QuoteIQ Eliminates "I Already Hired Someone Else" with Speed-to-Lead Platform Built by Contractors, For Contractors
- All American Pressure Cleaning
- Dec 18, 2025
- 7 min read
Bootstrapped CRM Platform Leverages Harvard Business School Research to Help Service Businesses Respond to Leads 100x Faster, Driving Industry-Leading Conversion Rates Without Silicon Valley Funding
SAVANNAH, GA – December 18, 2025 – QuoteIQ, a rapidly growing CRM platform for home service contractors, today announced how its comprehensive Speed-to-Lead technology is fundamentally changing how service businesses capture and convert leads. Unlike venture-funded competitors built by software developers, QuoteIQ was created by working contractors who experienced the problem firsthand – and built the solution they wished existed.
The catalyst? A Harvard Business School study that revealed a devastating truth: businesses that wait just 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes to respond to a lead see their qualification odds drop by 400%. With the average industry response time sitting at 42 hours, and 23% of businesses never responding at all, service contractors are losing thousands of dollars in revenue daily – simply because they're too busy working to respond to leads.
"We weren't trying to build the next big tech unicorn," said Mike Vidan, Co-Founder of QuoteIQ and owner of All American Pressure Cleaning, an eight-time "Best in Savannah" award winner. "We were bleeding leads while running our own service businesses. I'd finish a job, check my phone, and see five missed calls. I'd call them back and hear the same five words over and over: 'I already hired someone else.' That's when we knew – speed to lead isn't just important, it's EVERYTHING. The Harvard study just proved what we already knew in our gut."
The Research That Changed Everything
The 2011 Harvard Business Review study "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" analyzed 15,000 unique leads and over 100,000 call attempts across 2,241 U.S. companies. The findings were stark:
Leads contacted within 5 minutes are 100 times more likely to be reached than those contacted after 30 minutes
Leads are 21 times more likely to qualify when contacted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes
Businesses responding within 1 hour are 60 times more likely to qualify leads compared to those waiting 24+ hours
The optimal contact time is between 4:00-5:00 PM, with a 164% higher qualification rate
Wednesdays and Thursdays see 49% better results than Tuesdays
Six or more call attempts increase contact rates by 70%
Yet despite this overwhelming evidence, most service businesses continue to operate with response times measured in hours or days, not minutes.
Built in the Trenches, Not in Silicon Valley
QuoteIQ's founding story stands in stark contrast to typical software startups. Co-founders Mike Vidan and Justin Rogers weren't fresh-faced Stanford graduates with venture capital backing – they were seasoned contractors running successful service businesses who saw their industry's tools failing them.
"Every CRM we tried was built by people who had never run a service call in their life," said Justin Rogers, Co-Founder of QuoteIQ. "They didn't understand that when you're on a roof in July or under a sink in a crawl space, you can't stop to type up a quote in some complicated system. We were paying for six different subscriptions – a CRM, a quoting tool, a scheduling app, a measurement tool, a payment processor, and a review system – and duct-taping them together. And we were STILL losing leads because none of it solved the core problem: speed."
The duo bootstrapped QuoteIQ from their own profits, building the platform organically without taking a single dollar of venture capital. Today, QuoteIQ serves contractors across pressure washing, HVAC, plumbing, roofing, landscaping, and dozens of other home service categories.
"We didn't have the luxury of burning investor money to 'find product-market fit,'" Vidan explained. "Every dollar we invested came from our own businesses. That meant we had to build something that actually WORKED – something that solved real problems for real contractors, not something that looked good in a pitch deck."
The Platform: Speed to Lead as Foundation
QuoteIQ's comprehensive platform treats speed to lead not as a feature, but as the architectural foundation upon which everything else is built:
InstaQuote & InstaSchedule: Generate professional estimates in seconds and allow customers to self-schedule appointments directly from their phones. No delays. No back-and-forth. No lost opportunities.
MapMeasure Pro: Calculate accurate property measurements from satellite imagery in 30 seconds, enabling contractors to quote jobs without ever visiting the property first.
AI Image Generation: Show customers exactly what their property will look like after service completion – before the work even begins. This revolutionary feature closes deals while competitors are still drafting basic quotes.
Virtual Call Team: Perhaps the most game-changing feature, QuoteIQ's AI-powered virtual receptionist answers every call, even when contractors are actively working. The system can answer questions, collect detailed information, generate quotes, upsell additional services, and immediately notify the contractor via text, email, and in-app notification.
"The Virtual Call Team is what I wish I'd had 10 years ago," said Vidan. "It's not voicemail. It's not a call center in another country. It's an AI receptionist that actually understands your business, can quote your services, and makes sure you never miss a lead because you're too busy working. That's the irony of our industry – the better you are at your job, the worse you are at answering your phone."
Outbound Calling Capabilities: QuoteIQ extends beyond inbound lead response with automated outbound calling for customer check-ins, seasonal promotions, and lead generation from existing customer databases – creating what Vidan calls "the modern-day postcard that goes straight to their phone."
