A new software startup in Madison aims to combine instant messaging with GPS mapping to help mobile teams improve communication in the field.
Founded by Clay Burdelik, Cockpit Mobile is a collaborative task-mapping app serving event/venue management and delivery procurement companies.
While other collaboration platforms like Slack primarily cater to office professionals, Burdelik says Cockpit Mobile is a communication tool geared toward workers in industries such as retail, hospitality, festivals, facility services and construction.
“This is for mobile workers who don’t have access to a desktop while working,” explains Burdelik. “Instead of communicating via phone or email, we can communicate more spatially. We are helping mobile teams communicate and execute more effectively.”
Users of the app simply upload a floor plan to the program, and “drop a pin,” to create a virtual task list for each location. Workers can then view the pins and use instant messaging to provide real-time updates, allowing both parties to track task progress.
For example, an event planner could assign a coordinator to set tables in a banquet room; a construction manager could drop a pin in an area in need of post-construction cleaning; or a retailer could map out last-minute tasks for its painting contractor before a grand opening.
Burdelike says the app could help mobile teams avoid “the game of telephone” that often occurs between remote workers and supervisors, and reduce lengthy, confounding email strings where directives risk getting lost in the shuffle.
“We’re kind of like Facebook for the workplace,” Burdelik says. “We’re posting newsfeeds.”
Cockpit Mobile isn’t Burdelik’s first foray into entrepreneurship. He is also the founder behind Brio, a mobile app that allows users to split and pay restaurant tabs with the ease of their smartphone. Burdelik says he is currently in the process of selling the software assets of that company to an interested buyer.
Burdelik says he was consulting for another startup when he was approached by Justin Beck, of Madison-based mobile gaming studio PerBlue, to develop an app for the home services sector. After throwing some ideas around, the pair decided first to focus on tracking home delivery services.
“When the cable guys comes to your house, it’s a four-hour window,” Burdelik says. “You have to be there all day. Our first thought was, how can we bring that Uber-style transparency to a home delivery?”
With that in mind, Cockpit Mobile offers ETA notifications and a GPS view of the technician or delivery professional as they are en route to a home — similar to tracking a car in Uber’s map — as well as messaging.
Realizing that home deliveries represented “smaller interactions,” however, Burdelik and company set their sights on helping businesses navigate bigger tasks with its venue management build-out.
So far, the app has received some strong interest among a few big companies, including a major retail liquidator, Burdelik says. The early stage startup is still searching for more pilot companies to test out its software so it can officially take the app to market.
In the meantime, Cockpit Mobile has embarked on a pre-seed round. Burdelik says the goal is to raise around $600,000.
“We’re looking for more strategic angel investors, here and throughout the Midwest,” Burdelik adds. “It’s gotten a great response.”
