Interview with GenieBelt

Time and again, construction projects overrun their initial schedules or budgets. A start-up from Copenhagen wants to help fix this issue. GenieBelt provides a specific project management software for the construction industry. GenieBelt is like a shared, real-time, interactive project Gantt chart: users can access up-to-date project information via their phone or desktop PC and also communicate via the platform. To date their software has been used on more than 8,000 projects and in more than 100 countries. Taylor Ryan, Head of Marketing, shares with us their perspective on the future of construction and what role GenieBelt can play.

This interview is part of a larger dossier called "Construction Start-up Radar" .

1. What will the construction industry look like in 2020? What role does digitalization play?
   "It's scary to think that 2020 is only 3 years away. The construction industry will continue to see advances in terms of better processes and tools devised to cut overhead, save time, and avoid instances of waste or oversight.
   This means that construction companies are eventually going to get clearer data based on the fact that you're now documenting EVERYTHING digitally. This is both a top down and bottom up approach. You can start answering the hardest questions: which contractors are the most wasteful, where did the biggest delays come from, which aspects of the project used the most resources and why. All of the answers you pull from this data will help construction companies make better decisions."
   
   
2. What is your business model? What makes you and your company unique?
   We're a project management platform specifically for the construction industry.
   We currently charge per project and allow construction companies to schedule tasks, communicate with everyone on and off site, share documents, export reports, and get better overviews of their projects in real-time.
   GenieBelt is unique because it's far more intuitive to use compared to our competitors, we're not pretending to be all-inclusive. We do communication, task management, and reporting extremely well.
   As we continue to roll out new features and improve the user experience, one of our more promising features allows users to connect projects with each other and get a better overview of things happening within multiple projects at once. Things are moving quickly within the construction industry as they are with GenieBelt.
   
   
3. What is your company vision (5 years)?
   We're rounding out the core features that the industry will see as useful in the next 5-10 years. We understand that flexibility and integration are going to be major aspects of our future growth, and we want to continue making it easier for people to pick up and run with our software.
   
   
4. What does your revenue model look like?
   Right now we've got healthy growth month over month, and as we continue to grow and expand our features and integrations, we're able to focus on specific markets and to decide which customers we want to pursue more fervently.
   
   
5. How is your company funded?
   In the beginning, there were two things: our construction experience and a mindfulness of disruption within different industries, spurring the question "why has the construction industry been so slow to grow?"
   From there, we gathered a core team, and managed to grow with investment rounds as we met a set of milestones.
   Nov, 2013: $500k / Angel, Feb, 2015: $700k / Angel Sep, 2016: €2M / Seed — Solar
   If you want to see more details, they're on https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/geniebelt#/
   
   
6. As a start-up, what is your next goal?What partners do you need?
   We're focused on a set numbers for MRR (monthly recurring revenue) and growth. We believe we are on track and hit them by the end of this year or sooner. We're always looking into new areas of growth, we're convinced we've got the best product, the strongest team, and we're in the market at the right time to make things happen.
   We're always interested in new partnerships in whatever form they come in. We love to hear from new investors but those who are working in the industry can be just as interesting for us. We've already partnered with a number of SaaS (Software as a Service) companies in our industry and will continue to explore more as time goes on. Anyone interested in collaboration or covering us is more than welcome to contact us via our website or press kit.
   
   
7. Who are your key clients?
   Construction companies, builders' merchants, facility management companies and subcontractors
   
   
8. What are the biggest challenges your clients are currently facing?
   In construction, a lot of the time it's having one place to communicate and see upcoming tasks. There are a lot of folks in the industry who are trying to manage complex building projects via Excel or Google sheets and they're failing. There are too many companies still using pen and paper. But they're going to find out that in a modern age they need software to compete. This simple fact will force many companies to "modernize or die" in the next 5 years.
   We allow everyone to work on their projects in the same place, communicate quickly, and work off the same documents at the same time.
   
   
9. What options do you offer to potential clients to face their challenges (e.g. workshops, coachings)?
   We offer on-boarding, learning center, 1 on 1 support, and youtube videos to get our customers comfortable using our platform.
   
   
10. What prerequisites (e.g. infrastructure, trained personnel, etc.) do your clients need to bring?
    It's always helpful for them to hand a project over to us or import it into our platform. But you don't need anything other than a project in mind to get started.
    
    

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