If there is one thing most builders don’t talk about publicly, it’s what happens after handover. Warranty work. Maintenance confusion. Defect lists. Clients who swear they were never told what to do. The post-handover stage is still one of the biggest pain points in residential building and one that technology has largely ignored.
So when we sat down with Mark Potter, co-founder of HazardCo and co-founder of Gtee, the conversation quickly moved beyond software and into the lived reality of running a building company. Mark has seen every side of construction, from pumping operable wall panels up 35 flights of stairs to building one of New Zealand’s most successful safety companies. And through it all, one pattern became clear to him.
“Builders aren’t bad. They’re just busy,” Mark says. “Most of the issues after handover come from things falling through the cracks, not because someone doesn’t care.”
That insight is what eventually led to Gtee, a platform quietly reshaping how builders manage warranties, maintenance, and defects long after the keys are handed over.
But the story starts much earlier.
A Life That Didn’t Follow a Straight Line
Mark didn’t grow up dreaming of software. He grew up in New Zealand’s outdoors, rugby, fishing, surfing, skiing before stumbling into a marketing degree and a short-lived brush with law.
He eventually ended up selling commercial furniture and operable walls to architects. It was meant to be a stepping stone. Instead, during the GFC, he found himself pitching to take over the New Zealand agency for the German wall system… at just 25. They said yes.
He spent a decade inside commercial construction, learning the tough realities of the industry: low margins, retention battles, squeezed contractors, and the constant push-pull around responsibility. It gave him an operator’s view, not just an outsider’s theory.
But life changed dramatically when his first wife, Simone, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She passed away two years later, leaving Mark to raise four young children.
He speaks openly about it in the podcast. Not for sympathy but because it shaped who he became.
“You either curl up and stay in bed, or you get up because four kids need breakfast,” he says. “That experience changed my view on what matters and how I build businesses.”
Later, he met his now-wife Leisa, who had two boys of her own. Together they built a blended family of six and, eventually, a new chapter in business.
HazardCo: The First Big Insight
HazardCo started the same way Gtee did with builders avoiding something because it was too complicated.
Residential builders simply weren’t adopting safety systems. Compliance felt too hard, too wordy, too bureaucratic.
“There was a massive compliance aversion,” Mark explains. “Even when they understood the risks, they couldn’t bring themselves to do it.”
The solution? Make safety simple, visual, and practical. Flip cards. Clear hazards. No jargon. No 50-page manuals. HazardCo became New Zealand’s dominant residential construction safety platform and expanded across Australia.
But eventually, Mark stepped back. HazardCo had grown into a corporate-scale company, and he wanted to build again from scratch.
Which brought him to an issue no one else was solving.
The Post-Handover Blind Spot
Mark’s business partners at Gtee, Wellington builder Andrew and Albyn Leslie, raised the first real red flag.
Clients were constantly coming back with issues caused by poor maintenance… but blaming the builder. And the builder had no proof they’d ever given instructions. A folder in a laundry drawer. A brochure box in the garage. A USB stick that never got opened.
It was a mess and it was costing builders money, time, and reputation.
“Clients would say, ‘You never told me,’ and the builder couldn’t prove otherwise,” Mark says. “That’s when we realised this wasn’t just Andy’s problem. It was an industry problem.”
The early idea was simple: digitise the maintenance, warranty, and product information so it was trackable and useful.
But Gtee evolved into much more.
Gtee: A Digital Service Book for the Home
Gtee lets builders create a digital record for every home products, documents, plans, warranties, maintenance tasks all in one place. When the builder hits ‘activate,’ the client receives a login and ongoing reminders.
If owners ignore the reminders, it’s logged.
If they complete maintenance, it’s logged.
If they sell the home, the record goes with it.
Mark describes it best:
“Think of it like a service book for a house. When you buy a car, you check if it’s been serviced. Why don’t we do the same with homes?”
The adoption numbers are staggering:
- 600+ building companies
- More than 20,000 homes in the system
- 82% homeowner engagement rate
For a sector where client engagement post-handover is usually near zero, that stat is extraordinary.
And the business impact is immediate. Group builders in New Zealand who use Gtee have seen warranty disputes “almost dry up” at head office level.
“When you give clients a good system, they stop blaming you for things they didn’t maintain,” Mark says.
Then Came the Defect Manager
One recurring question pushed Gtee further:
Can it help with post-handover defects and snags?
Mark and the team built a new module from scratch. Builders can now:
- Load defects
- Assign responsibilities to the right trade
- Notify clients automatically
- Track completion
- Analyse patterns using real-time data
One national builder using the beta version now has more than 1,000 defect items logged and uses Gtee as their entire post-handover control centre.
“The dashboard shows everything by contractor, by category, by product,” Mark says. “You can finally see what’s actually causing problems in your business.”
This is the part that caught Aaron’s attention most. Because it doesn’t just fix a workflow it fixes a builder’s reputation.
A builder who owns maintenance, warranties, and defects owns the customer experience. And the builder who owns the customer experience wins referrals.
So What Makes a Good Builder Today?
Aaron wraps the episode with a question he asks all guests: What makes a good builder?
Mark doesn’t hesitate.
“Good communication. Two words,” he says.
“The ones who communicate quickly and honestly are the ones clients come back to.”
For him, technology is not a replacement for communication, it is an amplifier of it.
Tools like Gtee help builders do what they already want to do: run a tight business, reduce stress, and give clients a better experience.
Where Builders Can Learn More
Mark directs builders to gteeco.com, where they can book a demo or start a free trial.
Aaron also throws down a challenge: the first five builders who mention The Good Builder will be invited onto the podcast to share their story and walk through how Gtee is transforming their handover process.
Because in the end, Mark’s message is simple:
“It’s about making life easier for builders and giving clients confidence in their homes. If you get post-handover right, everything else in your business gets easier.”
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