AXE Builders Origin Story

People sometimes ask how I got started in this business, and the truth is, it wasn’t a straight line. I’m Andrew, Co-Founder and CEO of Axe Builders. My business partner Tyler, our COO, and I started this over a decade ago, back when we were juggling side gigs in college. Since then, it’s grown into a full-scale construction company based here in Philadelphia. It’s been a process of trial, error, and steady growth …and it’s still evolving.

Tyler and I met at Penn State, back when our priorities were a lot different than they are today. We were just a couple of college kids trying to figure things out and focused mostly on having a good time.

But even then, we both had a strong pull toward building something of our own. At 19, we launched our first business through a network marketing company called Vemma. We took it seriously and ended up growing a network of affiliates across all 50 states and over 20 countries.

That experience gave us an early education in sales, marketing, systems, and leadership. More importantly, it helped us understand our own strengths and weaknesses. We learned the value of building around what we were good at and bringing in help where we weren’t. That mindset proved critical later on when we moved into real estate and realized we were missing a major piece: construction.

Our First Steps into Building

Our first experience with homebuilding came during a mission trip to Guatemala. After returning to Philadelphia in 2017, we started with small-scale fix-and-flip rehabs.

We partnered with a group of local developers and offered to use our background in sales to help them acquire properties. In exchange, we asked to learn the business. That year was a crash course in real estate, covering everything from acquisitions and deal structure to financial analysis and construction.

By the end of that year, we launched our own company, AXE, starting with a single-family flip.

Scaling Up

That first project went well. We made a profit of around $50,000, which became our seed money. From there, we expanded into doing multiple flips at once and took on smaller multifamily properties. Over time, we transitioned into larger ground-up new construction and townhome developments.

2020: Taking Construction In-House

2020 marked a major shift for us. After working with three different general contractors, two of whom stole from us and one who was completely disengaged, we decided to bring the construction process in-house.

At the time, we were only building for ourselves. Over the next three years, we developed our systems and processes while working exclusively on our own projects. That period gave us the experience and control we had been missing, and it became clear that we were onto something that worked.

Turning Our Focus to Clients

In 2022, we took on our first client project.
In 2023, client work became our full-time focus.

Having been the client ourselves, we understood the pain points of working with unreliable builders. We were confident we could offer something better, and we built our approach around delivering clear communication, organized project management, and consistent quality.

What We Build Today

Today, AXE Builders serves both homeowners and investors on a wide range of residential projects.

• For investors, we build townhomes and multifamily properties, usually new construction.

• For homeowners, we take on custom homes and high-end renovations.

No matter who we’re building for, the priorities are the same: a quality finished product, delivered on time and within budget, with transparency throughout the process.

It sounds simple, but it takes discipline and the right systems to do it well.

Where We Are Now

We’re focused on bringing a high standard of construction and a streamlined process to projects across Philadelphia. We’re always learning, improving, and evolving as a team. But no matter where we are in that journey, our goal stays the same: to be the builders you can rely on.

Thanks for reading. If you’re planning a project and want to work with a team who takes the process seriously, we’d love to hear from you.