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- [00:01]
A
Our quickest path to kind of early growth would have been going to a bunch of different industries and picking up a couple dozen contractors in six different industries. But to build an actual sustainable, durable business that focus on one vertical, I think has been super valuable.
- [00:20]
B
Welcome back to another episode of Builders. As always, this show is brought to you by Frontlines IO, Silicon Valley's leading B2B podcast production studio. If you're bringing technology to market and want to learn from your peers, we have a library of more than 1200 interviews with Venture backed founders and marketers. Where they talk, all things go to market. Of course, if you want to launch your own podcast, we offer podcasts as a service to more than 80 tech startups. The idea there is very simple. You show up and host and we do everything else. Now with all that said, let's jump into today's episode. Today we're speaking with Ari Blima, CEO and co founder of One Crew. Ari, thanks for being here.
- [00:58]
A
Thanks, Brad. Glad to be here.
- [00:59]
B
How'd you end up in this world, the world of paving? Is that a fair way to summarize it? You're a paving man?
- [01:04]
A
We are in paving, yeah. So we primarily serve asphalt and concrete contractors of all kinds. One of the ways that we think about it is generally horizontal construction. So we don't assist people that are building verticals, so building large skyscrapers, anything like that. But our most typical customer is constructing roads, parking lots, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, things along those lines throughout the country. So often to the question a little bit around people think of paving and think, wow, it's super niche. And always our response to that is, have you been on a sidewalk today? Have you driven on a road today? Have you been in a parking lot today? Did you walk on your driveway? It's an industry that nearly everyone in the country is interacting with on a daily basis. But we got our start in this of. I started my career at Bain. I was in the management consulting world. Worked across a variety of different industrial industries. A little bit kind of construction adjacent. And generally. As I was leaving Bain, I was looking for industries where I felt like there was still really significant software need. From that experience, it seemed that in more industrial, less sexy industries there was still a ton of need. And one of the things that we saw early on was Procore had IPO'd around that time. And a lot of the tech world was talking about Procore as just vertical SaaS for construction. Right. And construction is not a vertical, you can call it a very broad reaching vertical but if you're building software for all of construction, you're building horizontal software. And so I thought that that was really just kind of a continued misperception around construction as broadly an industry. And so started digging in a lot more on just generally into construction and where we felt like there were gaps there. And what we found is still a core thesis of what we do today, which is Procore serves general contractors really well. Right. We had no interest in, you know, from the start going after Procore and going after their core customer. On the other side, you have all of your field services, so service titan, housecall, Pro Jobber and a long list of others that serve field services really well. What we believe has really been overlooked for a long time has been the entire middle of the industry where you have a lot of self perform contractors, specialty contractors, trade contractors, subcontractors, whatever term you want to use, but you have a lot of folks that are the ones that are actually running a process from start to end. So going out, estimating the work, sending a proposal, then completing the work, collecting payment for it. So really end to end there that we felt was still completely underserved from a platform standpoint and really having a strong operational platform for them to run their businesses off of. And so that's where we focused. And then within that broader group, we quickly narrowed down to paving. And a lot of that was just from meeting a ton of people in the industry, hearing that there was clear demand and that supply wasn't meeting that demand. And we felt like we could within a couple of years build a best in class solution and then continue to build from there and deliver a solution to an industry that is powering so much of the economy broadly, but gets very little attention from the average person and especially from the tech world.
- [04:04]
B
What were those conversations like when you started to tell your family, like going into paving, leaving Bain?
