Tech-Driven Safety ...and Savings

Carlos Ponce (00:06):

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tech Leaders Unplugged. Okay. And joining me today is Omer Slavin. He is the CEO and co-founder of Beti. And Omer is going to tell us all about what Beti is about. So, Omer, welcome to the show. I appreciate you being here. It's a pleasure.

Omer Slavin (00:31):

Hey, Carlos. Thank you for hosting me today. I'm speaking from our office in Brooklyn, New York. And happy to enjoy the, this time of the day with you.

Carlos Ponce (00:43):

Let's get on with the conversation. Absolutely. So thank you for joining us. Okay. Well, first of all, Omer let's start with you. Tell us a little bit, tell us and the audience a little bit about you, what your background is, you know, where you're coming from pretty much anything you want to say about yourself. Introduce yourself, please, and then we'll continue. Thank you.

Omer Slavin (01:09):

Amazing. So yeah, I'm Omer from Beti, the CEO and co-founder Beti, the headquarter in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the office in the US in Brooklyn. We founded the company six years ago, and we actually, the founders came from a construction background did project management by ourself in in Europe, and coming from construction builders family. I'm a four generation, so I'm highly committed for this beloved industry. So we decided to brought Beti to the world because we saw the need for digitized the entire processes on construction sites, especially on safety and label management aspects. And that's brought us today to a company with almost a hundred people in, amazing people in the company. And more than 3000 construction sites already active with Beti Platform. So that is very exciting.

Carlos Ponce (02:16):

Excellent. Thank you so much. Can you walk us a little about can you walk us through the story of Beti, how it came about to be? What was the aha moment in which you felt, oh, we should create this solution? Tell us about Beti and how it came about to be.

Omer Slavin (02:35):

Okay. Yeah, great question. So, when I was a project manager, and, you know, I managed the day-to-day on site from subcontractors, new workers, the cranes, the scaffolding, and I realized that all the day I am tracking where is the data, what is the real data on site. It's, everything was on binders and paper and excel sheet that were not very accurate. And I saw that I waste a lot of my time on manual processes. And while other friends in other industry are starting to use lots of mobile application, lots of friendly tools that we all got used to, to do them. And we thought, there must be a better way. There must be a better way to understand the how to manage the site, how to be on control on your site to control your project. And they become to be a huge liability on construction sites. When you understand how the workers and replace the on construction every day, every week, you need to onboard new walker to manage their safety, to make sure they're return safely home. So you, you want to check everything that happened on site, and then you want to manage the routine to avoid the accident. We came from loan servicing the special forces in the Israeli Air Force, and we understand that if you want to prevent those action from a occur, you must take pre-act action to manage this risk. And if you want to manage this risk, you must have your auto alerts and to manage protocols and to manage processes that is very difficult to enforce with the existing manual processes. And we thought that the, the best solution will be to, to bring something to the world that will be easy to use and easy to implement. While we understand that in construction, the day-to-day is challenging, you are outside in the field, you need something that will streamline your process and not just create more work for you as you do your you building the project. That's what you want to focus,

Carlos Ponce (04:52):

I see. Thank you so much again, Omer. Okay. questions are starting to pop into my head, but before we go there, let's introduce the topic that you chose. We're talking about tech driven safety and savings, this is about the contribution of technology to construction and management. I'd like to continue by asking you why did you choose this particular topic and why did you feel it was relevant for this day and age? Let's continue there, please. Thank you.

Omer Slavin (05:33):

So if we'll go to a construction project budget, it could be from $10 million to a few hundred of million dollars. And every improvement on the construction project could generate a, a big saving for the construction companies. If we take just the smallest use case of onboarding of Walker, which happened with until today with the manual processes with 20 minutes per walker with Betty platform, it take less than 60 seconds. So we save a lot of time during the day of manual processes that you need to do again and again, or if we want to communicate with our subcontractor. So we want to make sure that we address them the right task and we could follow up on the right task that they are completed. And there are hundreds of tasks every day to accomplish if it's from safety perspective or the quality control on the project. And we, we realized that the environment of especially in New York and <inaudible> area of regulation become extremely difficult for general contractors and developers who are our customers. And we want to help them to manage this wage flow regulation and the SST regulation to make sure that they could compliance very easily with every new regulation that could pump up and and make their life on site more difficult to manage them on the daily basis.

Carlos Ponce (07:10):

I see. Thank you so much. Omer, okay. Obviously Beti is a, a technology solution. It is a platform, right? So the next, the question that comes to my mind because of construction being itself, the construction world being itself a non-digital world, right? Or environment, my question to you is, how does the platform integrate the, the project data that is non-digital, that comes from the, the construction itself? You know, the, the, I don't know, I'm not a no expert in construction, but I can't imagine that you have materials, you have people, you have you know, buildings and anything, everything that is non-digital. How do you integrate, how do you accurately integrate the data in a way that it's going to provide with accurate insights and, and for project performance and, and to maybe facilitate better financial planning and resource management? How is it all integrated? Can you walk us through the process of how it's integrated?

