Kellerman Build Group
$34M revenue · 61 employees · Regional
Kellerman has $34M of revenue, $19M of backlog, and $2.1M of retainage sitting with owners. Profitable on paper, tight every month. The bonding company has capped them, which caps growth, and the founder's two sons are both in the business with no defined roles.
The question on the table
How do we grow past the bonding ceiling without a working capital crisis?
Company file
- Revenue
- $34.0M
- Backlog
- $19.2M
- Retainage held
- $2.14M
- Gross margin
- 11.8%
- Bonding cap
- $8M single / $22M aggregate
What the system found
$1.31M
Retainage released by the structured collections program
$8M → $14M
Single-project bonding capacity after the balance sheet rebuild
3 of 11
Jobs found to be losing money before they finished losing it
Retainage, job margin, compliance, and a two-son succession problem.
Cash Flow Command
Retainage is the whole problem
| Project | Retainage | Age | Release trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westgate Medical Office | $486k | 14 mo | Punch list — 6 items open |
| Riverbend Logistics | $402k | 9 mo | As-builts not submitted |
| Carver Elementary | $318k | 21 mo | Closeout docs — chase the architect |
| Meridian Retail | $284k | 7 mo | Substantial completion pending |
| Six smaller jobs | $650k | 11 mo avg | Mixed |
- HighTwo closeouts are stalled on paperwork you already have
$720k is waiting on as-builts and punch items worth roughly $14k of labor. This is the highest return-on-effort item in the entire company.
Comprehensive Financial Analysis
Job-level margin, live
| Job | Contract | % complete | Est. margin | Bid margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northline Distribution Center | $7.10M | 62% | 13.4% | 12.0% |
| Ashford Senior Living | $4.80M | 41% | 6.1% | 11.5% |
| Talbot Corporate Campus | $3.90M | 78% | 10.8% | 10.5% |
| Grant Street Parking | $2.40M | 34% | 2.9% | 9.8% |
| Fairmount Fire Station | $1.60M | 88% | −1.4% | 10.2% |
- HighThree jobs are running more than four points under bid
Combined fade of $584k. Two are still early enough for change orders; the fire station is not, and its overrun traces to a single subcontractor default nobody escalated.
- MediumThe same subcontractor appears on two of the three fading jobs
Remove them from the bid list before the next award.
Compliance & Risk
The risk register a bonding company wants to see
Written safety program with quarterly toolbox records
Subcontractor prequalification and insurance tracking
Formal change-order approval policy
Documented WIP review cadence with the CPA
Cyber and wire-fraud controls for draw requests
In progress — contractors are the top target for payment redirection fraud
Successor Simulator
Two sons, one company
Modeled three structures: co-CEO, operations/estimating split with a single tiebreaker, and a buyout of the less-engaged brother funded by a seller note.
The operations/estimating split with an independent board seat as tiebreaker scored highest on both continuity and family-relationship risk. Co-CEO scored worst on every dimension despite being the founder's stated preference.
| Structure | Continuity | Family risk | Bonding view |
|---|---|---|---|
| Co-CEO | 44 | High | Negative — no clear signatory |
| Ops / estimating split | 81 | Medium | Positive |
| Buyout of one brother | 76 | Low | Neutral — leverage added |
What would this look like for your business?
Kellerman Build Group is illustrative. The tools are not. Point them at your own numbers and you will have the first version of this file inside an afternoon.