It’s going to be a big year!

Admittedly, even as an eternal optimist, it hasn’t been easy to keep up that positivity throughout this past year’s rollercoaster ride (even in the past week for that matter!). Exactly one year ago in January 2020, we officially launched DADO, the first dedicated construction search platform.  There was a period in early April when it seemed like we couldn’t have timed things worse for launching a new product and business. There were a lot of ups and downs since then, but looking back today, I argue we couldn’t have timed it better and I have strong evidence:

Our Customers

• First, I am forever grateful for all of the contractors who took the leap of faith on a new entrant to the construction technology space and placed their confidence in DADO this crazy year.  We are both proud and humbled to be part of the “construction digitization” process that many of our customers were forced to accelerate this year.  I am constantly amazed at the industry’s ability to innovate and adapt in difficult times.  
• The Contractors customers were quick to adopt COVID-19 safety practices on the jobsite, but perhaps more impressive, quickly learned to work remotely and collaborate effectively from a distance. My friend who works at a large electrical contractor in the Bay Area said it best, “We have been doing all of this tenant improvement work to reimagine workspaces for local companies by reducing dedicated desks, replacing servers in favor of cloud storage, eliminating landlines, etc. We realized we should be doing all of this at our own office as well, which resulted in a huge benefit in the way we work.”  I believe this pandemic will have a lasting positive impact on the culture, flexibility and talent pool available to these companies.  
• In the past month, I heard a renewed optimism on the construction market in general.  Just this week I talked to 3 contractors who told me that their backlogs are growing quickly, and their biggest concern for 2021 was the skilled labor shortage. That certainly turned around fast!  
• We saw an uptick directly from our customers with  increased usage of DADO, which is being used on over 200 projects, across 22 states and counting!  The feedback, comments, criticism and praise we received over this period was invaluable for us to improve, fix and modify DADO to solve your problems... and we are just getting started!
• To each of you: THANK YOU!

Our Team

• It was an extraordinarily challenging year for many of us balancing personal and professional obligations, home schooling, caring for elders, and more.  Like most companies, we made some tough decisions this year, and some tough decisions were made for us.  Through it all, we hired amazing people, doubled the size of our team, and ended the year with an absolutely talented, dedicated, diverse, and resilient team that I am proud to call my coworkers.
• The ability for our team to make the transition to a fully-remote company, replace in-person collaboration with digital solutions, stay connected and build relationships has exceeded all expectations.  The increasing pace of our customer interaction, product development and feature releases gives me great confidence for the year ahead.
• To each of you: THANK YOU!

In sum, the last year, and even last week, brought a lot of challenges and frustrations.  However, with the team and customers we have at DADO, it is hard not to be optimistic about the future. I look forward to putting the past behind us and welcoming the new year.  We have amazing features launching in the coming months and will continue pursuing our goals to break through data silos, eliminate document administration time, and become a true info-hub where users can quickly find the information they need to keep projects on track and on budget.