Austin couldn’t come close to matching Raleigh’s attractiveness for a new office for BuildOps, says the CEO of the fast-growing Los Angeles-based software company serving the construction trades industries.
The company opened an office in Raleigh’s Glenwood South district on Wednesday, with expectations it will exceed its target of 300 employees sooner than expected. It has received state and local incentives of about $3 million through 2037, tied to hitting growth targets. Annual wages are averaging about $111,000. About 100 have been hired so far.
“I think 300 undershoots our potential,” CEO Alok Chanani says.
He and Steve Chew cofounded the business in 2018, which now has 500 employees and customers in 50 states and Canada. It has been doubling revenue annually in recent years, ranking among the top 100 firms on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private businesses.
“Our single differentiator is being laser focused at being the best in the world in our market, and not being focused on 140 different markets,” he says.
That growth has attracted more than $300 million in capital, including $127 million raised earlier this year in a fundraising led by Meritech Capital Partners of Palo Alto, California. Its estimated valuation tops $1 billion, with Raleigh joining LA and Toronto as company hubs.
BuildOps’ expansion stems from a strict focus on serving plumbing, electrical, HVAC, refrigeration and other companies that “are the most foundational businesses of this country,” Chanani says. Its products affect most parts of customers’ operations, both in the back office and technicians doing the work, he adds.
Many customers are multigenerational private companies that operate on archaic software, so BuildOps emphasizes the benefits of switching to a more cutting-edge technology. Its major challenge now is finding talented workers, so software that improves efficiency is an appealing prospect, Chanani says.
Continued growth relies on attracting top technology talent, and the Triangle is a prime market because of its universities and skilled workforce, the CEO says. The pro-business approach shown by the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell and others “is almost jarring for someone coming from California,” he says.
Chanani served in the U.S. Army for seven years, including a deployment in Iraq in 2006-07. He has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
David Mildenberg is editor of Business North Carolina. Reach him at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.