Built: 'If I had to do it all over again, I would make room for Canapi every time'

By Chase Gilbert

Chase Gilbert is Cofounder and CEO of Built, an AI-powered financial operations platform for the real estate and construction industries that automates workflows, accelerates the flow of money and information, and unlocks insights for smarter decisions.

I’m proud to say Built was Canapi’s first investment. But when we first met the Canapi folks, our Series B was already oversubscribed—and Canapi didn’t even technically exist yet.

That’s how much we believed in their mission and their potential impact.

It was back in 2019 when we were raising for our Series B, and frankly, we didn’t need another investor. If anything, I was in the uncomfortable position of having to turn people away at the time. 

And yet, after [Canapi Partner] Neil Underwood and [Canapi President and General Partner] Walker Forehand paid me a visit in Nashville, I walked away from our dinner conversation thinking: I really need to find a way to get these people involved and on the cap table. 

And so we did. I ended up having to ask some existing investors to back off their full pro rata, and then we increased the round size slightly so we could make space. 

Why? Because I knew it was incredibly rare to meet investors who truly understood both sides of the fintech/banking equation. Most investors fall on one side or the other: They know the tech, or they know the banks.

Canapi is one of the only firms I know that deeply understands how financial institutions think, buy, and operate, and what it actually takes to partner with them. When that’s your bar, the world gets very small.

So, even though Canapi wouldn’t officially launch its fund until 2020, I knew Built could not afford to miss that boat.  And I definitely don’t mean getting some extra money. All money is green, but Canapi’s relationships and operating experience have been earned over time and are very difficult to replicate.

"Either you have the banking sector’s trust, or you don’t. Canapi has it."

For Built, we were fortunate to have a number of great capital partners around the table that added value in different ways. Canapi’s differentiation quickly became apparent with the combination of decades-deep relationships across the banking ecosystem, investors who have built and operated fintechs themselves (nCino, Live Oak, S1, and more), and people who have earned trust to the point that when they call a bank executive, that person pays attention and follows up.

You simply cannot recreate that overnight. It’s hard to even hire people with that type of credibility. And you cannot growth-hack your way into it. Either you have the banking sector relationships and trust, or you don’t. Canapi has it.

The trust extends to our side as a portfolio company as well. From the moment they invested in Built, Canapi did exactly what they said they were going to do: They opened doors into their Limited Partner network that now numbers over 70 financial institutions, often at the very top of the bank. They wanted to understand our product and roadmap. They wanted to understand what problems we were trying to solve as a company and sought out ways to help. 

Many of the people whom Canapi calls on are C-suite leaders who might not normally be deeply involved in our sales process. But when those leaders start asking their teams, “How’s it going with Built?” the seriousness level suddenly changes. 

People just lean in differently when something is on the radar of the CEO or senior executive who has a longstanding relationship with Canapi. It’s of course then on us to then win them over on the merits of the value we can create, but getting in the door with the right audience can save months or years of the sales cycle swirl when it comes to working with banks. 

"Canapi’s relationships and operating experience are earned over time and difficult to replicate."

Canapi’s impact on Built goes far beyond deal mechanics. Their network of financial institution LPs are incredibly valuable design partners; they help shape where our products need to go and make them better in very practical ways.

One of the reasons I believe Canapi has built this trust on all sides is that many of their people were operators long before they were investors. They have sold modern banking platforms to conservative financial institutions. They have lived inside regulatory and risk constraints. They have created products that banks actually adopt, not just admire in a demo. 

The Canapi team’s history as operators gives them real empathy on both sides: empathy for banks dealing with regulation, risk, and competing priorities, and empathy for founders fighting long sales cycles while trying to scale their companies.

We’ve used them as thought partners as Built evolved from a single-product company to a multi-product platform, and as we figured out how to balance landing new customers with expanding existing ones. I talked with Neil about how they structured sales at nCino, about when and how to place general managers over specific customer segments, and so much more. Defining Built’s strategy is our job, but they’ve helped us avoid some potholes they hit themselves.

Our story with Canapi began as a relatively small participant in our Series B. Yet over time their investment in Built has grown meaningfully as we’ve worked to give them more allocation in later rounds because of the value they create. That’s why I tell every founder who asks me for advice on Canapi: “If you sell to financial institutions and Canapi is excited about what you’re doing, it’s irresponsible not to explore partnering with them.”

I’d say something similar to financial institutions considering joining the Canapi Alliance network of LPs: Canapi understands your world because they live it. They invest on behalf of the banking industry in companies solving real problems you feel every day.

Canapi does not just allocate capital; they roll up their sleeves with you to connect dots, filter noise, and help both banks and fintechs move faster in the right direction. Built is a beneficiary of all of that. And if I had to do it all over again, I would make room for Canapi every time.