Omer Slavin (08:24):

Yeah definitely. It's a great question. And we are, we chose to do a comprehensive solution, so it'll centralize all the database of what happened on site because we realized that a lot of companies used with some mobile application for each different use case, and then they lose a lot of data. So, we said we're going to build one database that manage the label that manages safety routine, the quality control, the daily workload, and eventually it'll connect to the access control of the site. So we utilize face recognition technology with 3D technology to get the sense of the people that enter to the site. Then we could make sure that they are have all the relevant certificate ential to enter to the site from SST we're doing the safety orientation, we send alert about it. And then we also know the headcount of the project, how many subcontractor, how many workers attend today as electrician or plumbers to the project. And that's give a lot of value from the development side to the construction side, especially that we are aware today about the label shortage, that we can't really know what happened on site, how many workers attend from each one of the subs. And that's help us to focus on the metric of the, of the worker to make sure that we are on time of the project, we're on the budget, and we could put our management focus on the right and important stuff.

Carlos Ponce (09:59):

Okay, I see. And how about what can you tell me about adoption? I mean, you have, again, you have a very important innovative technology solution as Beti, but again, the, the construction world has been around forever, so you might have all kinds of generations involved in the construction world. Have you experienced resistance when it comes to adoption for the of the platform? And if so, how are you overcoming it if it applies in this case?

Omer Slavin (10:38):

Yeah, so I'm very proud to say that today more than 3000 construction sites use everyday Betty and more than half million workers already implementing the system. So there must be something there that they use it so much, and it's because we're very focused on the user, how it'll go through their day-to-day processes and as what they must have. And it's not going to generate for them more work that they're not used to do. And it's just going to make their life easier to shorten the processes that they already do. And because we know construction and their process very good. So the workflow is just a combination of all what they already doing, but in much more efficient way and that's helped them as the experience of mobile application that is very friendly. It's walk offline without any signal because we know in construction status could be signal problem, but still all the workflow will continue. And without the, all the problems of lose data, we don't want to have gap in the data, especially while we're handling with legal requirements concerns of liability. And we want to make sure that all those issues addressed with our platform.

Carlos Ponce (12:02):

I see. Thank you, Omer. This is, this is very, very interesting and I cannot help but also look towards the, the immediate future, if not like the, the present, right? Because I think of a scenario like the internet of things, for example, IOT. So in your, in Betty's roadmap, are you contemplating some kind of improvements or growth so that it's going to seamlessly integrate into the, the world of iot and smart construction sites?

Omer Slavin (12:42):

Yeah, so we are already today sensors in the entrance of the site using face recognition sensors and we already have pilots with be AI using cameras on site to prevent the next accident. We are monitor walker without helmet, without vest missing scaffolding or any other hazard to be on site. Obviously that's take a long investment and development and we'll continue to invest in the, in the future of the company. But there is already a good signal that this is something that is the extreme ROI on the accident prevention for companies.

Carlos Ponce (13:28):

Okay. And what about in the case of I don't know, maybe something that's, could be the initial steps prior to getting into the construction part, for example, the 3D modeling and building information modeling, like, you know, BIM are you planning on adding these types of options or technologies into Beti?

Omer Slavin (13:52):

We see those platforms that we will integrate with them with the BIM model that eventually every safety issues, any label that will be on site, any quality issues that will be addressed by our system eventually will integrate to a BIAM model, obviously it'll, it's taking time for the construction industry to implement. The BIM we have, we're hearing about that many years. But what we could tell that our customers in the US and in Europe let's take a example of build or <inaudible> big GC that until today they work with pen and paper or maybe few platform to manage the, the site. And one, now they have the comprehensive solution to have all the database. And I'm sure that we'll be using this data and the AI and new technology that they exist to give them better decision making processes and that will help them to, to build right, to know what go going to happen before it's already occurred.

Carlos Ponce (15:01):

Got it. Thank you again, Omer. So in terms of okay, so you have this technology solution, technology based solution, but as I was mentioning, as I mentioned before we went on the air behind the technology, there's the human component, right? So there's the, the, the engineering aspect of it, and you have the engineers behind building the solution. So, when you're building these types of this type of technology, what do you look for in the team that is going to be involved in creating this technology? Are you looking for people who come from a specific background? Like for example someone who has actual experience in construction, or are you looking to do, do you look for people who have a specific type of experience or background? Tell us a little bit about that for, because, and the reason why I'm asking you this, Omer, is because a lot of our viewers are software developers and come from the software development world, so I'm sure they're going to be interested in also in learning what's behind betting. I mean, I'm not, I'm not asking you to share your secret sauces or anything, but just tell us what type of background or or experience you're looking for in your team when building this this solution.

