Car Fax for construction equipment

EquipmentGram is making "Car Fax for construction equipment."

The EquipmentGram product will have software and hardware components:

1). Software: platform which connects buyers/sellers of construction equipment with construction equipment inspectors.

2). Hardware: a universal telematics system which can be used on construction equipment made by any manufacturer.

Orlando, USA/Orlando, USA

Mike and Boyce have known each other for the past year but only got to know each other well in the past few months. They met through EquipmentGram

I have known Mike since June 2021. We met through a co-founder matching platform.

I first got to know Boyce through a college group over 5 years ago. But I never began working closely with Boyce on EquipmentGram until January 2022.

For the software component, we have a full functional software prototype which can be used by customers and we have also done some customer discovery and spoken with potential customers.

For the hardware component, we have the specs for the telematics system ready but are still to develop a fully functional prototype.

I have worked on this concept on and off in the past 3 years.

Mike has been working on this for over 1 year since about June/July 2021.

Boyce has been working on this for the past 3 months.

We have all been doing this while we have other jobs.

The prototype of the software component is ready.

The specs for the hardware (telematics) component are ready and the hardware prototype should be ready in February 2023.

Nothing has changed.

I decided to pick the concept of “Car Fax for construction equipment” because its based on a suggestion which came from a customer discovery interview which I did for another concept. This shows that at some level, its an idea which multiple people have. But even more than that, EquipmentGram is developing a solution for an industry (i.e. construction) which is central to modern society. I am a believer in the idea that startups should place a lot of focus on less consumer focused industries which might not look very attractive but are very consequential to human flourishing.

I do not have domain expertise or firsthand experience with this problem. But my founder, Mike Lee has firsthand experience with this problem and this is why he enthusiastically decided to EquipmentGram.

I know that people need what EquipmentGram is developing because I have gotten a lot of positive feedback during the customer discovery interviews which I have done. Furthermore, some of this feedback has been incorporated into the solution which EquipmentGram is offering.

Inspections: $500 per individual inspection and $10,000 per year for enterprise customers

Telematics: $1200 per telematics unit

Potential amount that can be made: $1.46B*

*Potential amount to be made based on bottom-up calculations and can be provided if requested

NA

The code and technical work are done by Mike Lee and Boyce Poleon.

Mike is in-charge of developing all hardware.

Boyce is in charge of developing all code and software.

NA

I was encouraged by a friend who is into growth marketing for startups to apply to Y Combinator.

I first heard about Y Combinator when I read about the Airbnb story.