BLDRS
Construction Data Hub
At its core the Platform is a unified system that displays, organizes, and connects construction data.
It connects, People, Projects, Products, Companies, News, Events, and discussions.
This connection of data empowers its users with an indispensable toolset – to gain insights, build relationships, get found, and ultimately benefit their business.
PROGRESS
Latest screenshots to go here.
INTERFACE
CONTENT & VALUE
KEY FEATURES
Collecting, organizing, linking, and presenting this information under a single unified platform has the potential to provide users with valuable experiences that will drive them back to the platform.
DASHBOARD
This is the starting point of the BLDRS Platform – users are presented with boxes of content the algorithm deems relevant to them.
SEARCH
BLDRS Search will rank results based on custom ranking algorithms.
The algorithms will evolve, returning better and increasingly relevant results over time.
This is accomplished using machine learning/AI – this is powered by the more data inputs the platform receives. Each search query a user makes and the resulting user behavior is monitored and scored using specific pre-defined criteria (time spent looking at results, time before new search, was new search related to previous search, what actions were taken after search – amount of listings opened, length of page scrolled, alert setup?)
We will incorporate a feedback engine at the bottom of a search results page asking the question – Did you find what you were looking for?
At the core of our platform we will have a simple, single box search system. Users can search for anything construction related and the system will be intelligent and have the capability to identify the users intent.
Example Search Terms + Output:
- All Companies that perform Electrical Contracting
- All users with Job title of Electrical contractors
- Projects requesting bids from Electrical contractors
- News articles tagged with, Electrical Contractors
- All Individual Electrical Contractor Jobs posted
- All Regions returned since no location KW given
- All Companies that located in New York
- All users located in New York
- Projects located in New York
- Construction News articles from New York
- All New York Jobs
- All Companies that perform Electrical Contracting in New York
- All users with Job title of Electrical contractors and located in New York
- Projects in New York requesting bids from Electrical contractors
- News articles tagged with, Electrical Contractors + New York
- Individual Electrical Contractor Jobs in New York posted
- All Individual Electrical Contractor Jobs
- All Regions returned since no location KW given
(Potentially limit using Mile radius and users GEO IP data)
- All Individual Electrical Contractor Projects
- All Regions returned since no location KW given
(Potentially limit using Mile radius and users GEO IP data)
- Companies matching searched company
- All users that work for matched company
- All jobs posted by matched company
- All news related to matched company
- All projects posted by matched company
- All projects bidded by matched company
- People matching searched name
- Companies associated with searched name
- Companies followed by searched name
- News mentioning person name
- People following searched name
- People searched name follows
New York Electrical Projects
All Individual Electrical Contractor Jobs in New York
Construction Projects in New York over 1 million
All Projects listed in New York that are 1 Million+ projects
Top 100 Largest GC’s
100 Largest General Contractors, ranked by projects posted total value
Top GC’s in NY
General Contractors in NY, ranked by projects posted total value
COMMUNITY
One of our platform’s main goal should be to create and foster a commercial construction community for the industry. We should strive to be a hub of information and relationships that has its finger on the pulse of the industry.
Modern Forum Interface:
Latest Discussions
Discussion Thread
Ideas for Success
- To foster a successful community we must seed the forum with a variety of interesting topics for discussion. Topics must have multiple replies.
- Users are more likely to engage in an active forum vs a dead one.
TRAFFIC ESTIMATES
Analyzing top construction industry websites we can approximate potential website traffic.
ContractorTalk.com
Leading Contractor Discussion Forum
Relates to Blue Data – Discussion Section
BDCnetwork.com
Leading Construction Magazine & Website
Relates to Blue Data – News Section
If Blue Data can replicate the success of TBB and its news & discussion competitors we could expect to reach 1 MILLION uniques/month
DATA SOURCES
The Blue Data platform will act as a data aggregator, taking inputs from a variety of sources, The Blue Book is only one such source.
External
Utilize 3rd party company databases to populate DB with new companies and append additional info to existing companies in our database – Sources:
- Bvdinfo.com
- Hoovers.com
User Generated
Users can easily post or feed information into our platform via import APIs
The Blue Book Data
Leverage Scraped data to initially seed the platform, continuous state-syncing of specific data
EXTENSIBILITY / APP CLOUD
As with all major SAS platforms in today’s landscape, the platform will be extensible with the support of an App Marketplace. To set the marketplace on a path for success, we will seed a core set of base connectors for the most popular services used by the commercial construction industry.
