5 months ago Techcrunch’s Connie Loizos sat with Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners. The topic of discussion? Mobile enterprise applications and the “‘Tens of Billions of Dollars’ To Be Created.”
Bessemer is an established venture capital firm with investments in companies like LinkedIn, Yelp, Pinterest, and Box. Their more recent investments include Procore (construction management software) and ServiceTitan (software for home services businesses). Bessemer, along with others, have been making a steady push towards expanding into mobile enterprise applications.
Why mobile?
I remember growing up in the Bay Area during the web revolution — back when enterprise software was limited to desktop users. Today it’s a very different story. The advent of smartphones and mobile technology has brought instant internet access from virtually anywhere. For entrepreneurs, this translates to endless possibilities. According to data from Forrester and the International Labour Organization, approximately 80% of the global workforce (~3 billion) do not sit at a desk. That’s 2,400,000,000 people. Plumbers, truckdrivers, construction workers, farmers, lawncare professionals and countless others all have mobile jobs.
The industries?
- ClearCare (home care agencies) funding: $15.5 million
- DoubleDutch (event services) funding: $78.5 million
- Everlaw (litigation) funding: $9.6 million
- FarmLogs (farming) funding: $15.83 million
- Fieldwire (construction) funding: $7.7 million
- KeepTruckin (fleet management) funding: $10.3 million
- Procore (construction) funding: $129 million
- ServiceMax (field services) funding: $204 million
- ServiceTitan (home services) funding: $18 million
- Yardbook (lawncare) funding: undisclosed
“What we’ve seen in the enterprise space historically is people who’ve… felt the pain firsthand in an organization — they’re often the best founders. They know the problem intimately and know how to solve it.” — Byron Deeter, Bessemer Venture Partners
Back in college my co-founder and I both worked as security officers. The job did more than provide us with income for top ramen — it opened our eyes to a broken industry.
Here are just a few problems experienced by today’s Physical Security firms:
- Officers conduct reports via paper or email which can be messy and expensive
- Inaccurate, poor quality reports can cost millions in litigation
- Low officer compliance leads to high employee & client turnover
Enter Radar: a mobile enterprise application for private security firms.
Related Links:
How an All-Star Officer (almost) Lost Faith in the Security Industry
