Several large landscape company owners are betting on a new software company called Tapigo, which is developing a series of field service web and mobile applications.
Tapigo apps are designed to eliminate the paperwork associated with landscape industry processes—the first of which is irrigation maintenance. Next up is snow and ice management.
“I think our industry deserves some specific-use apps that are affordable and aren’t just for the top 150,” said Ben Collinsworth, an advisory board member for and investor in Tapigo. “If the industry supports stuff like this, the sky’s the limit.”
Collinsworth is CEO of Native Land Design, which ranks No. 128 on the 2015 LM150 list of the largest landscape companies. The Cedar Park, Texas-based company reported $10.6 million in 2014 revenue.
Most operators in the industry can’t afford the major software programs, he says, but he believes they should be able to automate some of the industry’s most painful, paperwork-intensive processes, like irrigation maintenance.
For example, Tapigo features a survey app for irrigation asset inventory and location tracking, along with apps for inspections, approvals, invoicing and other functions.
The idea for Tapigo (pronounced “Ta-pee-go”) sprouted from conversations between Collinsworth and Tapigo Co-founder Rob Beauchamp, a software product executive. The two men met through a business advisory group in Austin, Texas.
Beauchamp founded Tapigo in April 2013, and he partnered with Chris Karcher, formerly a software engineer at HomeAway, to build a beta version of the software.
Collinsworth and other landscape professionals, several of whom are also investors, have been testing the products in their companies.
The company intends to launch the irrigation maintenance app next month. The price point is to-be-determined, but it likely will be a monthly subscription-based model with a per-user price in the range of $19-$29 per month.
“We want to make it a no-brainer,” Collinsworth said.
Photo: Tapigo
