Five years in, DA Builders setting foundation for future

When Dan Angelesco founded DA Builders five years ago, he couldn’t help feeling a bit like Rudy Ruettiger, the undersized walk-on at Notre Dame who made the Fighting Irish practice squad on sheer determination and grit.

Angelesco had a deep construction background after spending years working for one of the world’s largest general contractors, as well as the largest general contractor in the Silicon Valley. Stepping out on his own and into the construction arena to compete head-to-head against the region’s most well-known names in commercial construction was a whole new game, though.

“We were like Rudy from the football movie,” Angelesco told NNBW last week during an interview at a tenant improvement project DA Builders is completing at Shayden Summit Reno. “We had to try 10 times harder than anyone else.”

Five years in, though, and the switch has finally flipped for DA Builders, Angelesco added.

“I get calls daily now for new projects,” he said. “All that hard work over the last five years has paid off, and we are starting to get traction to where I am not having to call people and ask if they have any clients that need something built.”

Prior to founding DA Builders, Angelesco found himself in a bit of a quandary. His California-based employer wanted him to leave Reno and return to the Golden State, but Angelesco didn’t want to have anything to do with the hectic pace of the San Francisco Bay Area. He began interviewing with some regional builders, his employer got wind that he was testing the waters and he was given two options: toe the line, or leave the company.

Dan Angelesco

He decided it was time to plant his own flag in Northern Nevada.

DA Builder’s first project was constructing a new headquarters office for Road & Highway Builders in Mustang alongside of the Truckee River. That job provided a huge leg up for DA Builders, which was founded using Angelesco’s personal savings rather than a deep war chest of cash from a financial backer.

“At that point I had nothing, but within two months we were breaking ground on a multi-million contract,” Angelesco said. “I was sitting in a meeting (with RHB President Richard Buenting) and I realized that he was seriously considering me. If that project didn’t happen, I would have been scraping by with kitchen remodels.”

Anthony Toschi, DA Builder’s vice president and operations manager, came on two years later. The duo had worked together for more than 15 years and completed projects for some of the largest names in the tech sector. It took little convincing for Toschi to leave the safety and financial security of his current position with a multi-billion-dollar construction company and join a startup.

“I believed in Dan because I had worked with him before,” Toschi said. “He’s probably the best project manager in this area. I knew he would be going places, and if you want to make some real money you have to take risks.”

Angelesco told NNBW that many new commercial construction ventures are launched with some type of financial backing to help out during the early stages. DA Builders didn’t have that luxury – which likely made the principals work even harder.

“A lot of guys who come out of nowhere are backed by someone,” Angelesco said. “We didn’t have that, but we have been pretty successful so far.”

Added Toschi: “It was a lot of motivation – either you fail and go back to work for another builder, or you make it work.”

DA Builders original general contracting license also limited its scope of work to smaller commercial projects, though DA Builders has since upped its license capacity and is now pursuing an unlimited general contracting license that would put the company in direct competition with the largest construction companies operating in the western region.

Anthony Toschi

“The proving ground in the first five years — you really have to have thick skin because you will be rejected since you haven’t proven yourself,” Angelesco said. “You can show them on paper that you’ve built all these great projects around town (for other companies), but they want to see what DA Builders has done. It has been a battle the last five years, but every year it’s getting better.”

As Toschi and Angelesco honed their marketing skills and DA Builders increased its name recognition, they began winning work based on merit rather than cost, Angelesco said. DA Builders originally targeted jobs under $10 million – a pittance to the companies that routinely build billion-dollar football stadiums and corporate technology campuses.

“I knew there had to be a market in Reno for the under $10 million jobs,” Angelesco said. “The big companies, anything under $10 million and they are throwing their D team at it. But if we go out there and are the A team, we are going to outshine them. That’s what I have been selling from Day 1.

“The two of us, pound-for-pound, are one of the strongest teams in the under $10 million market,” he added. “Anthony runs the field, and I run the office. We aren’t making the margins the big guys are, but we have to make our name. It’s going to take 10 years in this industry of doing really solid work to become a common name in the construction industry.”

Neither principal is afraid of doing some old-school grassroots marketing either. Both attend networking functions and events in town to grip and grin.

“All we are looking for is an opportunity – if we get a chance, we are probably going to win the job,” Toschi said.

“The first five years was just getting our name out there,” Angelesco added. “The next five years is to become a force that competes with other builders, winning jobs, and not just being the underdog that is there as a price check.”