Vertical: GCs

General contractors run the actual construction work — managing subs, drawings, schedules, materials, and field operations across multiple active jobs. Margins are thin (typically 5–10% on commercial work), so every operational improvement directly hits profitability. Their core challenges are coordination across hundreds of subs, document control across constantly-changing plans, and getting paid on time.

GCs come in different shapes: regional commercial GCs ($25M–$500M revenue), national commercial GCs ($500M+), specialty contractors (mechanical, electrical, plumbing — typically subs but sometimes prime), and design-build firms. Each has different software needs and pain profiles.

• SoV (Schedule of Values) — line-item breakdown of contract sum used for progress billing
• Pre-con (Pre-construction) — planning phase before work starts
• Closeout — final phase: punch list, warranties, lien waivers, final pay app
• Bid leveling — comparing sub bids apples-to-apples
• Change order — modification to scope, schedule, or cost after contract signing
• Submittal — shop drawings, samples, product data submitted for design team approval
• RFI (Request For Information) — formal question from contractor to design team
• AIA pay app — standardized monthly billing format (G702/G703)
• Retainage — percentage of each pay app the owner withholds until project is complete
• GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) — contract type capping owner's exposure
• Punch list — final list of small items to complete before substantial completion

• President / CEO — final approval on enterprise software decisions
• COO / VP of Operations — day-to-day owner of operational tooling
• VP of Construction — owns project-level performance
• IT Director — owns the technical evaluation
• Project Executives — heavy users, influential on adoption
• Field staff (supers, foremen) — adoption gate

Faster than government or higher ed. Mid-size regional GCs often decide in 4–8 weeks if the right person engages. Larger national GCs take longer — 3–6 months — with more stakeholders. Watch for budget cycles, often calendar year. Many GCs have existing Procore commitments, so timing around contract renewals matters.

1. Procore cost. Per-seat pricing scales painfully as teams grow. Most limit access, which kills field adoption.
2. Document control chaos. Drawings, RFI responses, submittals — everyone working off something different. Field teams especially.
3. Closeout drag. Punch lists, lien waivers, O&Ms scatter across email and shared drives. Cuts into next-project mobilization.
4. Sub coordination. Subs use different systems, different processes, different attention spans. GCs need a single source of truth they can drag subs into.
5. Slow reporting to owners. Owners want real-time updates. GCs build reports manually because their systems can't generate what owners want.

• "Field-first UX. Your supers actually use it on their phones."
• "Replace Procore at a fraction of the cost. Same data, less complexity."
• "Closeout that doesn't drag — workflow built for the last 10% of a project."
• "Owners get the reports they want, automatically."

Procore (most common). ACC. Bluebeam for plan markups. Sage / Foundation / QuickBooks for accounting. Microsoft 365. AutoCAD for some. Heavy use of Excel and email even alongside other systems.

See the Select Projects deck in the Resources Hub for current reference customers.

• Don't pitch features. Pitch outcomes. GCs care about hours saved and dollars protected.
• Don't ignore field staff. They kill adoption if the tool is bad on a phone.
• Don't badmouth Procore. GCs have invested in it. Position around what we do better, not what they do worse.
• Don't skip the closeout conversation. Closeout drag is universal pain.