As seasoned contractors will attest, most projects will invariably deviate from what’s initially planned in terms of cost and time. For commercial construction projects, which are more complex than something like a single-family home, this likelihood increases. Rigorous planning and management enable contractors to mitigate any disruptions or unplanned events. BuildOps is a technology platform that is paving the way for commercial contractors to manage their entire field and service operations from a centralized solution. The platform handles everything from scheduling, dispatching, inventory management, contracts, workflow, and accounting while still being customizable for businesses to integrate their established workflows into a digital format. By digitizing the entire workflow, contractors can manage the ever-growing number of moving parts in a project in tandem, ensuring that projects are completed on time and on budget. BuildOps has become a trusted resource for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical companies but the solution is versatile enough to support any commercial contractor’s needs.
LA TechWatch caught up with BuildOps CEO and Cofounder Alok Chanani to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $48.8M, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
BuildOps raised $43 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Next47 with Founders Fund, StepStone Group, Fika Ventures. Global Founders Capital, MetaProp VC, 1984 Ventures, L2 Ventures, NBA all-star Metta World Peace, Boost Mobile CEO Stephen Stokols, and others also participated in the financing.
Tell us about your product or service.
BuildOps is an all-in-one cloud-based software platform built specifically for the commercial contractor and construction industries. We support HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical contractors primarily, but the platform supports almost any commercial contractor workflow that needs service or project management capabilities.
The platform helps commercial contractors manage their entire service operations and manage bigger projects in a single unified solution. We designed the platform to digitize the entire workflow and replace paperwork entirely. Technicians use a mobile app that contains all the job info, tasks, and customer information – what used to be a standard paper form. The office manages everything from dispatch and scheduling, quotes and invoicing, and customer service in one place.
We found that all this information is connected and BuildOps unifies it to make business operations more efficient. Skilled tradespeople need to focus on the job, not the software and that’s why BuildOps is developed to be easy to use and offer the actual workflows they use, not what a company thinks they should use.
What inspired the start of BuildOps?
As a former construction company CEO, I spent 10 years experiencing the inefficiencies inside the industry. While other industries were actively evolving with new technologies, commercial contracting and construction were stuck in the “this is the way we do it” mentality. That desire is where the inspiration for BuildOps came from. And it’s great to hear all the positive feedback from customers who were hesitant to change now increasing their businesses exponentially.
How is it different?
BuildOps is designed specifically for the commercial contracting and construction industry. It digitizes the workflows into a streamlined process from start to finish. There are other field service management platforms out there, but they are designed for a residential contractor and force commercial contractors to adapt to how it works causing a lot of frustrations. Our focus on the commercial side is why so many commercial contractors love BuildOps.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Our target audience is commercial contractors, specifically HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical shops. The best part of the platform is that it scales to any business size and can adapt to what the business needs.
What’s your business model?
We focus on the commercial contractor and construction industry. Focusing on a cloud-based all-in-one platform offers a huge opportunity in the industry and being able to serve businesses of all sizes opens up unlimited growth potential.
What are your post-COVID office plans??
COVID-19 taught us a lot of lessons, like many companies. We adapted to the changing situations and our team was hyper-efficient in a work-from-home situation.
We’re staying flexible. At our stage, we can’t ignore the value that in-person collaboration brings and continue to strategize on our future plans.
What was the funding process like?
A lot of investors were very excited and supportive of our mission and the industry we were serving. Commercial contractors and construction companies have lived with poor solutions for too long and we’ve seen that the problem we’re solving resonates with a big audience. We’re thrilled that so many want to join us on this journey.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
BuildOps is serving a market that’s largely underserved. My experience inspired the idea behind the product and seeing that most software was marketed towards residential contractors, the commercial contract market opportunity was huge. There was nothing like this on the market, a platform for the commercial contractor workflow.
Other companies have tried to adapt their residential software for the commercial market, but it’s all just a bad coat of paint to hide the fact it’s not actually designed for commercial contractors specifically.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Our Series A funding is a hard milestone to beat, but we’re going to continue to focus on our customers. Customer passion is a core value and we must continue to invest in the product to improve and exceed our customers’ needs. Their success is tied to our success and we will continue this momentum.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Take a step back and start prioritizing efficiencies throughout the business to find where the biggest value exists. Companies need to be able to fine-tune their operations to thrive during a downturn. Those who can adapt strategically, instead of reactively, are in a better position for the long term.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
The near-term strategy is to continue investing in the product. Our secret to success is focusing on project and engineering and we’re going to continue this plan with additional resources.
