You might wonder how we got here. Our first blog post will share our inspiration and drive to launch. This is the Crewscope Origin Story.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Calvin Benchimol, and I am the CEO and co-founder of Crewscope. For our first blog post, let me tell you about the three things that inspired me to start this Construction Tech business.
First Step: industrial experience
I started my career at Lafarge, where I spent a decade learning about industrial operations. I learned about Asphalt, Paving, Construction, Concrete, and Cement.
After five years of rotating through the business, I settled into the Aggregates division, which is sand and stone used for building roads and bridges.
After a few years, I was promoted to lead our logistics delivery business in Ontario, Canada. I was responsible for a $100M operation, managing a team of 28 people across 30 pits and quarries.
On my first day on the job, my senior dispatcher told me that I was their 11th manager in ten years. It didn’t get easier. We managed over 150 trucks daily with a phone, paper, and a fax machine.
We needed information to make better decisions. Yet, we could not buy off-the-shelf technology, and we had no time for an enterprise procurement process. Out of necessity, I built an order fulfillment system on MS Access and plugged it into our scales for live shipment updates. It was a game-changer.
Inspiration one: equipping workers with better information lets them plan for success and achieve it more often.
Second step: entrepreneurial formation and late-stage startup experience
I moved to Barcelona for two years and got my MBA at IESE Business School. I re-calibrated and took a line from Fred VanVleet of the Toronto Raptors: bet on yourself.
I returned to Toronto and joined the founder of eCompliance, a health and safety software startup. One of my projects was to identify what the safest companies had in common and measure it in our platform. We found that frontline participation leads to safer outcomes.
Inspiration two: empowering workers to think about and mitigate the risks they take at work saves their lives.
Third step: Crewscope origin, formation, and launch
Lockdown had a silver lining: I’m thankful I could connect with myself and my family in new and meaningful ways. Underneath the gratitude was a restless desire to do something important. I’m prone to bouts of existential anxiety, and lockdown got my head racing.
I channeled it into starting Crewscope. I knew I needed to surround myself with good people, and I partnered with FutureSight, a venture studio, in September 2021. Yes, the Crewscope Origin Story has its catalyst in the pandemic.
My team interviewed 100+ subject matter experts: laborers, operators, site leaders, and owners. We heard two things over and over:
- Construction firms have a tough time retaining skilled workers, and the skills gap is hitting their topline from declined projects.
- Workers get paid by the hour, while projects make money when they stay on schedule. There is a fundamental misalignment between hourly workers and project outcomes.
We tested a few solutions before we got positive signals that we were on to something. After rigorous validation, we were all in. In Spring 2022, we signed our first customer, Condrain. We spent time designing the product with their earthworks, sewer, and road crews. We launched v1 in Q4 2022 with about 50 users and proved a 10x ROI. Condrain has invited us back in 2023 for a full roll-out.
Inspiration three: Ash Maurya is right. Find a problem worth solving. Make sure that you are passionate about it. And then take it as far as you can go.
Our vision is to inspire construction professionals with meaningful work, deeper connections to projects and colleagues, and aligned incentives so that the best teams can rise and share in productivity gains.
To a safe, prosperous, and booming construction season,
Calvin
PS – 2024 Update to the Crewscope Origin Story
We have come a long way since this original post was published in 2023. Check out our whitepaper on how we unlock worker potential.
