Inertia Systems — Q&A with CEO
Inertia Systems might be one of the most successful construction tech companies you’ve never heard of. For 13 years, they’ve been reshaping the industry’s blueprints, pioneering better ways to access and view information in the field. Today, they’re primed to seize the opportunities that the industry’s rapid advancement has presented.
In a strategic move to steer this transition, founder Matt Hudelson recently passed the leadership baton to Vijay Alagarraj. The new CEO is guiding the company as it aims to knock down adjacent customer segments and move beyond its initial success in healthcare and data centers.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with both Matt and Vijay for a chat about Inertia’s journey so far, the importance of creating construction tools that seamlessly blend into existing workflows, and how their innovative Intelligent Construction Drawings (ICD) stand out in a sea of conventional PDFs.
Matt, let’s start with you. What’s your personal history in construction and the story behind Inertia Systems?
Matt Hudelson: I used to build software and a lot of my family members have a construction background. They would come to me and say, “Hey, you build software. I have this problem, can you help me solve it?”
When I asked them to describe the problem, they would mention how difficult it is to build hospitals because the healthcare industry is so regulated. It’s really expensive, and they require builders to track the construction process in a high degree of detail.
If you can’t prove installs are compliant, they’ll make you rip it out and do it all over again. I realized that the challenge was to quickly prove what‘s been completed on a project. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just look at a drawing, click on an element and prove that all inspections have passed?
I looked at where the industry was at the time with BIM, new delivery methods like IPD, and then laid the foundation of how to use maps to track things for compliance. I took all those concepts and merged them into what became Inertia’s location-based tracking.
It’s evolved to where it is now by solving that same problem. Simply click on something to prove whatever it is you need to prove.
You started Inertia in 2010 which was early in terms of BIM adoption. I can appreciate your foresight in seeing where things were headed. Was it always BIM-based?
Matt: Yes. In fact, early on, we leaned on three-dimensional PDFs. I don’t think those 3D PDFs ever caught on, but you could navigate the model by turning turn on and off layers.
We were able to hack it in a way that could get into objects, click individual objects, attach status and color them. It was a really neat technology but we also learned that 3D wasn’t going to catch on in the field and realized field users wanted interactive 2D maps. That started the evolution of our solution which is now called Intelligent Construction Drawings, or ICDs.
People like the simplicity of maps. We brought the BIM technology into our maps and then eventually brought our mapping technology into the drawings. Now you get the best of all three worlds: you get the simplicity of point and click, the details of a construction drawing, and the data of a BIM model.
Vijay, over to you. What’s your history in construction?
Vijay: It’s an interesting journey. I graduated from University of Tennessee with a master of science majoring in image processing. That led me pursue my career in geospatial and I started working as a consultant for the city of Atlanta for the GIS Group. That role helped me realize the power of spatial and location-based solutions.
Then I ventured out into geospatial for other sectors like utility, transportation, renewable energy providers, and state and local governments. This is what led me to work a lot more in AEC where I was interacting with a lot of architects, engineers, and builders.
When I joined Inertia, me and Matt always partnered up and complemented each other really well. That’s a key thing. He’s good at building the customer trust which increases our growth and traction. With a lean mindset, I focus more on how we continue to improve processes and become more efficient in what we’re doing.
Your background in GIS is interesting because it makes complete sense, I guess. Oftentimes when you think of geographic information systems, you think of site mapping or identifying utilities, more horizontal construction applications, whereas you guys have taken it to vertical construction. But it’s the same idea, it’s an information system, right? Am I describing Inertia properly?
Vijay: That’s totally correct. The solution we’re providing with Intelligent Construction Drawings is literally doing the same thing with centering information around an object. We start with the object being installed and build in all of the data that’s available for it.
Whereas other traditional construction services start at a project level, we reverse course by starting with the individual items being installed on a project and then organize the project’s information around those installed items.
You’re targeting PDFs as your opportunity. How is Inertia applied in the field and across the construction value chain? We’re talking from design to project management through to owner-operator.
Matt: Right now the industry is settled on the concept of a PDF because it’s better than paper, but it’s not really much better than paper. You can get a lot more of them on an iPad, but once you get in the field you’ve missed an opportunity.
The design teams have already solved this with the BIM model. They’ve created a data structure. But what happens is that they then export all of that to a PDF and that’s where the break happens.
