Why I Built Tradsiee at 15

I'm 15 and I live in Melbourne. I built a piece of software called Tradsiee. This is the honest version of why.

The reason I actually started, not the pitch version.

It started with a wasted trip

Tradies are everywhere around me: a family friend, a neighbour, someone's dad. Whenever I asked about the work, I heard the same thing. Quoting is the worst part of the job.

You get a call, drive out, look at the job, drive back, write the quote, then wait. Half the time nobody replies. You've spent an hour and a tank of fuel to find out a job wasn't for you.

The customer already has a phone with a camera. They could show the job instead of the tradie driving across town to look at it. That gap is the whole idea behind Tradsiee. See the job before you drive out to quote.

What Tradsiee actually is

Tradsiee is a video lead tool for Australian tradespeople. Here's how it works:

1. A customer opens a link for a specific tradie and enters their name and phone number.
2. They confirm the number with an SMS code, so the leads are real people.
3. They record a short video of the job and submit it.
4. The video is processed and stored, and the tradie gets a text.
5. The tradie opens the link and watches the clip before deciding to quote.

The customer doesn't download an app or fill in a long form. It's a phone, a short video, and the tradie seeing the job before committing time to it.

Tradsiee is free right now. I'll get into why in a second.

I built it alone, at 15

I'm not going to pretend it was clean or fast. I built it on my own, after school and on weekends. I learned by breaking things and fixing them. Some parts I got right the first time. Most parts I didn't.

Video was the hard part. Raw clips had to be compressed to something that loads fast on a phone, stored somewhere reliable, and tied to a text message that goes out when a lead comes in. Each of those was its own small project.

What kept me going was how easy it is to tell whether it worked. If a tiler in Melbourne watches a lead video and decides the job is worth driving to, the software did its job. I like building things where I can see whether they helped.

Why it's free

People ask why Tradsiee doesn't cost anything. Free usually means there's a catch.

The reason isn't noble. I'm 15 and I want proof that I can build something people use. I want tradies trying it, telling me what's broken, and telling their mates. A product with real users teaches me more than a few dollars a month would. Right now the goal is to get it into as many hands as possible and make it good.

So there's no trial and no credit card. One day it will cost money, but right now it's free and I want as many tradies using it as I can get.

What this has to do with the websites

I also build websites.

I build sites for small Melbourne businesses, and they're free to build and host while you're with me. I do it because I want a portfolio of real sites instead of mockups.

If you're a tradie, the website offer is the same whether or not you use Tradsiee. Changes later are a flat fee, and there's an optional monthly plan for ongoing care. The build, hosting and basic maintenance cost nothing.

I know how a 15-year-old offering free work sounds. It's not generosity. I'm buying experience with time instead of money: real clients, real feedback, and real sites I can show the next person.

What I've learned so far

Simple beats clever. Every feature I added to Tradsiee that felt impressive but didn't help a tradie decide faster got cut, or should have been. The product works better the less it asks of people.

Most hard problems turned out to be missing steps, not missing skills. When video processing stumped me, I hadn't hit a limit. I just hadn't found the right tool yet.

Talking to the person using it beats guessing. I can imagine what a tradie wants from my laptop, but I only know when one tells me, and it's usually something I didn't expect.

What's next

I want Tradsiee in the hands of more Australian tradies. I want to keep building websites for local businesses and getting better at it. And I want to keep writing these posts about what I build, what breaks, and what I'd do differently.

If quoting blind is costing you time, try it: tradsiee.com. If you run a small business and your site embarrasses you, get in touch. The build is free.

I'm 15 and I have a lot to learn. The work is real, though, and that's the point.

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