Wichita startup Lawn Buddy is off and running on a busy 2022 as the company builds its client base, rebrands one service and adds others and looks to double the size of its staff.
Lawn Buddy is one of two finalists in the 2022 Wichita Inno Madness competition.
Founder and CEO Steven Werner says the company, which primarily provides a technology platform to help landscape companies run their business, now has nearly 40,000 customers.
And those customers, he says, keep making Lawn Buddy better.
Werner says the company continues to invest heavily in engineering and development to continually tweak Lawn Buddy to meet the needs of its users.
“I’d say 99% of updates are user-driven feedback,” he says. “They tell us what they need.”
That’s been Lawn Buddy’s goal from the start, he says.
“We want to be their technology provider and not just a software provider,” Werner says.
While the lawn care side of the business continues to grow, the company has also looked at other industries where its technology — which can help with everything from scheduling to invoicing — might be applicable.
Werner says Lawn Buddy has honed in on the handyman home-services market and has recently rebranded an offering for that industry from what had been Blyss to what is now Blue Ox.
The name, Werner says, is an homage to Paul Bunyan’s fabled blue ox Babe, who did much of the work behind the scenes that helped Bunyan accomplish his legendary feats.
The company now employs 14 people, but, Werner says, it intends to double that staff to keep up with rising demand.
Lawn Buddy has also launched a new fundraising round and is testing new services that it hopes to roll out later this year.
That includes a digital marketplace that can connect lawn care specialists directly with equipment manufacturers in hopes of securing sub-dealer pricing.
Werner says that’s in testing now and that he hopes to have a full launch early this summer.
Lawn Buddy is squaring off in the finals of Inno Madness against Co-Immunity.
That nonprofit startup’s founder, Madeline Shonka, has actually received some mentorship from Werner in the past — a testament to the entrepreneurial environment being fostered locally.
Win or lose in the final, Werner says his company has had fun with the contest and feels it’s been an important promotional piece in the local startup scene.
“It’s great that we can give attention to people doing new things and people that have already been doing new things,” he says.
And, while an Inno Madness championship would be nice, Werner says he already feels like he has won.
That’s because Lawn Buddy got the best in an earlier round of Unified eSports Association, which is run by Werner’s friend Ramsey Jamoul.
“I’ve won in life, now, having this bragging right,” Werner jokes.
You can vote in the final round of Wichita Inno Madness here.