- [04:11]
A
It's a great question. So I grew up outside of Philly. My parents are from Jersey. One of the first questions that my parents had for me was how quickly are you going to run into the mob or mafia as you get into that? Which thankfully has not been an issue. We love this industry, we love the people running businesses in the industry, but I think the reaction typically was exactly what you would expect, which is paving that's so incredibly niche. How the hell did you make it to paving, you know, why, et cetera. And a lot of questions, frankly. And I think on our journey as we built the business, it was something that took us some time ourselves to get Comfortable with. Right. You know, I was coming from very corporate world of Bain. My co founder Max was coming from Google. And so he was coming from, you know, large tech, corporate world. And when you get that question over and over and over again, every time you tell someone what you do for a living, you start to question it yourself. It's like, should I be building for this industry? Is this real? You know, is there an actual need? Even though, you know, I've been told everyone that I talk to in the industry, clearly there's a need. But all these people outside of the industry are so uncertain about it that you start to question things. And I think it took us time, and one of the big pieces for us is, you know, we kept building, we kept working with people and talking to as many people in the industry as possible. And then once we actually launched product and saw the reactions that we got from contractors in the industry when they started using the platform, that I think is where, you know, definitively we lost any shred of doubt there that, okay, what we're building is meaningful, it can have real impact on these businesses. And there is very clear need in this industry. I mean, if you had to choose,
- [05:49]
B
like, on one side you have saying, like, paving, really? And the other side is like AI agents and you're like, oh, yeah, like there's 50,000 of those. Like, it's probably better to be on this side where it's like not 50,000 people swarming around the space.
- [06:00]
A
I haven't played on the other side, but yes, I feel very good about, you know, getting the reaction of, wow, that's super niche versus the, oh, well, you and everyone else.
- [06:09]
B
Yeah, like, oh, OpenAI is doing that too, right?
- [06:13]
A
Yeah, that is a nice one that. We can pretty confidently say that none of the very large AI players are specifically focused on our industry right now.
- [06:21]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's nice. I feel like most startups, like, they have to answer that, right? Like, practically every startup seems to have to have an answer of, like, what if OpenAI moves into this space? You're probably safe. I would have to assume that you're safe.
- [06:31]
A
Yeah, we're not answering that. I mean, I do think one of the questions that we do have to answer in a similar vein is it's a question and kind of the debate right now, just around vers, vertical, SaaS in general and SaaS in general of is everyone just going to be able to build what you have in 20 minutes at home and then just, you know, have a customized solution for themselves? We feel Very strongly that that's not at all a near term future. That, you know, at that foundational level, you really need the more deterministic side of things and then you can build incredible AI solutions on top of that. But that you need a core foundation. You know, you think about building a house, you've got to have a good foundation or the thing comes crumbling down. And that's very much how we view it in the industry as well.
- [07:12]
B
I mean, I can't imagine that if you're running a paving company that you also want to be in like the technology business and building your own tech. Even if it's easy to do, building it, maintaining it, like feel like not just, you know, pavings, like so many industries where people are talking about this, like they're completely missing, like that's not your core business and your core focus. Like maybe you could do it, but like, why? Why would you want to do it and be distracted?
- [07:32]
A
We couldn't agree more. I might clip that and just throw it on our website. Just that we can point people towards. You know, there are times that during our sales process, that's what we're battling, right? We're battling, hey, you guys, definitely the best solution out there. And you know, I'm really interested, but I really kind of want to, you know, I'm thinking about building something myself. And we completely agree with what you're saying of, look, we don't send ourselves out there to go complete a paving job. We build software. You guys pave and you do that incredibly well. And we do what we do incredibly well and let's partner to come to a great solution. But yeah, I mean, we very much feel like paving contractors are really good at paving and we want to support them in any possible way that we can. And we have no interest in becoming a contractor and, you know, believe that we can offer a much better solution than a paving contractor wanting to become a software provider.
- [08:24]
B
Hey guys, Brett here and I want to take a few seconds to tell you a bit more about what we do at the Frontlines. Now, we don't just produce our own podcast. We offer podcasting as a service to more than 80 different tech companies. Now here's one of our own clients, Nicole, in her own words.
- [08:37]
C
The Frontlines came up with the idea to have us interview our ICP for a podcast. They'd find the guests, get me prepped for the interview, then handle all the post production and distribution.
- [08:48]
B
Now, there's obviously a ton of podcasts out there, but our strategy and our end goal Here of this is very specific. These are not just fluffy thought leadership programs. These are programs designed to generate revenue. Every guest that we bring on matches your ICP and we get you in the room and then from there you have a wedge to go out and build and nurture an authentic relationship until they eventually become a customer. Let's go back to Nicole to talk about how things went for her.
