After nearly four years in a sales role at personal software company ServiceTitan, Mark Hoadley (pictured above) was looking for a change and exploring the possibility of starting something of his own in a similar industry.
Hoadley's brother-in-law and current co-founder Ben Sikma was working on M&A in the waste management space at the time. Sikma discovered how outdated many companies are in changing hands. When he and Mr. Hoadley started looking deeper, they realized that waste management might be what Mr. Hoadley was looking for.
“All the existing software in this space was clunky and outdated,” Hoadley told TechCrunch. “Sometimes we've talked about how this reminds me of the Oregon Trail and how it reminds me of the cell phones Michael Douglas used on 'Wall Street.' It's so clunky and outdated.”
Hoadley, now CEO, and Sikma, now president, launched Hauler Hero in 2020. This cloud-based software platform works with waste management companies on everything from route planning and management to billing to a customer portal where business customers can request pickup. . Hauler Hero's software leverages AI to automate some tasks like invoicing and route management, finding inefficiencies and helping businesses reduce costs.
Hoadley said the company specifically decided to build multiple product lines from the beginning, rather than just building route management or billing software and planning to expand later. While there, he said he watched ServiceTitan struggle to expand into routine services (pest control). The company ultimately had to purchase an existing player to make it work. He didn't want his company to suffer the same fate.
“We wanted to make sure we built this the right way from the beginning,” Hoadley says. “A lot of people advise you to build an MVP, but this is just a wedge into the market, and overall I didn't think it was the right way to go. It was more difficult to get started, but now we have a very efficient machine that our customers love.”
The company launched the platform in beta in 2022 and made it publicly available in Q1 2024. Since then, we have acquired more than 120 residential and commercial waste management customers across 40 states. Revenue has increased 200% in the past year.
Hauler Hero announced that it has raised $10 million in seed funding led by I2BF Ventures, with participation from K5 Global and Somersault Ventures, as well as executives from companies like Gusto and ServiceTitan and some of Hauler Hero's customers. Announced.
Hoadley said the company plans to use the funding to hire more engineers and salespeople and continue working on product development.
Hoadley said one of the areas the company is working on is building products for large enterprise customers who want better integration with other related businesses, such as transfer stations and waste-separation storage locations. It is said that there is. He added that the company is also looking at building unified communications services, such as two-way text messaging, which will eventually allow the company to have enough data to build customer service agents.
Hauler Hero's technology operates in a relatively crowded industry with many legacy software companies such as Capterra, WasteWorks, and cieTrade.
There are other startups trying to solve these problems. Copenhagen-based WasteHero is one of the early stage startups looking to build software for the industry and has raised $6.7 million in venture funding. New York-based CurbWaste is another company that has raised $21.2 million in funding.
However, the waste management market is huge. In 2023, it generated more than $140 billion in revenue in the U.S. alone. The industry includes giants like Waste Management and G Mello, but also thousands of small private waste collection companies. companies. Hauler Hero wants to capture significant market share.
“It's very rewarding. These are guys who are doing really hard work and God's work,” Hoadley said. “It allows you to run workflows faster, create reports more easily, and ultimately gives you the opportunity to grow faster and put more cash in your pocket to do the things that matter to you.” It’s really rewarding to be able to do that.”