Jonty Kench
Backstory
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Ladbrooks, a small rural area between Tai Tapu and Lincoln. I went to a small rural primary school nearby, played rugby, and learnt a lot about agriculture, because that’s how most people in that area grew up.
What did your parents do, and what did you take from them?
Mum was a stay-at-home hairdresser, and Dad worked for a few different home builders and window and door factories.
What did you spend the most time on as a kid?
A lot of my spare time went on hunting or playing sport. I loved cricket and golf.
What did you do before TakeoffQS?
I worked as a fabricator for an aluminium window and door factory. From there I knew I wanted something more, so I resigned and started a marketing automation agency. I ran my own business for a few months until I met Brad, our CEO, and after a quick two-minute chat he hired me.
How did you end up at TakeoffQS?
I was originally hired as a developer for Agentic Intelligence, and started working on TakeoffQS in October 2025. I really enjoyed the project — it was something I already had some understanding of, and it felt like we were solving a real problem. I also liked the tech behind it, and learning things like computer vision.
What I care about
What’s broken in estimating that you want to fix?
The amount of wasted time and resource it takes to get a quantity estimate done. That time and resource can go into the real problems, like designing the home and the actual construction. If we can reduce the time from design to build, that means more homes, built faster and cheaper.
What do you look for in the companies we work with?
Companies that are ready to take on technology and not waste time.
A mistake you see builders make repeatedly?
Manually doing takeoffs when TakeoffQS exists.
What gets you fired up about this work?
The feeling of solving a problem, growing a business, and contributing.
What values matter most in how we build TakeoffQS?
Built for the person on the tools, not the person buying software. The user is a builder or a QS with a deadline, not a software person — if it needs explaining, we got it wrong. It also has to beat the spreadsheet on day one. Estimators don’t switch tools because ours is clever, they switch because the takeoff that took them a day now takes ten minutes, and if we can’t show that in the first session we haven’t earned the change.
The human bits
Favourite mantra in a work context?
“Measure twice, cut once.”
Secret skill?
Golf.
Dinner with anyone, alive or dead?
Max Verstappen. I love motorsport, and I think we have very similar personalities.
What can you nerd out on for hours?
Motorsport and finance.
How do workmates describe you?
Loud, cheeky, passionate, upfront.
Meet the rest of the team