Real Contractors, Real Results
The difference between QuoteIQ and venture-funded competitors shows in both the platform's design and its business model. While competitors like Jobber and ServiceTitan have raised hundreds of millions in venture capital, QuoteIQ remains proudly bootstrapped with a team that includes multiple active service business owners.
"Our competitors optimize for their investors," Rogers noted. "We optimize for our customers – because we ARE our customers. When we add a feature, it's because we needed it in our own businesses first. When we design a workflow, we test it in the field, not in a conference room."
This boots-on-the-ground approach has resulted in industry-leading customer satisfaction scores and organic growth that outpaces many venture-funded competitors despite having a fraction of their marketing budgets.
"Every feature request we get, we run through a simple filter: Would this help us win more jobs in our own businesses?" Vidan said. "If the answer is yes, we build it. If it's just feature bloat that looks good in a demo, we skip it. That's the advantage of being built by contractors instead of career software developers."
The Competitive Landscape
The home services CRM market has exploded in recent years, with major players raising massive funding rounds:
ServiceTitan: $1+ billion raised
Jobber: $100+ million raised
Housecall Pro: $100+ million raised
Yet QuoteIQ has carved out significant market share while remaining completely bootstrapped, proving that contractor-focused design and sustainable growth can compete with venture-funded giants.
"We're not trying to be the biggest," Rogers explained. "We're trying to be the best. There's a reason contractors switch to us from those other platforms – it's because we actually understand their business. We've done the jobs. We've lost the leads. We've felt the pain. And we built the solution that actually works."
The Bootstrapped Advantage
QuoteIQ's bootstrapped status has become a competitive advantage rather than a limitation. Without pressure from venture capitalists to pursue growth-at-all-costs strategies or rush toward an exit, the company has been able to focus on sustainable, profitable growth and customer-first product development.
"Being bootstrapped means we're not beholden to investors who want us to 10x revenue in 18 months regardless of whether it's good for our customers," Vidan said. "We can make decisions based on what's right for contractors, not what looks good in a quarterly board meeting. That's incredibly liberating."
The company's lean, customer-focused business model demonstrates the power of prioritizing product quality and customer success over rapid scaling and executive compensation packages.
"Every dollar we make goes back into making the platform better," Rogers added. "Not into executive compensation packages or fancy offices or Super Bowl commercials. Into features that help contractors book more jobs and make more money. That's it."
Looking Forward: Winter Preparation for Spring Success
As the home services industry enters its winter planning season, QuoteIQ is positioning Speed to Lead as the critical competitive differentiator for 2025 and beyond.
"Most contractors use winter to sharpen their blades and maintain their equipment," Vidan noted. "But they should also be sharpening their lead response systems. The Harvard study showed that speed to lead is the difference between businesses that thrive and businesses that barely survive. This winter is the perfect time to get it right."
The platform continues to evolve based on real-world contractor feedback, with new features in development that further reduce response times and increase conversion rates.
"We're just getting started," Rogers said. "Every feature we add, every improvement we make, it all comes back to that core mission: help contractors respond faster, quote faster, close faster, and grow faster. That's what we built QuoteIQ to do, and that's what we'll keep doing."
About QuoteIQ
QuoteIQ is a comprehensive CRM platform built by contractors, for contractors. Founded by service business owners Mike Vidan and Justin Rogers, QuoteIQ provides an all-in-one solution for lead management, quoting, scheduling, payment processing, and customer communication – with Speed to Lead as the foundational principle. The bootstrapped company serves contractors across dozens of home service categories, from pressure washing and HVAC to plumbing, roofing, and landscaping. Unlike venture-funded competitors, QuoteIQ prioritizes sustainable growth, customer satisfaction, and features that solve real problems for working contractors.
For more information, visit www.QuoteIQ.com
Media Contact: QuoteIQ Public Relations media@quoteiq.com [Phone Number]
Connect with QuoteIQ: Website: www.QuoteIQ.com LinkedIn: [LinkedIn Profile] Facebook: [Facebook Page] Instagram: [Instagram Handle] YouTube: [YouTube Channel]
Editor's Notes:
About the Harvard Study: "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" was published in the March 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review. The study was conducted by James B. Oldroyd (MIT), Kristina McElheran (University of Toronto), and David Elkington (InsideSales.com). The research analyzed 15,000 leads and 100,000+ call attempts across 2,241 U.S. companies spanning financial services, automobiles, education, software, healthcare, and professional services.
Key Statistics for Reference:
400% decrease in qualification odds waiting 10 minutes vs. 5 minutes
100x more likely to contact a lead within 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes
60x more likely to qualify a lead responding within 1 hour vs. 24+ hours
Average industry response time: 42 hours
23% of companies never respond to leads at all
Only 37% of companies respond within the first hour
Founder Backgrounds:
Mike Vidan: Owner of All American Pressure Cleaning (8x "Best in Savannah" winner), 20+ years in service industry, 2M+ social media followers across platforms
Justin Rogers: Serial service business entrepreneur, field operator, product architect
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