Let’s not have that break. Let’s keep all the progress that the designers have made and enhance it by exporting it to a smarter technology that looks like the map you’re familiar with today, but that reacts and acts and can consume and capture data in a way that no other technology currently does. That’s what the Intelligent Construction Drawing does.
We’re leveraging the efforts and investment in design. We’re bringing all of that forward to construction and continuing to add to that original BIM investment, capturing more data, simply with a single click, bringing data forward to answer questions, and then ultimately handing it off to facility management — this one solution hits the whole lifecycle.
We’ve been hearing a lot more about software fatigue in construction. What makes Inertia’s software unique in that respect?
Matt: How do you combat software fatigue? Your software has to do something valuable, first and foremost. It has to be easy to adopt and people can’t deviate from their standard operating procedures too far.
What you realize is that if you take Intelligent Construction Drawings and you put them inside of Procore and you connect Procore RFIs, Procore inspections, Procore pictures, all of that — we now enhance the ROI and the value of Procore.
We connect existing platform data in a way that existing platforms cannot connect their own data. We enhance the value in the investment you’ve already made in that platform by adding Intelligent Construction Drawings so that there’s measurable impact, better data for analysis, and better connectivity across the whole lifecycle of the project.
Vijay, how do you explain the core value of Inertia? And then the next question is how you position Inertia in the market?
Vijay: Most of the GCs in construction have already invested in some major platform and are likely reluctant to make a big change. Instead, we partner with them and increase the value of what they’re already using. Like Matt was saying, we help connect data sources across the project lifecycle.
We’re bridging a lot of the gaps that exist in construction data today. That’s number one. Secondly, we want to be vendor-neutral. Even on a big project, a couple of GCs might be using different solutions. Through Intelligent Construction Drawings, we can bridge two different solutions on one construction site.
We’re really positioning ourself through this hub concept. All of our customer’s key construction-related workflows should work on top of the Intelligent Construction Drawing, so they don’t have to switch based on the technology being used.
With Intelligent Construction Drawings, the data is always up to date. Everybody’s looking at the right data. Different project team members from contractor, owner, subcontractor are always looking at the same data, same version all the time. The data we update in one sheet or one object flows to all the different sheets for different user roles.
Again, we are not making them learn a new technology. Our Intelligent Construction Drawings look like a PDF except that it’s interactive and has intelligence behind it.
Is there a certain segment of construction that you’re focusing on?
Vijay: We started in California’s healthcare system because it has strict and rigid inspection requirements. Once we were able to see success there, we implemented on stadium projects like SoFi Stadium, data centers, and electric vehicle battery power plants.
We found market fit in complex commercial projects but will be expanding out to towards complex residential projects, roads and infrastructure-related areas. Those are some of the new market segments we’re headed towards. We’re expanding in every different possible direction.
What does this look like in like 10 years? Play this out. What does the jobsite in 10 years look like once Inertia is is fully adopted?
Matt: Incredibly more efficient. The neat thing about this is we’re not replacing what people do. We’re replacing the time that they waste.
When you think about all the non-value-adding steps in construction, I can give you an example on RFIs. How many times does an architect have to answer the same question multiple times because it was asked by different people at different points in time on the project about the same thing and no one was aware that it was previously asked?
That’s a massive time suck for everybody in the value chain. There’s the sub who asked the question they didn’t need to ask, the GC who has to triage all these questions, the design team who now has to answer and get upset that they’ve wasted time answering the same thing twice. Repeat that multiple times for different document types.
Anybody can go in and click on an object and before they do anything, know everything that’s ever happened to it. When ICDs are deployed across organizations enterprise-wide, the knowledge share, the lessons learned will now transfer from projects in California to projects in Florida, projects in the United States to projects in Europe.
When you install a product and that product has a data profile from the manufacturer, model member, serial number and how it was installed, what went right and what went wrong, now anybody around the world can access that lesson learned.
In 10 years’ time, data’s going to be so much better connected through ICDs. The efficiency gains in information that’s accessible on the jobsite and off the jobsite will be truly game-changing.
Nate Fuller is a passionate and accomplished construction technology leader with a diverse background in corporate innovation, construction technology, and entrepreneurship.
His proven track record defining strategy and directing change management in construction has led to successful consulting engagements with North America’s largest construction contractors.
If you found this article insightful, please consider signing up for my newsletter at placersolutions.io