Omer Slavin (16:31):

Yeah. So, we have an amazing team that most of the people are there with us several years. And I think what common for everyone is the commitment to transform the construction and digitize the construction industry. They understand that they'll have to be people person to understand the people in construction, how they want to use the platform, to listen them carefully, what is help them and what is not. And to all the time think about the people on site because eventually of course there is the managers in the office, but they're really good listeners to what happened on site and could help the construction companies and the managers on site to, to go through all the, the step they need to accomplish their project. So, our l and d team are fully committed to provide the best support to the, to our customers and users. And because they know that in construction sites, it's, they walk in 24/7, 7 days a week. And so we have to be there with the best support with our R and D and customer success and support and a dedicated person to any customer that will go through with them and make sure they get the most value of the software, and that will help them to see the adoption. And this is why the users are using our software almost 10 times a day and to get all this processes done and our people amazing. And we have people in the us, in Israel, in Europe, and that's a great global team to continue the growth of the, the company definitely after we partner with PSG one of the largest funds venture capital in the, in the US. So now we are in a growth stage in many customers in the US and North America. And that is a very exciting stage. And yes, we are hiring in the US in Israel, all go to market positions and we're looking for amazing people. Definitely if they're coming from construction, that's always a plus. And but not a must.

Carlos Ponce (18:58):

Of course, of course, that is always a plus, right? So but I'm, what I'm hearing is that you're also open to maybe training the right people in the right, in the, in specific areas that is, that is speaks highly of your company, you know being open to looking at different types of experiences who are want to get into the construction real. So that's awesome. So, but well, you, we already covered a little bit about Beti, the, the story behind it, the way you work, the way you operate, the value it provides. Now, let's go back to the actual topic, right, that we chose for today. And I'm curious to ask you the, about the safety part. As you know, you chose tech driven safety and savings. So this begs the question, how is safety connected to savings? How are they intertwined? Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Omer Slavin (20:04):

Yes, of course. So the safety component on construction sites built from the label, the people, the equipment from the crane, the scaffolding, the bobcat or the routines that I have to manage to prevent the next accident, such safety audit or the checklist, safety of the scaffolding and all those aspects, I need to monitor on a daily basis and few times a day to make sure that the next accident not going to occur on my side. And we see dramatically the increase of accident and near miss incident on construction sites. And if a company want to reduce them, it's not going to work. With the current assets that the company has with manual processes and can't oversee what all the problem, because there are so many items and things to do on construction sites. I need to build a project, but I also need to manage the safety. So we help them to centralize the safety processes on one place and to see open observation and to address it to the subcontract, and then make sure to resolve and document all the photos and to share this information in very instant solution like we use WhatsApp or other very or Slack if we're developers and, and that's held them to communicate better and to be transparent of what happen on site and to work together as a team, all the subcontractor, we decide managers to make sure that safety is in first place. And we see that our customer developing more than 30% in those accident and incident on construction site. And we have large data to six years of activity and thousands of sites to demonstrate this ROI on the for our customers.

Carlos Ponce (22:07):

I see. And Omer, we are coming up on time, so I would like to ask you one more thing, which is to wrap up. As I said, we are talking about tech driven safety and savings, but then we're also talking about the contribution of technology to construction management. In closing, can you tell us what is, what you think is the major contribution of technology in construction management?

Omer Slavin (22:39):

So, I think it's from an important part of this is traditional industry that it needs to be much more efficient and a lot of manual processes and pen and paper and binders where there to manage the site. And of course we build amazing project, but today it's a more challenging environment and the more macroeconomic environment that has a change. And the people that come to work on the construction site, the managers, they are now more on my age and they want to use other tools to manage the, the site. And they don't want to use the, to be in the walking environment to use those pen and paper and binder. They want to have much more streamlined the, the walk. And they want to be focused on build a project and to get more knowledge from the software that already use the best practice to manage the site. And that's a important phase. And I believe that in five to 10 years, there's not going to be any paper on construction sites. And it's, it's just, if it's going to be now or in two years when a company decide to move for a technology like Beti.

Carlos Ponce (23:53):

I see. Well Omer for our viewers and any final words of wisdom, anything you want to leave our audience with before we go?

Omer Slavin (24:06):

I enjoyed the podcast. Thank you very much for having me. And it's actually my first podcast. So that was always there is first time on a startup journey. And thank you everyone from our company, our amazing people, our customer that believe in us, and thank you Carlos.

Carlos Ponce (24:26):

Oh, absolutely.

Omer Slavin (24:27):

Have a good day.

Carlos Ponce (24:28):

It's been my pleasure, Omer, stay with us as we go off the air, but before we go, I have a very, very quick announcement to make and that is, so our next guest is going to be, that's going to be happening on Thursday. We're going to be speaking with Paige Wilson. She is the CEO and founder of Naval Force. The topic is going to be bridging beyond community powered tech in a post Covid era. I look forward to this conversation as usual. Should be as interesting as ever. So with that being said, again, thank you, Omer, for having me with us on the show. Thank you everyone, and see you next time. Join us here on Thursday, 9:30 PM Pacific. See you then. Thank you.

Omer Slavin (25:24):

Thank you.