The Business Benefits of Building
Community
There
is a simple but effective way to unite neighborhoods and build collectives
while saving money for clients and customers.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
Oct 28,
2025
For many years, I ran
1871, the Number 1 university-affiliated tech incubator in the world, from our
headquarters in Chicago. During my tenure, we developed a number of
sub-incubators focusing on various types of entrepreneurs—women, veterans,
students, and various ethnic groups. We also made extensive outreach efforts to
extend our knowhow and resources to new business builders in underserved
neighborhoods throughout the city. These multi-year initiatives were largely
successful and spawned numerous mini-incubators as well as industry-specific
hubs in areas like medicine and manufacturing as well as creative shops and
maker spaces.
Still, I always believed
that there was a fundamental disconnect between the perceived wonders and
attractions of new technologies and the more basic tools needed to build and
grow successful and sustainable service businesses in the various neighborhoods,
particularly with respect to our work outside of the central business district.
For every 10 budding business builders who were going to create a new
nationwide social media network, we’d be lucky to find one guy or gal focused
on filling gaps in support and services for their own communities.
More importantly, new
tech businesses almost by definition spent their money and sent their profits
elsewhere, whereas neighborhood firms—owned and operated primarily by
businessmen and women from the area, kept the funds and the related economic
benefits (like growing the number of their employees) local in every sense.
And, of course, the birth and rebirth of these businesses did amazing and
highly beneficial things for the strength, pride, engagement and connections of
the communities themselves.
It wasn’t easy, however,
to convince so many of these young and eager entrepreneurs that building a
local security service, lawn care operation, house maintenance and repair
service, home health support group, or childcare operation was anywhere near as
sexy and exciting as building the next app that was going to change the world.
Sadly, kids in their 20s also don’t seem to get how important local businesses
are to the difficult job of bringing neighbors together, strengthening their
own communities, providing jobs instead of guns, and demonstrating that getting
out of the hood wasn’t the only path to success.
Food pantries and
depositories have historically been rather obvious and useful examples of
aggregation strategies, but these same ideas have never really caught on with
service offerings. And, in truth, maybe we, as tech zealots and proselytizers,
weren’t the best messengers for the idea that new tech wasn’t really the be-all
and end-all for building a basic new service business. It might have been
helpful in many ways, but it wasn’t the central component, a magic ingredient,
or the crystal key to ultimate success.
All of this is by way of
introduction to a new business called Bulqit, built by two seasoned entrepreneurs who figured
out a simple but very effective way to unite neighborhoods, build collectives
and community in both affluent and underserved areas, and save money for their
clients and customers on essential home services. As an aside, the idea
provides an interesting model and blueprint for community organizers, religious
institutions, and other non-profits as well because it highlights the fact that
bulk purchases and otherwise aggregated economic power can be very beneficial
to the residents in any community. In addition, this kind of solution can be
implemented in a low-tech manner or through sophisticated systems on a
block-by-block basis or eventually on a much greater scale and geographic
scope.
Bulqit brings neighbors
together in “Blocks” to collectively purchase recurring home services—like
landscaping, pest control, pool maintenance, trash bin cleaning, window
washing, and power washing. Homeowners get lower prices, well-known and
respected providers, a single consolidated invoice, and better, more consistent
service. The company’s materials claim user savings of up to 30 percent.
Vendors get concentrated service areas, profitable and extensible routes for
their crews, and predictable, regular income. Here again, the company’s
materials suggest that vendors will obtain exclusive rights to certain blocks
and areas. Neighborhoods get smarter, safer, cleaner, and more closely
connected as neighbors who may never have even spoken to each other now participate
together in block activities.
Psychologically,
conscientious upkeep in any area and visible investments that improve
environments are contagious actions—and I’m not merely talking about keeping up
with the Joneses. Human nature, peer pressure and even your own family members’
comments are all drivers for compliance and participation. And to be clear,
there’s no cheaper marketing than word of mouth referrals and grocery store
testimonials from happy friends and satisfied neighbors.
The company is rolling
out its six initial service offerings in California and expects to expand
rapidly across the country and to add additional features and services. As they
approach and enter new areas, it’s likely that their menu of services will vary
and be adjusted to best suit the needs and demands of the target customer
populations. The attractive aspect of this flexibility is that it has no
material impact on the viability of the business model or the economics. Bulqit
makes money by taking a fixed percentage of the fees earned by each vendor.
Every Block added to the mix—largely regardless of location—increases the
likelihood and the leverage of the operators as they negotiate better pricing
for larger numbers of customers.
Bulqit is building a
nice business, but what I’m most excited about is the prospect that we’re
seeing one clear path and a way that we can help to re-anchor our communities
and ourselves to the others around us and return to our country’s roots of
cooperation and community because so much of the old societal fabrics—trust,
honor and honesty, religion, legitimate patriotism, and even the law—which held
us all together are being ripped apart on an almost daily basis by the Orange Monster and his minions. We’re going to
desperately need solutions that offer a brighter collective future. Anyone can
build an app, but not everybody can build a community.
