Why Haystack invested in Getable

Our Investment in Getable

The Consumerization Trend in Enterprises

“Consumerization of the Enterprise” is one of those phrases that now feels old, in part because it was used so much without real examples.

That was then, and this is now — we are now starting to see enterprises adopt design-oriented products like Slack and Zenefits, to name a few.

Looking back now, it shouldn’t be a surprise that products designed with principles to suit everyday consumers are preferred by workers at larger companies.

Expanding Consumer Business Models to Industrial Sectors

This got me thinking — what about other prevalent consumer business models today? Could concepts like “on-demand services” or “collaborative consumption” take root inside older, larger, perhaps stodgier, less sexy industries? I wrote about this with respect to on-demand services here.

While I didn’t find many on-demand services with consumers as the end customer (except for Boomtown), I did start to see some interesting companies in the sharing economy, but now applies to other industries, specifically related to industrial equipment.

Impact of Shifts in Economic Trends

Growing up studying economics, textbooks beat into your head that western economies were stronger in part because they were fueled by consumption.

Buying things drove GDP, and that had a strong, trickle down effect.

Then, 2001 and 2008 happened, and went the tide went out, the people (and industries) who were naked had to scramble to find new places to eek out efficiency and lower their own operational and capital costs.

We’ve seen what’s happened to consumer markets, with the success of companies like Airbnb (full list of “sharing economy” companies on AngelList) — so, can larger industries benefit from the trend?

Case Studies of Disruptive Ventures

What I found out is: Yes. The first company I found is Cohealo, based out of Boston.

When I found them and finally met them, they’d already well passed me by as an early-stage investor, and they’re well on their way to the big time, helping hospital networks share their high-end equipment which requires high, upfront capital expenditures but often just sits around waiting to be used.

Cohealo found the white space between centers which own these and those which need them, and now the sky’s the limit for them.

The next two companies I found, I invested in them. The first is Asseta, which provides an aftermarket for industrial parts for semiconductor companies, a capital-intensive business which Asseta helps provide more financial efficiency.

And the second company I found was Getable. There’s a fun story behind it. I had been tweeting about this subject after posting about it, and Kevin from Getable jumped into the conversation.

I knew construction, like medical equipment, was a huge industry ($40B+ industry), big enough for a concept like sharing to pervade.

It took a while for Kevin and I too schedule our meeting to talk more about this, and I had no idea how they were doing as a company.

Finally, Kevin called me to apologize he had to cancel a meeting because they were just about to close a round — and, the light went off in my head.

“Can I invest, too?”

Kevin was busy as a co-founder dealing with the round, but he took my request seriously, checked out my references, and after a few weeks, managed to make a bit of room for me in the latest Series A round that was announced in February.

I had a bit of time to really dig into the Getable’s metrics, which now already services more than 50 construction companies across 250+ job sites, process over $3M in construction rentals (saving on average over 20% for companies), and also driving over $20k in sales to suppliers who join the Getable network.

So, where do I send the check again?

I am grateful to Kevin for taking my call during a stressful time and taking the time to read my posts on the matter.

In return, I am now allowed to invest alongside a great syndicate which led Getable’s Series A as the company marches further into a massive industry ripe for new technologies and new business models.

Conclusion

Finally, it’s worth noting I wouldn’t have arrived at Getable if I didn’t see the concepts take root among consumers and then, write about them here on my blog.

The writing helps reinforce what I see taking place, and then helps me connect with new friends like Kevin, and those connections lead to things that I couldn’t have planned with any grand strategy.

That feels good.

 

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