Billy’s Pivot Playbook: Why They Abandoned a $1B Market Opportunity and What They Built Instead
Every founder knows the temptation of a billion-dollar market opportunity. But the hardest part of building B2B software isn’t identifying big problems – it’s recognizing which ones are actually worth solving. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Billy founder Nyasha Gutsa shared the counterintuitive framework that led them to abandon the construction payments market and build something entirely different.
The Obvious Problem
With deep experience in construction tech from his time at Procore, Nyasha initially saw an obvious opportunity: modernize construction payments. The market was massive, the problem was clear, and the industry was still using paper checks in 2024. It seemed like a perfect target for disruption.
Why Good Markets Can Be Bad Opportunities
But Billy’s early efforts revealed three critical issues that changed their trajectory. As Nyasha explains: “We quickly realized that the sales process of trying to sell such software to construction companies is a bit difficult. And two, the willingness to pay from contractors just isn’t there. And three, it wasn’t going to be a big business because there are any companies that facilitate payments, such as Stripe IDN, for example.”
This led to an even more important insight about why construction companies resist payment modernization: “Construction companies are less willing to go towards electronic payments, especially for really large amounts. They prefer checks… because they are able to hold that money as leverage to the person who’s getting paid.”
Finding the Hidden Opportunity
Instead of completely abandoning their construction industry knowledge, Billy dug deeper into the payment ecosystem. They discovered that contractors needed two key documents to get paid: lien waivers and insurance certificates.
This investigation revealed a different problem hiding in plain sight. “The way in which businesses manage their insurance is still horse and buggy,” Nyasha notes. “If I ask you a question like, hey, how do you manage your insurance? You’re probably going to say, I stored my insurance in Gmail, it’s in a folder, it’s with my mom, or I got a call in Jake from State Farm.”
The Evaluation Framework
Billy’s pivot decision reveals a framework for evaluating B2B opportunities that goes beyond market size:
- Customer Behavior: Look for problems where the current solution isn’t just inefficient, but actively painful. Construction companies were comfortable with check payments because they served a strategic purpose. But managing insurance documentation was a genuine pain point.
- Platform Potential: Rather than trying to change fundamental industry behaviors, look for opportunities to build on top of them. “We purposely focused on partnering with Procore,” Nyasha shares, explaining how they leveraged existing platforms instead of fighting them.
- Implementation Friction: Focus on solutions that can be adopted quickly. “I’m a big fan of DocuSign software,” Nyasha explains. “You can go and get up and running with DocuSign in just under five minutes. So this is exactly how we built Billy.”
Building the Alternative
Instead of trying to revolutionize payments, Billy created a platform that makes existing processes more efficient. Their integration strategy reflects this philosophy: “The integration with Procore is just as simple as log in with your Pro Corps and you’re integrated and start using the software right away. There’s no logins for the other people that have to submit documents because for contractors, that creates a lot of friction.”
The Long-Term Vision
This pivot has positioned Billy to pursue an even bigger opportunity. They aim to become “the kayak of business insurance, where you just go and you can compare insurance coverage in a couple of minutes. You can purchase it, you can hire or fire your broker if you want, but all powered by Billy.”
The lesson? Sometimes the best opportunities aren’t the obvious inefficiencies in an industry, but the hidden friction points that everyone has learned to live with. The key is having the courage to abandon a seemingly perfect market when the evidence suggests otherwise, and the insight to find the real problem worth solving.