Lumber is a dynamic Construction Workforce Management Platform that was built for contractors, sub-contractors, and specialty contractors. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lumber founder and CEO Shreesha Ramdas to learn more about the company.
Shreesha Ramdas’ Background
With a proven track record of successfully launching and expanding products in competitive markets, Ramdas previously held the position of CEO and co-founder at Strikedeck, a company specializing in customer success automation – which was later acquired by Medallia. Before his role at Strikedeck, Ramdas assumed the role of General Manager for the Marketing Cloud division at CallidusCloud and co-founded LeadFormix (subsequently acquired by CallidusCloud).
Ramdas also co-founded OuterJoin and held the position of General Manager at Yodlee. Along with his extensive entrepreneurial and leadership experience, Ramdas has been an active investor & advisor for several high-growth companies, including Workato, Rocketlane, MurfAI, Scrut Automation, MetaData, and Zluri.
Formation Of Lumber
How did the idea for Lumber come together? Ramdas shared:
“As a part of the Medallia team, I saw the magical moment of going IPO, igniting a strong desire within me to establish a company that could both scale and make a significant impact. This desire led me to search for a sector that was lagging behind other industries in terms of technology utilization. That quest ultimately brought me to the construction industry, one of the world’s largest sectors, which profoundly affects countless lives yet still relies on outdated technology. Moreover, I recognized that despite a shrinking workforce, the workforce experience had not been given the central focus it deserved. Thus, the opportunity to disrupt the industry and create a lasting impact emerged as a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Ramdas reflected:
“I have not one, but two incredible memories associated with Lumber. Just reminiscing about these moments gives me goosebumps. One of these memories was the inception of our company logo, which is inspired by the intricate growth rings found inside a log. These mesmerizing circles tell the story of time and growth. They are only visible when you cut a tree trunk horizontally, revealing concentric circles that encapsulate the history of the tree’s life.”
“My second cherished memory is bringing together a group of individuals I’ve always enjoyed working with and molding them into a tightly synchronized team that supports one another unwaveringly. This team is not only prepared for any challenge but also poised to scale and grow together.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Ramdas explained:
“Lumber has launched its time tracking and payroll applications purpose-built for the construction industry. We will soon launch the platform’s job costing and project management modules as well.”
“Lumber Time tracking and Payroll are unlike any other in the market. Our time tracking supports Spanish language, which allows construction crew members to use the application in their native language. It also integrates with the most popular payroll applications used in the industry (ADP, Quickbooks, Sage, and many others). Geo-fencing, live tracking, capturing mobile signatures, and a color-coded clock-in and clock-out feature make this application easy to use.”
“Our payroll application has an AI-powered payroll engine that computes complex calculations factoring in prevailing wages, union rates, overtime, and paid time off and keeps construction firms compliant with the latest labor rules and regulations. This engine is a game-changer for the industry because it slashes down 20 hours of a weekly complex process to an automated 30 minutes of work.
Lumber Payroll supports certified payroll, union reporting and checks for prevailing wages, and the latest labor rules and regulations. Through Lumber payroll, end-to-end payment processing can be completed. Constructions and contractors can pay their employees securely through the platform.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Ramdas faced while building the company? Ramdas acknowledged:
“The construction industry has a reputation for reluctance to embrace new technology, primarily because construction projects are often lengthy and intricate, and companies are wary of making alterations that could disrupt their established processes. Recognizing these unique industry traits, we have adopted a ‘no rip & replace’ approach and emphasized delivering an exceptional user experience (UX). As a result, we are beginning to witness the emergence of new habits and practices among our customers.”
Evolution Of Lumber’s Technology
How has Lumber’s technology evolved since launching? Ramdas noted:
“The construction industry is experiencing a pivotal moment of generational change, where traditional paper-based workflows and fragmented data silos are being challenged by the new wave of workforce entering the industry. The reliance on paperwork and manual record-keeping is being questioned, as these methods are seen as inefficient, time-consuming, and prone to errors.”
“Lumber’s technology evolution is to push digital transformation while focusing on centralizing data, and then it evolved to automate workflows, and now we are evolving it further to build a collaboration layer across the complex ecosystem.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Ramdas cited:
“Our young company has achieved several significant milestones, including successful fundraising, forming a cohesive team, developing our initial product version, acquiring our first ten pilot customers, our inaugural television appearance, and remarkable press coverage upon our launch. Moreover, we marked a pivotal moment with our first revenue generation and the release of the second version of our platform.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Ramdas about customer success stories, he cited:
“Let me provide you with an example of a successful experience with our Lumber Time Tracking application. Prodigal Building Systems, a prominent Drywall and Carpentry company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, emerged as an early adopter of our Lumber Time Tracking solution. Managing numerous concurrent projects across various sites, they discovered the application to be exceptionally efficient. It facilitated seamless time tracking and accurate wage calculations, streamlining their operations. The workforce appreciated the user-friendly interface, allowing them to submit timesheets in Spanish effortlessly. Notably, the Geo-Fencing features of Lumber proved to be invaluable, enabling remote monitoring of workers and contributing significantly to the company’s overall success.”
Funding
When asking Ramdas about funding information, he revealed:
“We have raised a seed round of $5.5 million from Carbide Ventures, 8VC, Escape Velocity, Sure Ventures, Converge VC, and Firsthand Alliance, as well as notable individual investors.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Ramdas assessed:
“3.6 million construction companies with over a 9 million person workforce and $23.9 billion in software spend by 2031.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Lumber from its competition? Ramdas affirmed:
“1.) A key differentiating factor of our platform lies in our design philosophy, which revolves around providing a conversational interface for automation and functionality, as opposed to the traditional point-and-click paradigm offered by other software companies. In the construction industry, where skill levels may vary, software that requires extensive training to operate can pose adoption challenges. However, our design philosophy eliminates such barriers by ensuring ease of use and accessibility. By incorporating a conversational interface, we enable users to interact with the software in a more natural and intuitive manner. This approach minimizes the learning curve and reduces the need for extensive training, making our platform more user-friendly and approachable.
2.) Our objective is to construct the most extensive compliance data repository in the industry. The construction sector faces 11 times more regulations than any other industry, making compliance a critical and complex aspect. Additionally, compliance requirements in the construction industry are constantly evolving, with each state in the US passing numerous construction bills throughout the year. This dynamic nature of compliance poses a significant challenge for contractors, as staying up-to-date with the latest forms and processes can be an arduous task. Lumber, as a platform, offers a compelling value proposition by ensuring perpetual compliance. This unique feature sets us apart from others in the market. Contractors can rely on our comprehensive compliance data repository, which will provide them with the most current and accurate information. By leveraging Lumber, contractors can streamline their compliance efforts, reducing the time and effort required to navigate the complex regulatory landscape. The promise of forever compliance is a major differentiator for Lumber, as it relieves contractors of the burden of constantly monitoring and implementing compliance changes.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Ramdas concluded:
“To unify workers’ data from various silos by building a worker-centric, all-in-one, operations platform that extends across HR, finance, and IT. By integrating these solutions and potentially offering third-party applications in the future, Lumber creates a workers-data system of record.”