For early API success we must build our platform with this extensibility in mind from the beginning stages of development. Robust API documentation will need to be created.
BLDRS.io
Construction Industry Data & Network
Project Details
- Industry: Construction
- Capital Requirement: $100,000
- Development Timeline: 6 Months
- Revenue Sources: Multiple
- Website: Bldrs.IO
We provide advanced construction data to the commercial construction industry
PRIMARY CONTENT TYPES
A major aspect of BLDRS will be a robust Company Database. People, Projects, and News can be linked to a company.
Company List view
- Multiple filter criteria
- Custom display output: List or Card views
Saved Searches
- Ability to save searches
- A snippet of live results can be added to the users Dashboard if (add to dashboard box checked)
- Last 10 searched KWs displayed on User Dashboard
CSV Download
- Download a CSV file of any search
- Results limited to first 10 results for free users
- Results limited to first 100 results for paid users
Subscribe to Search Results
- Ability to subscribe to any search results page
- When results are updated/changed an alert is sent to the user via the methods enabled in their communication preferences
- Subscribed Searches KWs saved in Dashboard widget, last update date shown
Email Search Results
- Send results to your email
- Send results to user defined email
Intelligent Ranking
- Ranks companies based on how much content (value) they contribute.
Company profiles…
Company Profiles
- Includes/Pulls in all ProView data
- Show people linked to company
- Ability to pull in Twitter/Facebook Feed
- Awarded and currently bidding projects
- News articles related to company
- Events company is attending
- Job openings available at company
- Top competitors & partners
- Past Team
Subscribe to Companies
- Ability to subscribe/follow any company
- Receive updates when company’s profile is updated, awarded new projects, mentioned in news, attending an event, new job openings, etc.
- Customize type of alerts received when company data updated
- Followed companies updates displayed in Dashboard widget
Claim Company Profile
- Employees of an unclaimed company profile may go through an automated authentication process to gain access to update company information
The people directory will play an important role in the platform. People can be linked to companies, projects, news, events, and discussions.
People List View
- Multiple filter criteria
- Custom display output: List or Card views
- Shows people I’m following / people following me
- Show people rank based on importance algorithm
People Profiles
- LinkedIn type profile
- Current & past employment information
- Display selected personal details
- Links to Social Media profiles
- Ability to pull in Twitter/Facebook Feed
- Awarded projects from associated companies
- News articles from associated companies
- Event Appearances
- Memberships & associations
- Image/Video gallery
Subscribe to People
- Ability to subscribe/follow any person
- Once connected ability to private message
- Receive updates when person’s profile is updated, awarded new projects, mentioned in news, attending an event, etc.
- Ability to customize type of alerts received for people updates
- Followed people’s updates displayed in Dashboard widget
Intelligent Ranking
- Ranks people based on how much content (value) they contribute.
News should not be limited to TBB/Who’s Who only content. The platform should pull in news feeds (snippets) that link to news articles from top construction related news sites such as:
- TheWhosWho.build
- ConstructionDive.com
- BdcNetwork.com
- Enr.com
Project data should be robust and always linked to related Companies/Organizations. BidScope project data should initially seed the Blue Data project database. We should also pull in project data from available 3rd party sources. The platform will also offer an easy to use interface to allow users to submit projects.
In addition to finding projects from GC’s, users of the platform may also be interested in direct employment from a Sub or GC. This functionality opens up an additional revenue stream.
Job Profiles
- Basic job description/overview
- Link to main company website & direct link to application page if applicable
- List of other jobs available at the posting company
- Job category and other classifications
Jobs List View
- Multiple filter criteria
- Custom display output: List or Card views
- Shows jobs I’m following or have marked, “applied”
Subscribe to a Companies Job Posts
- Ability to subscribe/follow any single job OR all jobs posted by a specific company
- Receive updates when job information is changed
- Ability to customize type of alerts received for job updates
- Followed/applied status jobs displayed in Dashboard widget
Events content should not be limited to TBB Events. The page should display all relevant commercial construction related events (Including our Showcases). Event profiles (detail pages) live on Blue Data similar to Companies and People. Events can be linked to companies, people, news, and discussions.
