Creating Connection in the On-Demand Gig Marketplace

To paraphrase Deepak Chopra, “…step into the unknown, and you will step into the field of all possibilities.” And that’s exactly what Benjamin Bottner did when he decided to exit an industry he spent more than a decade learning and venture into a new foreign territory: the gig marketplace for office and commercial furniture installation.

While Benjamin didn’t have experience in office furniture, he did have a big idea, a background in startups and staffing, and the belief that his lack of industry expertise might actually help him see things through a different lens. As it turns out, that happened to be the recipe for success.

In 2019, he put the wheels in motion for what would soon become Steady Install, an on-demand, installation gig marketplace with an initial focus on the office and commercial furniture space. Prior to launching the company, Benjamin ran a property management company that eventually began offering building staffing based on a growing need. He knew he wanted to continue on that path, but this time, he wanted to integrate technology.

Building a platform that accommodates the unique needs of multiple stakeholders, however, is no easy feat. The only way Benjamin knew he’d meet these needs was to get out there and start talking to as many these stakeholders as possible.

Now, as the company continues its upward trajectory, Benjamin and his growing team are encountering all new challenges, but an equal number of opportunities. Check out Benjamin’s interview for the full story and how he and his team are positioning Steady Install for massive expansion.

What is Steady Install?

Steady Install is a gig marketplace platform. Essentially we go out, we recruit workers, and we find them spots on projects to work. The focus right now is office and commercial furniture installation.

How did Steady Install come to be?

I had a former company that was primarily property management but we started to do building staffing. I exited in 2018 and I knew I wanted to start another company along the lines of staffing and maintenance but I didn’t really have an exact direction. I was introduced to a guy named Adam Goodman who owns Goodman’s Interior Structures and he had his own version of that in his head based on a need he saw in his company. It was kind of like the stars aligned.

How long did you spend building it prior to launching it?

We did the Coplex venture building program so we went through an accelerator. We actually started that in April 2019 and we staffed our first project in July 2019. It was a nine-month program but we went out there and started testing on the ground pretty quickly.

What’s been one of the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?

It’s a business that deals with people. One challenge is dealing with the inconsistency of humans being human. Another is creating a platform and automations that can be applicable to a broad audience and with many different scenarios. It was a challenge that we’ve done really well with but required a lot of thought and tweaking because we have all sorts of people who are using the platform.

What’s been one of the biggest contributing factors to the company’s growth?

I think I probably spent more time than most in the beginning doing brain picking of people who we would categorize as potential clients and people who we would categorize as potential workers. I didn’t have an office furniture background. I had a startup background and a staffing background, but the content itself was relatively new for me. I actually think that helped because sometimes fresh eyes see fresh things.

I spent a lot of time talking to people and getting into the pain points they faced. It wasn’t just, “What are the pain points?” but I dug into the ramifications of those pain points. You can tell someone you’re going to fix a problem but if you can understand the impact of that problem being fixed and make whatever you’re trying to push about that endpoint, that will be far more compelling.

What’s next for Steady Install?

We’re going to expand into additional markets. Right now, we’re in Phoenix Tucson, and recently Dallas. We’re rolling out additional verticals. Our name is broad and that’s not coincidental. We want to start incorporating other kinds of B-to-B installation projects, not just office and commercial furniture.

The idea will ultimately be to have a select number of verticals that we service that are synergistic. We will actually be able to have a very significant B-to-B labor platform but with one supply pool and not a segmented supply pool. Each worker will have, a primary, secondary, and tertiary focus for the kind of work we want to send them but they’d be more than capable of contributing to a project in a different vertical.

What brought you to the StartupAZ Collective?

When I first started, we were working at Galvanize and Diana was running it at the time. Then she got involved with StartupAZ and introduced me to it. Once I looked into it, I found there’s a plethora of reasons why it’s a fantastic thing to be a part of.

What are you looking forward to with the StartupAZ Collective?

You know it’s a cliche that being a founder is a lonely experience but it is true. There aren’t that many areas, at least in my life, where I can find someone who can relate. Even when I do meet a founder, they might not be at the same stage so they might understand, but they could be beyond that or you’re beyond them and it’s one-sided. One of the things I really like about StartupAZ is the groupings. They’re conscious of everybody’s stage because you can’t really be dealing with things that are that far off from the others. That makes a big difference.

What advice would you give to other startup founders in Arizona?

Just start. The majority of learning happens when you’re in it. You can prep all you want and tally and calculate your market size but the reality is that however you start is not what you’re going to look like a year from now or five years from now.

In my first company, we started as third-party property management, and we had assumed that the big sister arm of that company was going to be residential leasing. We eventually did have a residential leasing arm but our big arm was staffing. We hadn’t even really factored that in. Eventually, that outpaced every other revenue stream we had. If you had asked us about that before we started the company, it wouldn’t have occurred to us.

You need to go where the market takes your company. You kick the ball out there and you get it going but you have to be open to the difference between your perception of the use and need of your product versus the true customer’s use and need of your product.