The Sledge waitlist is closing in on 100 construction companies, most running crews of 5 to 20 people, all asking to use the beta. It happened in under a month, with no ads and no agency. Sledge co-founder and CEO Raz Danoukh on what that says about how badly construction wants better software. -----
I have to be honest. This one caught me off guard.
We set out to get 100 companies on the Sledge waitlist. We're about to get there in under a month.
We spent nothing on ads. We hired no agency. Word spread the way it always has in this industry: one contractor telling another.
And nearly 100 companies raised their hand.
Who showed up
Concrete guys calling me from the truck. Masons sending me messages at 9pm. A general contractor who found us through a sub who found us through another sub.
Most of these companies run crews of 5 to 20 people. Some are smaller. Some are much bigger. Add it up and that's over 1,000 tradespeople standing behind the companies that asked to join.
Some of these companies have been in business longer than I've been alive.
I've poured concrete for over 20 years. I run a construction company today. I have never seen the trades move this fast on anything. Not on a tool, not on a material, not on a method. Nothing.
Why they showed up
Every one of them told me the same story, in their own words.
They're drowning in the work around the work. The bids, the invoices, the change orders, the payroll, the schedules, the crews, the paperwork that piles up after a ten-hour day in the field. Running the jobsite, running the office, and running the company all at once.
They've paid a fortune for software that made it worse. The big guys sold them one tool for this and another tool for that. Before long they're paying an arm and a leg for 27 different subscriptions that don't talk to each other, and the work still lands back on them. Enter the data here. Reconcile it there. Chase the numbers yourself.
And nobody ever built anything for them. Software gets built for the office. It gets built for people who sit at a desk all day. It does not get built for the person who runs a crew at 6am and does the books at 9pm.
What we're seeing is a hunger. A real thirst across this industry for software that actually works for the people doing the work. Contractors aren't resistant to technology. They're starving for technology that respects them. And nobody out there is stepping up to give it to them.
So we did.
Sledge is not another tool in the pile. Sledge is the AI-native construction operating system. One system that runs the field, the office, and the whole company, automatically, from bid to build to paid.
We built Sledge for that person running a crew at 6am and doing the books at 9pm. Because I am that person.
What's happening inside the beta
Right now, contractors in our private beta are running live jobs through Sledge next to their old system. Real bids. Real invoices. Real money.
This is what agentic AI looks like on a construction company. Sledge AI doesn't wait for you to click through screens. It does the work and brings it to you finished.
Here's what that looks like:
Bids drafted before lunch. Sledge pulls the details together and writes the draft. The contractor reviews it and sends it.
Invoices matched without anyone touching them. Sledge reads the invoice, checks it against the job, and lines everything up. A person approves it. That's it.
Problems flagged before they cost money. When a number doesn't add up or a document doesn't match, Sledge raises its hand before the problem grows.
And when something breaks, our beta members tell us, and it's fixed the same week. Not next quarter. Not on a roadmap. The same week.
What 100 means
When we opened the waitlist, we set a goal: 100 companies. That felt ambitious for a beta with no ads and no agency behind it.
We're about to hit it in under a month.
The people joining now aren't testers. They're building Sledge with us. Their feedback shapes what gets built and what gets fixed. Their fingerprints will be on the tool this whole industry uses.
The earliest people in shape the product most. If you want your problems solved first, this is the time to get on the list.
If this sounds like your company
If you run a general contracting business or a trade shop, and you're done paying for software that hands the work back to you, this is your window.
Sign up at getsledge.com/waitlist.
Sledge is the AI-native operating system for construction. It runs your whole company automatically, from bid to build to paid. We do the work. You approve.
See you inside.
