Crane hunting was the term we coined as we were visiting and interviewing over 500 construction professionals to launch Bridgit in 2014. Quite literally, we would hunt for cranes in the skyline in order to find the construction sites that surrounded these tall machines – eagerly arriving to the site with coffee and donuts in hand. Our families had worked in the construction industry for decades, but we felt it was critical to immerse ourselves on the jobsite. We started job shadowing, attending site meetings and got the full perspective of how work was getting done. We listened carefully and started hearing the common threads of what frustrated people.
As a result, we developed our first product — Bridgit Field. It used smartphones to replace the manual punch list process. We knew we were on to something when ten large construction companies signed on as clients within the first month after we launched. As we grew and hired more talent, we saw bigger opportunities to help the construction industry, and this past year we introduced Bridgit Bench, a workforce planning platform, which is getting great traction with ENR 400 clients.
Today, we are thrilled to announce we have raised a $7 million USD strategic investment led by Autodesk, with support from EDC and existing investors BDC, Salesforce Ventures, Sands Capital, and StandUp Ventures to further improve construction resource planning and labor forecasting.
With the support of Autodesk, we are able to accelerate our vision to improve workforce productivity through our resource planning platform. Bridgit Bench allows general contractors to replace their manual workforce planning spreadsheets and whiteboards with a streamlined digital solution. Operations teams can quickly understand team member allocation, the workforce needs of current and upcoming jobs, and ultimately ensure team members are not sitting idle on the bench. Autodesk is a company we have always looked up to as a true leader in the construction software space. Through integrations with Autodesk Construction Cloud, together we will be able to support seamless workflows incorporating project phases and integrations for both office and field teams.
The construction industry has undergone significant digital transformation over the last decade. Additional capital investment in firms will help bring new innovations to the industry at a rapid pace. As construction companies evaluate existing pain points, we aspire for Bridgit to be their “go-to” solution provider, able to solve their needs with our user-centered design practices and product ease-of-use.
We would like to thank the Bridgit team for their commitment to our company, as well as our early investors and clients who took a chance on our first venture. We are incredibly excited and grateful for the opportunity to work with Autodesk and look forward to the next phase of our growth.
Also check out “construction project manager interview questions“
Mallorie Brodie & Lauren Lake
Mallorie Brodie (CEO) and Lauren Lake (COO) are the co-founders of Bridgit. They hold various awards, including being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2019. Learn more about Bridgit, visit our press page, or follow Mallorie and Lauren on LinkedIn.
