Page 24 - Forbes - Asia (September 2018)
P. 24
FORBES ASIA
JOB-SITE TECH
Master Builder
Tooey Courtemanche has crafted one of tech’s biggest secrets in Procore,
a multibillion-dollar app bringing construction projects onto the cloud.
BY ALEX KONRAD
n a quiet street in Mon- ielding questions from his contractor HR sotware. On the road constant-
tecito, California, a sub- and subcontractors, comparing prog- ly, Courtemanche had received an ulti-
urb of Santa Barba- ress photos to the drawings and ind- matum from his wife four years earlier:
ra, Procore CEO Craig ing out how far over budget he’s going. She and their son were moving south to
O“Tooey” Courte manche Employees are used to catching Courte- Santa Barbara, and he was welcome to
is considering how best to break into manche in meetings or at lunch check- join. She’d picked a home, too—one that
his own house. It was amid the frustra- ing progress on his home via the app. would need a lot of work. At irst ying
tion of renovating this Spanish-mod- “Who else gets bug reporting from their down on weekends, Courte manche
ern-style three-bedroom 18 years ago CEO?” he says. found progress on the house moving at
that he built a simple app to track com- Other CEOs carry on courtside at a glacial pace. So he did what he knew
ings and goings of workers on-site. Now NBA games; Courtemanche is excited best and coded his own program to
he’s using the app to redo the house to have lunch with construction celebri- keep track.
again, this time to beit the CEO of one ties like Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe. But By 2004 Courtemanche had signed
of tech’s fastest-growing companies. he when it comes to ambition, Procore and up contractors for Hollywood stars like
app, called Procore, is the most pop- its CEO it right in with the brashest Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller and Barbra
ular piece of sotware in the $1 tril- high iers in tech. “We believe we’re just Streisand to monitor their home ren-
lion U.S. construction industry, used on in the early days,” Courtemanche says. ovations with Procore. Courtemanche
hundreds of thousands of projects from “I want Procore to be the single source spoke the language of construction u-
sports stadiums to high-rises. Sales are of truth for everything in construction ently. Growing up in the aluent La
approaching $200 million, good for ith worldwide.” Jolla area of San Diego, Courtemanche
place on the 2018 Forbes Cloud 100 was an indiferent student, more in-
list (forbes.com/cloud/100). But on this AT ORIENTATION AT Procore’s terested in girls than schoolwork. But
dusty July day, none of that matters as headquarters, a record batch of 59 new construction was another story. Ater
Courtemanche, 51, squeezes between employees and summer interns glad- school he’d sweep out the oors of a
palm trees and then a gap in his fence. ly take a break from a log-in creden- cabinet shop, and by 17 he’d become a
We’re dropping by unexpectedly so tials lecture to meet their CEO. Courte- journeyman carpenter ater completing
Courtemanche can show me the front manche, oozing beach-dad charm, has a six-month apprenticeship.
steps, which will look like they’re oat- dropped in to tell a few jokes and take A disastrous year at the University
ing in water, and the bay doors to the questions. Procore’s founding legend of Arizona, where he unked out with
new ininity pool, which he’s coded to comes up. Does he still own the house a 0.3 GPA, led to a security guard job
open by voice. Downstairs is the yoga that inspired all of this? “I still have my and then community college, where
studio for his wife, an instructor, and Land Rover from 1998, the same house, Courtemanche got the grades to be ac-
the new guest room, where his 20-year- even the same family,” Courtemanche cepted into a premed program in San
old son, a full-time Procore partner- quips. “hat house is Procore.” Francisco. Once north, he got caught
ships manager, can crash. Back at work In 2002, when he founded Procore, up in the construction boom of the
in nearby Carpinteria, Courtemanche Courtemanche was a moderately suc- early 1990s, “swinging a hammer” for ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES
can watch the house come together on cessful tech executive in Silicon Val- two years. Feeling burned out, he took
Procore, tracking worker schedules and ley, making custom interfaces for online up a family friend’s ofer to learn the
22 | FORBES ASIA SEPTEMBER 2018
