Check Out David Tudor’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Tudor. 

Hi David, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My background was in Finance. I worked as an Institutional Equity Sales Trader for Avondale Partners through the summers in college and then for 6 years post-graduation. Once I realized almost all of the equity trading was moving exclusively to computers and programmers, I decided to make a career change and help my family’s growing cabinet business. I ran the multi-family sales division for 6 years and met many contractors and developers in Nashville over that period. I realized I had an interest in building the whole house and not just the kitchen cabinets. After working with many mentors and successful builders I decided to start my own home building company and leave the family business. One of my first projects was for Wood Caldwell, one of the partners at Southeast Venture. About halfway through the project, he asked me if I wanted to start a real construction company. At first, I was a little confused because I had already started a construction company and was building his project for him. So, my first response was, “Well I kind of already have one right now.” Then he said, “No like a real construction company with us, Southeast Venture!” Of course, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. Fast forward about six months and we started Tudor Building Group in November 2018. Since then, we have had record growth each year and just moved into our own office in the nations on Centennial Blvd. We currently are finishing 21 condos in East Nashville on Porter Rd and have two neighborhoods under construction among some smaller custom projects around town. No matter the size of the project our focus will always be on great craftsmanship and quality architecture. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I ran the entire company by myself for the first 6 months which was difficult. I would be in the field all day during the week and use Saturday and Sunday to catch up on my billing or back-office paperwork. Not to mention I had two kids under the age of 4 at home which was also my office. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We focus on great craftsmanship and quality architecture. It is easy to be a good craftsman but if the architecture is garbage, it is pretty much a waste of time and energy. No matter the price point of the project there is always room for good architecture. This was instilled in me early on through my mentors and partners. We will make less money on a project but be proud to put our name on it versus building the cheapest and fastest house possible. 

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
As an equity sales trader, I was very comfortable with calculating risks on a daily basis. At the peak of my time at Avondale, I was in charge of tens of millions of dollars each day for my clients. I have taken that same approach to the construction world. I feel like homebuilders take many more risks than people on wall street. Not only do we have the risk of not executing properly on a project but we also have all the safety hazards each job presents on a daily basis. Nashville is currently in a cycle where there are many bad contractors who wouldn’t be in business if the city wasn’t experiencing the growth it has. That cycle will slow eventually and start to weed out the bad actors. We hope to mitigate our risks accordingly and keep building quality products that we are proud to put our name on. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tudorbulid.com
• Instagram: tudorbuildgroup

Image Credits
David
Beth Tudor