BROADCASTS.com

b'

Often starting a company means bringing a solution to a market\\u2014but then there are those times when the market comes to you. When Shane Hodgkin\\u2019s brother went to work for their father\\u2019s window installation company, he discovered a system that felt like something out of the nineteenth century. Everything was recorded on little slips of paper that had no logical organizational structure. 

So he built a simple app to keep track of everything. It was purely for his own purposes, but soon, everybody wanted it. That was the beginning of Matrak, a company that offers cloud-based materials and progress tracking software that allows companies to track and share information on manufacturing, shipping, installation, and defects for construction projects. 

On this episode of Founders Journey, Shane talks about starting this company with his brother, the years they spent developing the product, and how they built a strategy that not only assessed the competition but what the competition might become. He also explains his revelation that the best way to raise funds is to show investors they\\u2019re \\u201c...just a bunch of nerdy guys trying to help out construction people.\\u201d