Our startup’s origin story. A perfect union of domain and technology.
In startups, the how, the why and the what of the founding team cannot be overstated. If there is one thing more important than execution, it is the founding team and their origin story.
On 19th April, 2019 I wrote to one of my co-founders on LinkedIn and the conversation went something like this,
“Hi Andreas… I am looking to develop a business idea… What are you up to these days?”
10 minutes later, came the response,
“Hi :) … always up for something new! I also have an idea I would like to discuss… Let’s meet for lunch…”
I responded 6 minutes later,
“Music to my ears…”
And that’s it! That is all it took. Two people eager to discuss ideas, eager to take the leap back into the startup world! In hindsight, my idea was terrible and when I heard the idea my two co-founders were working on, it was almost obvious that this problem needs a solution. The only reason there wasn’t anyone working on it yet, was because the right people haven’t met yet. Until of course, on 19th April, 2019.
In the age of 10-min food delivery, instant money transfer and incredible advancements in hardware, the construction industry still waits for 3–5 days to receive a screenshot of a map via email.
Ayear before the above conversation took place, my co-founders were working at their other company, Atritec, which they founded in 2016. Through that company they were providing the service of utility locating using the more traditional methods, which is what we are working to automate at Eningo. This experience is what inspired the idea behind Eningo. Experiencing the pain first hand.
When they described the problem to me, I genuinely couldn’t believe that the process today involves sending screenshots of a map of underground utilities through email, instead of an app with a dynamic map you could interact with, and it took several days. Through the last 3 years, having learnt how the industry works and the people that work in it, I have become really fond of it and have a sense of pride in serving them. It also made me realise, the reason for this industry not getting its 21st century upgrade package is simple. It has gone unnoticed.
Now it has become our companies collective vision to build better tools, specifically software tools, to help the industry to remain sustainable in the long term. The utility locating service is critical for construction projects, where damaged utilities not only disrupts project by causing days and weeks of delay but also results in huge direct and indirect costs to society at large. In worst case scenarios, unsafe digging can cause injury or death to construction workers.
In the age of 10-min food delivery, instant money transfer and incredible advancements in hardware, the construction industry still waits for 3–5 days to receive a screenshot of a map via email and a further 3–5 days for spray painted lines on the surface, the same surface which will be dug up along with those lines needing the lines to be repainted again. At Eningo, we understand the true impact of digitalisation on the construction industry. And we credit that understanding to the how, the why and the what of our origin story.
