Why I Built Tradsiee at 15

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

Not the pitch version. The reason I actually started.

It started with a wasted trip

I got interested in trades because tradies are everywhere around me. A family friend, a neighbour, someone's dad. The thing I kept hearing was the same: quoting is the worst part of the job.

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

I kept thinking about that gap. The customer already has a phone with a camera. They could just show the job. Instead the tradie drives across town to look at it.

That's the whole idea behind Tradsiee. See the job before you drive out to quote.

What Tradsiee actually is

Tradsiee is video lead generation for Australian tradespeople. The flow is simple:

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 an SMS.
5. The tradie watches the clip before deciding to quote.

That's it. No app to download for the customer. No long form. Just a phone, a video, and the tradie seeing the job before committing time to it.

Tradsiee is free to use. 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.

The list of things I had to figure out was long. Video is heavy — you can't just store raw clips and hope. I needed to process the video down to something that loads fast on a phone, store it somewhere reliable, and send the tradie a text when a lead comes in. Each one of those is a small project on its own.

What kept me going was how concrete it was. If a tiler in Melbourne opens a lead video and decides the job is worth driving to, the software did its job. That's a real outcome I can point at. I like building things where I can see whether they helped.

Why it's free

People ask me why Tradsiee doesn't cost anything. Fair question — free usually means there's a catch.

Here's the actual reason, and it's not noble. I'm 15 and I want proof. I want tradies using it, telling me what's broken, and telling their mates. A small product with real users teaches me more than a few dollars a month ever would. My goal right now is to get it into as many hands as possible and make it genuinely good.

So Tradsiee is free, and it's staying that way for now. No trial, no credit card, no expiry.

What this has to do with the websites

There's a second half to what I do.

I build websites for small Melbourne businesses, and I build them free to build and host while they're with me. The catch is there isn't one — I do it because I want a portfolio of real sites instead of mockups.

The two things connect. If you're a tradie, you can use Tradsiee for free and I'll also build your website for free. If you need changes later, most are a small flat fee, and if you want ongoing care, there's a monthly option. But the build itself costs nothing.

I know how that sounds. A 15-year-old offering free work sounds either generous or suspicious. It's neither. It's me buying experience with time instead of money. Real clients, real feedback, real sites I can show the next person. That's the trade, and I'm upfront about it.

What I've learned so far

Three things, plainly.

One: simple beats clever. Every time I added something to Tradsiee that felt impressive but didn't help a tradie decide faster, I cut it or regretted it. The product is better the less it asks of people.

Two: hard things are usually a missing step, not a missing skill. When video processing stumped me, it wasn't because I couldn't do it. It was because I hadn't found the right tool yet. Most walls are doors I hadn't located.

Three: talking to the person using it beats guessing. I can sit at my laptop and imagine what a tradie wants. The only way I actually know is when one tells me — 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 — documenting what I build, what breaks, and what I'd do differently, in public.

If you're a tradie and you're tired of quoting blind, 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. I have a lot to learn. But the work is real, and that's the point.

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