“Nobody replied to our cold emails. So we started showing up at construction sites with pizza boxes – that worked.”
In today’s episode, we had Maria Davidson, CEO of Kojo, share how she built a construction tech company now valued at $275M.
A former VC with no construction background, Maria’s story of building a procurement platform used by 500+ trade contractors offers valuable lessons for anyone trying to break into a traditional industry.
Tune in to find out about:
✅ Why being an industry outsider became her strength
✅ How delivering pizzas led to their first customers
✅ The metrics VCs actually care about at each funding stage
✅ Managing hypergrowth from 0 to 125 employees
Want to learn how Maria turned rejection into a $275M company? Listen now!
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00:00 Intro
02:37 Maria’s Journey: From Immigrant to CEO
04:52 Identifying Opportunities in Unsexy Industries
08:20 Customer Discovery: The Pizza Strategy
11:44 The Strength of Being an Outsider
15:03 Overcoming Initial Skepticism in Construction Tech
18:15 Cultural Insights: Lessons from Four Countries
23:13 Understanding Kojo: A Deep Dive into the Product
27:26 Targeting Trade Contractors: The Initial Focus
29:54 The Leap of Faith: Believing in the Team
32:13 Building a Great Team: Hiring Philosophy
33:38 The Importance of References in Hiring
35:20 Learning from Early Hiring Mistakes
38:04 Advice for Rapid Growth and Hiring
40:34 Understanding Growth Through Customer Acquisition
42:12 Evolving Go-to-Market Strategies
45:20 Creating Intuitive Tech for Non-Tech Users
47:37 Scaling Customer Base and Product Management
49:33 Employee Structure and Growth Dynamics
53:08 The Role of the CEO in a Growing Company
58:42 Balancing Key Functions as CEO
59:45 Fundraising Journey and Spending Priorities
01:04:03 Path to Profitability and Future Goals
01:05:22 Lessons Learned from Starting Over
01:07:03 The Future of Prefabrication in Construction
01:08:34 Successful Event Strategies for Growth