Event Profiles
- Basic event information/overview
- Link to main event website & direct link to registration page
- Speakers (linked to person profile) presenting at the event
- Current & past employment information
- Exhibitors attending the event (linked to company profile)
- List of event sponsors (linked to company profile)
- Ability to pull in event specific Twitter/Facebook Feed
- Ability to pull in tweets from event specific #hashtags
- News articles related to event
- Display people who signaled they are attending
- Image/Video gallery
Events List View
- Multiple filter criteria
- Custom display output: List or Card views
- Shows events I’m following or attending
- Shows start/end dates & location of event
Subscribe to Events
- Ability to subscribe/follow any event
- Receive updates when event information is updated
- Ability to customize type of alerts received for event updates
- Followed events updates displayed in Dashboard widget
REVENUE STREAMS
Premium Listing Placement
Users may purchase a premium listing in a specific category or region using a method of scarcity which incorporates a limited number of available slots:
- Each Category/Class will start with 5 open slots, with all 5 slots starting at a set price ex) $100/month.
- Once all slots for a given category/class are filled users looking to advertise in that slot may signup to receive an alert once a new slot becomes available.
- Each time a new slot becomes available the cost of the spot is increased by a set percentage ex) 15% – benefiting the people who got in early and incentivizing them to continue to renew their spot, as failing to do so will result in them losing their position for an indeterminable amount of time – if the user eventually gets the opportunity to renew, they will pay whatever the current adjusted rate happens to be at the time they get back in.
- This strategy not only creates scarcity, it creates a sense of urgency to buy a slot if available, and continue to renew that slot for fear of losing the spot completely and having the price go up.
- As long as a customer continues to renew, their monthly cost will never increase.
User Subscriptions
The platform will be free to signup for anyone. A free account will have access to all features, however certain features will be limited to various degrees.
We will employ different limiting techniques depending on the use cases for each feature/section. Having all features accessible allows all free users to experience and taste our full feature set, this limited demo presents the value our platform can bring.
Paid subscriptions will be priced per user and start at an affordable monthly rate, ~$40/month. Companies may purchase a group of user seats for all their employees. Once a user has an account on our platform they maintain that account for life. The account is portable and can be converted to a free or individual paying account in the event a user leaves a company.
Feature Matrix:
Revenue Projection:
Paid Targeted Messaging
Similar to how Jobsite123’s Bizmail and LinkedIn’s InMail operates we will offer customers the ability to send a group message using robust filtering criteria options. The entire process should be managed online. New sends will go into a moderated state, where a BB admin must validate the message and approve before the live send. The message will be sent to the user through our platform and a notification will be sent via SMS/Push/Email – depending on the users communication preferences. Users will only be notified that they have a new message and a short snippet of the message body (content) will be included in the alert. This platform can eventually replace the DataSelect/BlueDirect email program.
Content Subscriptions / Research / Reports
Using our large data set we can mine and analyze these datasets to create industry reports. We can create custom reports upon request.
Industry reports can be created based on the report demand we recognize/gather from our customers. Reports can be sold as a subscription add-on or sold individually.
Job Board for Individual Jobs
The Job Board will always be free for users to view and apply to specific jobs within an organization. We will charge companies a nominal fee of ~$50 to post a job for 30 days. If the job is not filled the organization can easily renew the job for another $50.
For recruiting agencies and large corporations who post multiple jobs/month we can offer an advanced people search function that will allow an organization to find potential recruits who’s current job status is unemployed or seeking work.
Revenue Projection:
Learning Center
A wide variety of free knowledge content will be available, however for those people who want to become certified in a specific field or need a specific certification, our platform should have the capability to service these people. This will ultimately be a replacement for BBU.
Display and Contextual Ad System
Internal
Similar to Facebook Ads, we will develop a robust ad targeting platform that offers advertisers the opportunity to target specific groups of users with ads that are displayed in preset content sections within our site. The ads a user sees is specific to the advertisers targeting them.
Targeting Examples:
- Electrical Contractors within a 50 mile radius of NYC
- General Contractors with active projects
- People who work at Architect companies
- Property Management Companies + People who’s job title is Facility Manager
External – Partner Ad Networks
To backfill unsold inventory we will partner with Ad Networks such as Google Adsense and AdRoll and allow their network ads to be served on our site. These networks will pay us based on the impressions served throughout our platform.
Data Feed Subscriptions
A robust but slightly limited version of our various databases will be available as a feed for large companies who wish to purchase our data and use within their applications. We will only participate in data subscriptions that yield a multi-year, paid upfront high dollar agreement.
These are custom contracts best sold by business development sales people.