- [09:13]
C
We launched our podcast with Frontlines 18 months ago, and so far I've closed over 600,000k in net new arrangements nearly a 10 times return. They got me in the room with the ICP and good things happen from there. And that's why we're doubling down in 2026.
- [09:29]
B
This is what our podcast playbook is all about. We get you in the room and that room can be virtual. It can be at conferences where we'll send a video crew, or it can be in person at our studios in San Francisco and Palo Alto. If you want to launch a podcast, just visit Frontlines IO Podcast. As a service and as a loyal listener. Just mention that you listen and love the show and we'll give you a 10% discount. Now back to the episode now for your buyers. Are they one of these buying groups that have just been like, pitched a lot of kind of bullshit had it not worked? Like, are they super skeptical of technology or have they somehow gone like underserved and technology hasn't really been hitting them?
- [10:05]
A
I think it's a mix of everything. Obviously we hear a lot of things from different customers. Certainly as we got into this industry, we quickly recognize that we have work to do to just build trust back in the industry, that a lot of folks in this industry have been sold solutions and often, I mean, to the point we just talked about, have been told, hey, for $10,000, I can go build you the software of your dreams. And they end up with something completely unusable. Right? And so that is definitely something that we've been in this industry for four and a half years. I'd say we've spent all of that four and a half years continuing to try to bother build trust in us as a business and in our platform. And that is something that, you know, we care a ton about and have, you know, built a really high level of trust and reputation in the industry. But then the other side of it is just the general software perspective, right? And not only is software reliable and safe, etc. But also can it help my business? And I think, you know, people have had really mixed experiences with either, you know, their data not being protected and, or software just not working for them. It just ends up becoming a money pit that is stressful and costs them money and they're left with something worse than what they started with. Right. And so that was something that, you know, we heard as we were getting into the industry and we felt really passionate about changing. But it's also something that we continue to struggle with today. And we still, you know, there's still offerings on the market today that we view as more or less money pits, but they might be cheaper options or whatever it is. And so, you know, we feel like what we can do is do our best to consult, advise, et cetera with everyone that we speak to and build the best possible product that we can on the market. And, you know, there's always going to be alternatives that might not be providing the best outcome for some folks.
- [11:56]
B
What have you done specifically to build trust that may be, you know, somewhat surprising or unexpected? Don't be like, oh, case studies, like, of course, like, what else have you done that's like move the needle in a meaningful way?
- [12:07]
A
Yeah, I mean, look, at the end of the day, a lot of it is the traditional stuff and part of it is just being in the industry. Right. When we were selling in year one, it was a lot harder when there were zero customers that we had in the industry and when we could only say, yeah, well we've been in the industry for a year than it is now in year five. Right. And so there are pieces there that I think it's just been a matter of time and case studies and talking to other customers, et cetera, that all definitely has mattered a lot for us, I think. And this is not going to be, you know, shattering breakthrough, but I do think one of the biggest pieces that we've done to show not just to build trust, but also just to show that we actually care about the industry and actually are dedicated to the industry, etc. Is just really focusing on making sure that everyone that works at this business has a good sense of the paving industry. And part of our onboarding for every single employee, whether they're an engineer or whatever role they're playing, is just learning the industry and learning the lingo and learning, learning about what these contractors are going through on a day to day basis, what their challenges are, you know, what value we provide to them. Things along those lines that I think from a really early stage that's been really positive feedback that we've gotten is, you know, contractors come up to us and say, like, it feels like you guys actually get it, which there's no better compliment for us. Right. We don't hire necessarily specifically from the industry. You know, you look at our sales team, people were selling everything from software for veterinarians to cannabis software to restaurants, you know, variety of industries, all of that. But we really care that if you're going to be representing one crew and if you're going to be talking to people in the industry as a representative of one crew, you need to know this industry and you need to show that you care about this industry.
- [14:01]
B
What's the most surprising thing that you've learned about the industry that an outsider like me, who has quite literally probably never thought about paving, what's something surprising about the space?
