Jason Simpson
Backstory
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Alexander City, Alabama, USA, which used to be the headquarters of Russell Athletic. Many of my friends lived on Lake Martin, which was a popular place for retirees and the Russell execs — many summers were spent there. American football was more or less a requirement, and I was really good at it.
What did your parents do, and what did you take from them?
My dad was an engineer and my mom a social worker. I’m probably a 50/50 mix of them, which probably explains why I’m so restless!
What did you spend the most time on as a kid?
Definitely music. Whether I was listening to it or playing it (poorly — I didn’t bother with lessons), music was an absolute constant. I also loved sports and riding dirt bikes.
What did you do before TakeoffQS?
What didn’t I do? I went into the Army as Special Ops, became an officer along the way, worked in IT for a while, then Deloitte as a management consultant, then I became a lecturer, and now I’m working with AI agents at scale. On the surface this looks random, but I was following a very specific lead, picking up depth in different areas along the way.
How did you end up at TakeoffQS?
I’ve always had an affinity for the construction industry from afar. I’m a systems builder, and I’ve always wanted to get into material building somehow. This was that chance. So far I’m loving it, and I can see hundreds of ways I can help innovate on both sides as we move into the future.
What I care about
What’s broken in estimating that you want to fix?
The manual nature of the process and the corresponding waste. I’m an efficiency fanatic, and I love fixing anything wasteful. I find that residential construction lags significantly in efficiency compared to other industries.
What do you look for in the companies we work with?
I look for companies that are driven and have a bit of an appetite for being on the edge. This aligns with my ultra-efficient nature, as achieving ultra-efficiency often requires nerve and intestinal fortitude — otherwise everyone would do it.
A mistake you see builders make repeatedly?
Wasting money on materials.
What gets you fired up about this work?
Mass scalability. It’s the ultimate systems-thinker challenge and difficult to pull off. We’re aiming for extreme throughput, and our systems must match that vision.
What values matter most in how we build TakeoffQS?
Scalability — how much demand our system can handle and how it responds to fluctuation. Accuracy — everything in our system must be accurate, requiring precision engineering combined with the most elegant solutions possible. Eliminating pain points — I want to see the most painful problems in this industry solved before focusing on nice-to-haves or something that looks clever.
The human bits
Favourite mantra in a work context?
“Extreme success results from an extreme personality and comes at the cost of many other things... They are people with bold visions who can find the creative leverage in the things that other people dismiss. They are not afraid of the dark; they go into the dark and they look until they find something.” — Justine Musk
Secret skill?
I am a master synthesiser. It’s definitely not the first impression I give.
Dinner with anyone, alive or dead?
Philip K. Dick — because I think if he and I got together, something very strange and impressive would happen.
What can you nerd out on for hours?
Philosophy. But it really takes the right person.
How do workmates describe you?
Driven. Determined. Pragmatic. Ambitious. Courageous (I feel fear probably far more than most, and yet I do it anyway). Intense.
Meet the rest of the team
