Construction workers swap pen and paper for digital app

SAN DIEGO – At the InterContinental Hotel construction site on the downtown waterfront here, Hensel Phelps field engineer Andrew Coba pulls out his tablet and fires up an app called Raken to note progress on metal framing at the second level.

He can dictate observations, take photos and videos, and e-mail his daily report back to the office in a matter of minutes.

Developed by an area startup, Raken can cut an hour or more off the tedious daily task of monitoring dozens of subcontractors and their crews.

The old method of pen and paper was prone to slipshod record keeping that sometimes resulted in overlooked construction mistakes and litigation years later.

"Sometimes it can be a hassle with all that's going on," said Coba, whose responsibility includes working with subcontractors. "They miss days and we have to chase them down [for the information]."

The 25-year-old took quickly to the software, having grown up on video games. But he said it's been relatively easy to convince older construction crews that the new method was worth trying.

He said Hensel Phelps tried out Raken on various jobs around Southern California and encouraged him to try to it out at the InterContinental.

Other companies use different software tools at construction sites, but the Associated General Contractors of America named Raken the top daily reporting software and one of the top five mobile apps for construction a year after it debuted in 2014.

Since then, Raken has been adopted by 2,400 customers with more than 10,000 users in 13 countries.

Some of the most high-profile projects here and elsewhere have been documented using Raken. Besides the InterContinental and a San Diego-area community college district, the software has been used by various defense contractors, the company said.

Elsewhere it's been employed at the $1.7 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium that opened in August in Atlanta, the $1.3 billion Transbay Transit Center under construction in San Francisco and $1.1 billion Salesforce Tower, also underway in San Francisco.

The app is the product of a company founded by Kyle Slager, 36, the son of a Columbus, Ohio, homebuilder who majored in economics at Brown University.

"I had an itch after doing that for a few years to create something," he said.

He interviewed scores of construction companies and concluded that they badly needed some technical upgrades in the daily chore of monitoring subcontractors.

"What I didn't know at the time was that construction companies can be sued up to 10 years after a project is completed," he said. "A plumbing leak on the 14th floor can cause $500,000 in damage [costs] to a general contractor and they go back and forth with the plumbing contractor they hired."

Who's to blame often comes down to who has the best records. And if they are incomplete, somebody has to pay up.

Raken makes it simple and seamless to keep impeccable notes and photographic evidence that can be retrieved as needed.

"It's catching small problems before they become really big, big problems," Slager said.

The name is taken from "rakentaa," Finnish for "to build," and reflects Slager's admiration for Finnish design.

From an initial staff of four, Raken has grown to more than 40 employees and that is expected to double in the next year.

The company has raised $3.25 million in venture capital funding and is preparing to launch a growth round that could range from $5 million to $20 million.

Raken's chief product and technology officer, Sergey Sundukovskiy, 41, has a story as interesting as Slager's.

He developed point-of-sale software for checkout registers and sold it to Capital One in 2014. Now living in southern Orange County, he was introduced to Slager by a mutual friend as someone who could help propel Raken's growth.

"When I looked at Raken, the company immediately drew my attention," he said. "I started advising Kyle and working together and decided to join as a late-stage co-founder."

Users pay $12-$30 per license per month or an annual subscription at a 20 percent discount. They can use a nearly 24/7 customer help line and make suggestions for upgrades and new services.