What Inspired me to Co-found a Construction Software Company?

The Problem

I’ve been in commercial landscape construction for over 12 years now, let me tell you what inspired me to co-founded a construction software company.

In 2015, time and time again I found myself working with extremely successful and talented landscape architects and civil engineers. The only issue was during the summer and fall months, they were so highly sought after that they just didn’t have the time to get to my paperwork. Specifically change orders and payment certificates. I found that my proposed changes, quotations and invoices would just sit on their desk and collect dust. I’m not sure if you can relate, but as a contractor you simply can’t get paid without these signed documents. It was affecting our cash flow and staff morale.

The Solution – Construction Software

I thought there’s got to be a better way to automate these processes to save everyone time and minimize stress in an already stressful profession. So… I partnered with 2 software engineers who were with Blackberry at the time. And they were looking for opportunities, we ended up coFounding ContractComplete. The vision was to create a purely collaborative, web-based platform for all stakeholders to login and view contract progress, create and sign change orders on the fly and send/review contractor invoices. 

It turns out getting people onboard a collaborative platform is easier said than done. We thought it was as easy as making a couple phone calls to get all your stakeholders on and Boom! Well, it takes a little longer than that to get everyone onboard. So we’ve allowed for the system to be used independently as a workflow tool within your organization and collaboratively with stakeholders (consultants, subcontractors, clients) when they are ready. 

Ultimately, it’s been a great experience learning about startup culture and best practices. If we had to do it again I think we would do a lot of things differently. But at the end of the day the product continues to improve everyday, so I’m totally pumped with what we’ve done so far.

Anyway, let me know if you can relate. Do you get swamped in the busy season with paperwork? How have you solved this burden? If you’re a contractor, how do you deal with clients and consultants that don’t have time to process your paperwork?

You’re already managing great projects… just do it faster and get home sooner with our construction software. 

Sean Ciampaglia

Sean has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He is the General Manager at Geoscape Contracting, and has been actively managing projects in the land development industry for over 10 years. He realized in 2015 that there must be a better way to do contract administration in order to minimize mistakes and save contractors and consultants time on their paperwork. He's a father, an entrepreneur and habitual crossfitter. He enjoys roasting coffee beans and uses the pour-over method to brew his daily cup.