank: “Why don’t you just do this yourself? You’re already running the project. You already know more about the build than the project manager who isn’t here. Why am I paying that company a markup so they can be in the way?”
Collin did not have a good answer.
Over the next few months, he started laying the groundwork. He got his contractor’s license. He set up the LLC. He talked to insurance. He talked to a few suppliers about commercial accounts. He started talking to a few of the customers who had asked him directly if he would ever consider going out on his own. The first NXT Build project was a barndominium in Jackson County in early 2024. He has been running the company since.
What changed for customers
The practical difference for NXT Build customers compared to the way Collin had been running projects before is just this: there is no sales team, no project manager, and no handoff. The person who quotes the project is the person who runs the project is the person who is on the site every day. If something needs to change, you talk to Collin about it. If something goes wrong, you talk to Collin about it. If you have a question about how the build is going, you call him and he picks up.
The other thing that changed is overhead. NXT Build does not carry a sales force, a marketing department, or a layer of middle management. The cost of the project goes into the project. That is part of why our per-square-foot custom home and post-frame prices tend to land at or below the bigger contractors in our area, even though our standards are at the top end of what those contractors deliver.
What we do not promise
We do not promise that every project goes perfectly. Construction is hard, weather happens, suppliers are sometimes late, and customers sometimes change their minds halfway through. The promise we do make is that Collin runs the project from the first phone call to the day you move in. If something goes wrong, you hear about it from him before it becomes a problem. If something needs to be fixed, he fixes it. That is the standard, and it does not change between the first conversation and the move-in date.
What is next
NXT Build is still a small company. Collin runs the schedule and the crew. As we grow, the standard we built the company around (owner-operated, one point of contact, no handoffs) is the thing we are least willing to compromise on. Bigger does not necessarily mean better, and we would rather stay at a size where Collin can actually be on every project than grow into the same problem he started the company to solve.
If you are thinking about a build in eastern Iowa and you want to talk to the person who will actually run it, give Collin a call at (563) 581-3819 or set up a free site walk through the contact page.