The license is the product.

Every directory charges the contractor. We don't.

Every contractor directory operates on the same model: charge the contractor for visibility. Leads, ads, subscriptions, commissions, accreditation fees. The contractor is the revenue source. The homeowner gets the platform for free. The incentive is to sell placement, not verify competence.

The result is predictable. Contractors who pay the most get found. Contractors who do the best work — many of whom have no website, no online presence, but always answer the phone and always show up — stay invisible.

The state of Florida already knows who's legitimate. Every active contractor license is a public record under Florida Statutes § 119.01. That data includes the license holder, the trade classification, the status, the disciplinary history. It's the one thing you can't buy your way onto.

Call Charlie starts from the license. Every profile in this directory begins with a verified DBPR license record, cross-referenced against Google's business database. The contractors who've done the work get found. Nobody pays to rank higher.

Built from a methodology that was tested at sea.

For 20 years — across radios, intercoms, work group chats, phone calls, and emails — people in the marine industry said the same thing when something went wrong: "Call Charlie." That wasn't a brand. It was what happened. Something breaks on a megayacht, someone says those two words, and the problem gets solved.

The work behind those words was contractor vetting at the highest stakes. A single repair contract on a megayacht runs six figures. The owner's first question is always: "Did you get quotes to compare?" The standard approach — call 3 to 6 companies, have each one come view the project, wait for bids — takes hours. Sometimes days. On a vessel, downtime isn't an option.

So the methodology evolved: narrow it down to one. Research the license. Verify the reputation. Confirm the work history. Show up with a single contractor whose qualifications are already proven — quote aligned to scope, scope aligned to capability, payment terms clear before anyone picks up a wrench. Streamlined. Minimum downtime. Every time.

After thousands of those calls, the pattern was obvious: the best contractors — the ones who always answer, always show up, always deliver — had no website. No online presence. Meanwhile, the loudest companies on every directory were paying for visibility, not earning it.

Call Charlie Holdings was founded to channel that methodology at scale. Instead of vetting one marine contractor in Fort Lauderdale, the company processes every active license the state of Florida has ever issued. The name came from the same place the company did — 20 years of people saying "Call Charlie" when they needed the job done right.

Public record data. Not opinions.

Call Charlie doesn't generate leads. It doesn't sell advertising. It doesn't rank contractors based on who pays the most.

The directory starts from the Florida DBPR — every active license, every trade classification, every disciplinary action. That foundation is then enriched with verified business data from Google's index: confirmed locations, real reviews from real customers, actual contact information.

The result is a complete picture of every licensed contractor in Florida — built from data sources that can't be purchased, fabricated, or gamed. The license is real. The reviews are real. The disciplinary history is real. That's the product.