Built by someone who has run the work.
Contractor-AI came out of 25 years on jobsites and in job trailers. We build software that carries the paper side of a job, assistants that write what your team never gets to, and hands-on help getting it rolled out.
Twenty-five years, and none of it at a software company.
Tim Lewis spent 25 years in construction. He started as a cleanup laborer working for his father, moved into carpentry and framing, then commercial project engineer, then commercial PM. The last ten years were at Harper General Contractors, an ENR Top 400 GC founded in Greenville, South Carolina in 1950 that does about $500 million a year. He was regional director, opened the Asheville office, and led a team of 30 carrying more than $60 million in active projects, including the ABCCM Transformation Village, nine Buncombe County school renovations and the Wesley Grant Center.
He built Harper's construction technology department from nothing in 2016 and ran it for five years. He watched the industry take on BIM, then drones, then sensors on everything that moves. Most of it collected dust after the pilot. He knows what sticks.
AI is different because it doesn't ask anyone to change how they work. It shows up where people already are: writing the email, reading the spec, filling out the daily report, answering the sub's question.
He left Harper in February 2026 to build for the industry he came from: a system that carries the paper so the job can move, instead of one more platform people have to learn before it helps them.
Ten years
What ten years at a $500 million contractor taught him
Information speed beats construction speed.
A crew waiting on an RFI answer is a crew standing around, no matter how fast they can build once it comes back.
A difficult client is an under-informed client.
Give the owner the full picture early and most of the fight goes out of the room.
Ego is the most expensive material on a job.
It shows up in change order fights, delay claims and meetings that should have taken ten minutes.
Coordination beats headcount.
Adding bodies to a badly coordinated job just adds more places for information to get lost.
Technology amplifies the communication culture you already have. It does not fix it.
Hand Procore to a team that doesn't talk to each other and it documents the dysfunction in higher resolution.
Why AI
Why this and not the last three waves.
He ran the technology department that piloted BIM, drones and sensors. They arrived with a budget and left with a pilot report, because each one asked the field to change how it works. This doesn't. The super still writes the daily report. The PM still sends the email. The tool just does the typing.
Today
Three ways we work with a contractor.
The platform
One project record for contracts, billing, RFIs, submittals and closeout.
See it →
The assistants
Nancy and Amy draft the chase emails, the minutes and the reports nobody gets to. A person still hits send.
See it →
Consulting
Hands-on rollout, starting with a recorded conversation about how last week went.
See it →
The Unhook Network
Contractor-AI is part of the Unhook Network, Tim's group of businesses in construction, the outdoors and technology.
Contractor-AI
Construction software
Software, assistants and hands-on help for contractors.
Unhook Outdoors (opens in a new tab)
Content and media
Outdoor content and gear reviews.
TackleRoom Supply (opens in a new tab)
Online store
Saltwater fishing tackle and gear.
Next step
Come see it.
We run the walkthrough on a job you're carrying right now.