Early in January of 2022, five friends who spanned across Canada and the United States, united by a shared passion for technology and a deep understanding of the landscape industry, sat around a brewery table to solidify an idea they had been contemplating for a year or more.
Each with unique expertise, they discussed the shared challenges faced by business owners in their respective industries.
The Founding Five discussed a vital issue in their respective landscaping companies and identified a problem plaguing green-industry businesses: managing all those little extra jobs outside of their maintenance contracts that added up to a significant portion of revenue but were largely ignored. They had experienced it firsthand in their own businesses - endless note-taking, delayed proposals, mismanaged budgets, wasted ad spend, and missed opportunities for revenue growth.
^^Jason's actual notebook
As many things start, one founder started with a Google Sheet that turned into a proof of concept, the best idea on the table at that moment, and we drew out plans of what it could look like.
^^Brandon’s proof of concept sheet
Their vision?
To build a technology solution that simplifies business ownership, operations, and revenue generation, easing the pain points experienced by countless entrepreneurs like themselves. This marked the humble beginning of Hypha Dynamics.
The Founding Five, a dynamic mix of trade veterans and tech wizards, recognized that the most enduring companies were the ones built on solid cultures. Starting a company with five chefs in the kitchen is a little unorthodox. One reason the synergy works so well is that the five are highly aligned in business and personal life; they’re willing to negotiate against themself for the good of the collective, which ultimately benefits them more. It’s because they believe they are stronger together than alone.
Despite the geographical barriers, they set out to create a culture of collaboration and innovation within Hypha Dynamics. The shared company values that emerged were:
- Be a Real Beaut: Don’t take yourself too seriously
- Be Hungry: Identify problems and solve them
- Break the Trail: In the shortest way
The idea started with something like, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to just, you know, be able to take a picture, see a pin on a map of where it was, put a price, description, title, and shopping cart on it.” Shockingly there was nothing out in the market like that, and these FoundingFive were constantly scouring the interwebs for tools and platforms, software to make their lives easier.
“That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
–Steve Jobs
IssueID was a game-changer internally, offering a structured and digitized way to manage these extras. With our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) launch, essentially a map and a spreadsheet built with vanilla HTML/CSS(Bootstrap)/JavaScript and the new-to-the-scene Serverless database architecture, one of our landscaping companies put through over $200,000 in extras.
Indisputably, the MVP helped streamline the process significantly and was well-received by our clients (homeowners, property managers, and board members of home consortiums). With this tool being used by other contractors - we could increase their revenue per customer, present a more professional appearance to our customers, and effectively plan landscape improvements over time.
^^ Craig’s MVP
That last part was an unintended side effect of the product; when we set out to build this, several unique value propositions emerged. The fact that you went on a site, did the work (that previously was tedious and could just be lost over time) and presented the price, our customers started to come to the table now seeing us as part of the strategic planning party and working on partitioning the work in monthly, quarterly, annual, and multi-year projects. They became more open to sharing their budgets as we had already “laid our cards on the table.”
Before bringing IssueID to the market, the Founding Five did a soft launch, sharing it with other business owners in the green industry. The immediate and positive response reaffirmed the need for such a solution. They just “got it,” resonating with the common pain points that IssueID addresses.
Emboldened by the response, the Founding Five of HyphaDynamics took a decisive step forward. They vowed to continue enhancing their technology solution, making it accessible to the landscaping industry as a whole, helping businesses around the globe overcome their challenges, and reshaping how the industry operated.
And thus why we’re writing this blog. This is our story. Our planting of a flag in the ground. We’re here now and want to share and develop this for others in the trades industry. We thrive on customer feedback and helping our fellow business owners grow their businesses and communities and help them get there faster with less headache.
So go for it, watch a 2-min demo, watch the extended, full-fledged demo that’s packed with actionable tips and tricks to implement in your business today (Coming Soon), jump on a one-with-one demo call with the team to explore how you can implement IssueID into your business in just one week. We built it so you can get your first product sold in a week and, in many cases, cover the platform’s investment immediately.
Granted, there is a slight learning curve in how we think about pricing (moving towards a standardization model) and moving to a proactive approach. Landscapers are historically very reactive to customer requests. Still, now, we can flip that script, especially in slower customer request times, and continue to grow your business! Download our Service Catalog Template resource and learn how it can drive streamlined revenue into your landscaping company.
Lastly, we ask you to share our story with your network. We believe that it's through sharing experiences that we can collectively innovate, redefine the green industry, and help other entrepreneurs like us succeed.
To your business’ success, whatever we can do to help you grow, we’re here. High tides rise all ships, y’all!
Pura Vida from the Founding Five,
Brandon, Michelle, Craig, Jason, and Jonathan
