This profitable SG firm combines mercenary approach with Amazon-like infrastructure

“We are mercenaries. We get paid by the hour, so we actually work harder.”

That’s how Danny Castonguay describes the people behind Bld.ai, a Singapore-based platform specializing in digital professional services.

Bld.ai co-founder and CEO Danny Castonguay / Photo credit: Danny Castonguay

The co-founder and CEO isn’t just referring to the mercs – actually a network of 500 partners – on Bld.ai. Along with the company’s executives and board members, Castonguay himself works as a contractor on the platform.

Launched in 2017, Bld.ai has been profitable since 2022. It has a few simple rules for staying in the black: Charge by the hour; be very careful about who you lend to; and only work as contractors, even at the CEO level.

The combination may sound unrealistic, but it has allowed Bld.ai to post S$14 million (US$10.4 million) in revenue and S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in operating profit (EBITDA) in 2022, Castonguay tells Tech in Asia. The bootstrapped company says it posted similar figures in 2023.

Bld.ai’s network is made up of independent partners who sell, resell, and trade services such as engineering, product management, legal work, accounting, and even investment banking. Some partners also sell licenses for software (SaaS) while some work as consultants.

The partners range from individual freelancers to sizable companies with hundreds of employees that work in various fields including mining, healthcare, banking, and oil and gas.

Essentially, Bld.ai aims to offer services on par with major consultancy firms such as McKinsey & Company, Accenture, Deloitte, and Infosys, but at much reduced costs.

“As a client of Bld.ai, you get the benefit of the quality and scale of hiring large professional services firms, but at lower prices than hiring individuals or even direct engagement with boutique consulting companies,” Castonguay explains.

He adds that the company’s success comes from its ability to keep overhead costs, such as employment, low.

“The large corporations have lots of overhead, with about 25% of whatever a client pays going to the back office,” he says. “They’re robber barons – they charge incredibly high margins for the value that they bring.”

Amazon-like professional services

Castonguay is in a position to know – he worked for McKinsey for over seven years.

“It’s an extremely profitable business that justifies its exorbitant fees because the difference between good advice and great advice can be easily counted in tens of millions of dollars,” he says of his former employer.

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