As diverse as Toronto’s restaurant and retail space may be, little is known of the people behind the scenes.
BUILD IT by design is one company that has earned its bragging rights when it comes to shaping the city’s creative feel. This team works with entrepreneurs of all kinds to build a brand’s physical presence from start to finish. What makes them so unique is their ability to guide a project from the ground up, while paying attention to the details that people remember.
Q&A with Alburt & Simon
View the VIBE recently sat down with BUILD IT’s founders, Alburt Lefebvre and Simon Shahin, to find out how the two pioneered their way into this business and handled any setbacks along the way.
How did you two meet and what sparked the idea to build ‘BUILD IT by design’?
We met at school and having similar backgrounds from hardworking families, as well as being neighbours, we became best friends very quickly. We saw every project as an opportunity to capture the public’s imagination. There’s something that excited us about creating physical things and seeing people’s dreams become reality has always inspired us.
How do you determine what your clients really want? What does an initial client-meeting look like?
Transparency has always been one of our principal values. Our ability to communicate openly and honestly is time and again the one quality that our clients say sets us apart from others. We ask why is a client making the decision they are making–then we listen.
What’s the hardest part of running this company?
When growing a company your number one resource is the people. The most difficult task is understanding what people want, what drives your staff, your clients and your vendors. We start simply by trying to understand what motivates an individual and how does that impact the decisions they make.
You have been quoted saying most of your in-house employees are still with you from day one, how did you build that kind of close work culture?
We take great pride in having one of the country’s most talented collection of tradespeople and construction experts. Other companies bring in hired guns — we hire them full-time instead. Over the last decade, we’ve established a culture of accountability and dedication, where everyone is encouraged to think like entrepreneurs and challenge us with newer, better ways of doing things.
The restaurant space is very competitive, how did you manage to break in and work with so many clients?
We create environments that authentically express a brand’s attitude and story. Spaces that draw customers in by standing out from the everyday ordinary. The most important point of contact you’ll ever have with your customer comes the moment they step inside your doors – and we know what it takes to set a world class standard in hospitality, retail, and commercial spaces.
The most important point of contact
you’ll ever have with your customer comes the
moment they step inside your doors
We centralize the entire construction process, working with our own internally managed designers, tradespeople and talent. That means everyone stays in constant communication, guided by the same vision and overseen by a dedicated project manager — so you can trust that all the moving pieces are working together in harmony.
We also understand that brands live and die in the details. We know it’s the obsessive little touches that complete a space and make for an exceptional customer experience.
Have you ever turned down a project, or if you were to, what would the reasons be?
Yes, we have turned down projects. Sometimes there’s just no synergy, we’re in it for the long term and we want to work with people that believe what we believe. This is mission critical when it comes to a successful working relationship internally or externally.
What has been the company’s biggest setback to date?
Not thinking big enough at times. As you grow a company, you’re faced with different challenges along the way. These obstacles at the moment feel very cumbersome and sometimes you focus too much energy in that specific moment on that specific hurdle. Focusing on the larger picture is sometimes more difficult to do than it is to say.
What’s the work dynamic between you two like?
Simon is focused on the operational side and I’m focused on the development. We are opposites that tend to find a creative balance to any opportunity or obstacle, it just works. We constantly challenge each other to be a better version of themselves on a daily basis.
At the end of the day, we’re in the construction business but more than anything else, we’re just really good problem solvers. When projects throw us a curve-ball, we hunt down creative solutions and find the right people for the job. Nothing gets between us and opening day.
