Problem and Solution
Currently, one of the biggest challenges that the Construction Industry faces is that they struggle to find, hire and keep skilled workers. This is mainly caused by:
Skills shortage. A combination of retiring workers, Brexit, and COVID-19 led many skilled workers to leave the industry, with not enough coming into the industry to make up for these losses.
Recruitment agencies are suboptimal. Generally, the staffing process, consistency of service, and costs aren’t great.
Agency workers have the wrong incentives because of lack of security, which leads to low productivity + retention.
A startup we just invested in, Gigbridge, aims to solve these problems by creating a gig-economy web and mobile app for these construction companies to be able to hire freelance construction workers Uber-style. The way this works is workers can build profiles on Gigbridge for potential construction workers to be seen by these companies. These profiles include skills, experience, and preferences. On the other end, construction teams at these companies can then book job requests, manage, and review workers using the Gigbridge web/mobile app. The result is vast monetary savings (more than £30,000 a year saved, up to 30% cheaper than traditional recruitment firms) and time savings (2x faster hiring cycle) for construction teams. Current competitors to Gigbridge (other than recruitment agencies) include Grafta and Konstructly. Konstructly raised a $1Mn pre-seed round and are building out their product while Grafta mostly focuses on small construction companies or self-employed tradespeople that need an extra hand. GigBridge focuses on construction contractors that work on commercial projects such as hotels, housing estates and office buildings.
Ultimately, what we love about Gigbridge is that it’s fulfilling a high-pain point market niche that is not straightforward. Historically, industries such as construction have been underserved by innovative ideas, with many practices being stuck in the 2000s or earlier. Gigbridge finally brings some aspects of the construction industry in line with 2020s norms, utilising the power of the gig economy to solve many firms’ employment challenges.
Potential Market Opportunity
The market size in the construction industry is immense. In terms of sheer numbers, there are more than 340,000 construction companies and 2.2 million jobs a year in the UK alone. The total UK temporary labour market spend is around £44 billion, with an estimated £7.7 billion in construction alone. If Gigbridge serves even 20% of this demand, it could generate up to £1.54 billion of revenue per year, a substantial number.
Unlike most pre-seed companies, Gigbridge is already making revenue. It has seen a steady month on month growth of 132.33% since launch, all without much funding. We’re excited to see how much Gigbridge can accelerate its scale with the cash received from its pre-seed round.
Potential Challenges
Some long term/short term challenges for Gigbridge could include:
Like with all e-commerce/platform based businesses, there’s a chance that if a construction company finds a worker/workers that it really likes, it could opt to skip the Gigbridge platform and hire these workers directly (thus securing lower rates). However, GigBridge works specifically with clients that need to hire frequently. So the risk of disintermediation is low considering customers will consistently need their services. They also offer friendly terms for a worker to switch from temporary to permanent.
Gigbridge will need to secure a CTO/in house development team for the long run as it continues to build out its tech platform. Continual platform and feature updates will be needed for Gigbridge to maintain its position at the top of the pile, and this can only be done seamlessly with an internal tech team. They are currently working with Founder & Lightning; a tech development studio focused on helping non-technical founders build products. While it’s a great interim solution that gives GigBridge the flexibility to scale their tech team up and down at short notice, in house will still be optimal long term.
How strong of a moat is Gigbridge’s volume of companies and freelancers? Gigbridge is working on some interesting features and rewards to help workers develop their careers and incentivise good performance. In Gabriel’s words: “actually caring about the workers is our strongest USP. Sounds easy but it’s really hard for recruitment agencies to put this first”
What happens to Gigbridge if agencies decide to speed up their levels of customer service, incorporate gig-economy elements into their hiring, and cut prices?
Founder/Team Potential
Gabriel Makinwa, a solo founder, has the necessary experience, knowledge and savviness to change the game in the construction gig economy industry. Prior to working on Gigbridge, he worked for 3 years as a partnerships manager for TaskRabbit, with 2 of those years spent specifically managing the IKEA partnership. This has given him the necessary practice to be able to sell to both large, established corporations and freelancers alike. In addition, this is his 4th startup (previously worked on Gevva, Grad Day Photos, and MyPhotographr), meaning as a repeat founder, he knows how to dodge common mistakes first-time founders make. During his interview with us, Gabriel struck us as a person who had deep insight into his industry, curious, willing to learn and knew how to execute.
Gabriel is currently working with Founder and Lightning (a development agency working with non-technical founders to ship SaaS).