- [14:10]
A
Yeah, I'll say two things. One is more on the marketing side for asphalt, but I do think it's really fascinating is that asphalt's one of the most recycled materials in the world, so you can reuse asphalt up to about a 99% rate. So when you tear up all the asphalt of an old road, you grind that up and you can reuse that in new mixes. And we're getting better and better at designing new mixes to have a higher percentage of recycled asphalt as part of that. So I think that that's a. You know, not here to say that this is the greenest of any industry, but there are a lot of efforts going into that to make it as green as possible. I think the other thing that became super apparent to us from day one of exploring this industry before we had even started the company was just the amount of pride in the industry. So many people in this industry have grown up with the industry, have. Whether it's a generational business or, you know, they worked at the contractor down the street and then continued working for them for the next 60 years, whatever it may be, there's a ton of pride in the work that's being done. I think one of my favorite things when I'll visit a customer is to drive around with someone that's been at the company for a while and just drive around town and have them point out, like, oh, we did that lot. And this whole sidewalk, this was us. And that parking lot and these driveways, that was all us. And I think it's really cool. I think it's not to say there are no other industries that have a lot of pride in them, but I do think it's a special thing of there's an industry that has very much been treated as kind of an underdog within the broader construction industry. Has consistently been overlooked, has consistently been kind of looked down upon by other parts of the construction industry. And I think in a lot of recent years and part of our goal in engaging with this industry, the industry has elevated over time and continues to. And there's a ton of pride around that.
- [15:58]
B
What would you say have been some of the major go to market decisions so far?
- [16:02]
A
So when we first started the company, we said, okay, we're building software for paving contractors and we're going to stay pretty focused on this. But from the start we built product in a way that there's a lot that is specific to paving contractors and there's a lot that's highly configurable to just project based contractors in general. And the thought was definitely within a couple of years we're going to go into other industries and we're going to start with paving and then we're going to go into all of these other project based industries surrounding paving that are adjacent to it, that we're just going to tweak product and go straight into six other industries and then we're going to be selling across eight different industries. One of the things that we learned early on was that maybe our biggest strength is our focus on paving and is just really building that trust, that reputation, et cetera. In this one industry as we see it, our quickest path to kind of early growth would have been going to a bunch of different industries and picking up, you know, a couple dozen contractors in six different industries. But to build an actual sustainable, durable business, that focus on one vertical, I think has been super valuable. You can definitely find me quoted in some things from two, three years ago of we're going to go to other industries, we're going to go international, all of that.
- [17:13]
B
You have to say that though, come on.
- [17:15]
A
Yeah, I mean, and not to say we're never going to do that, but the timelines that I offered at that point are certainly have not necessarily come to fruition. And you know, as we look at our path forward in the near term, right now we are hyper focused on this industry. We think, you know, we have so much room to grow in this industry. We know that we do. And we want to make sure that by the time that we're going somewhere else, we want to know that we have an incredibly strong foothold in paving and we're going to continue to grow that side of the business and we're going to continue to invest in that side of the business. But now that business has given us the opportunity to go into these other verticals and deliver, you know, a similarly powerful and great solution for those other verticals as well.
- [17:57]
B
I love it. All right, man, we're going to wrap here. We've done 1500 interviews. The first one I've ever talked to, building pavement technology. So appreciate you joining, man. This has been a lot of fun. Before we wrap, for those listening in that want to follow along, where should we send them? Where should they go?
- [18:09]
A
Yeah, so you can find us at getonecrew.com G-E-T o n e C-R-E-W.com and you can reach out to us directly through the website there as well. We'd love to hear from you.
- [18:19]
B
Love it. All right, man, that was fun.
- [18:22]
A
Awesome. Thanks a lot, Brad.
- [18:25]
B
Well, that's all for today's episode of Builders, brought to you by the Frontlines. If you want more amazing content like this, visit Frontlines IO, where you'll find the library of more than 1500 interviews with founders, marketers, and other GTM leaders, where we unpack the tactical lessons from their journey. And of course, as always, if you do want to launch your own podcast, we'd love to have a conversation with you. Visit Frontlines IO podcast as a service. Mention that you listen. Mention you love the show, and we'll give you a 10% discount. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the next episode.