Nilesh Panchal - Founder at Clarisight Consulting & TerrAssist AI

Welcome to another Founder Wisdom Pod. We have Nilesh Bansal with us today. Nilesh is CEO and founder of 2 companies. One is Clearside Consulting, the other is Terra Assist AI. 20+ years in utility construction, he's modernizing project controls and field documentation, which is an interesting niche, uh, up in Elk Grove, California. Nilesh, welcome to the podcast. Tell us a bit more about yourself and what you're up to.

Thank you, Charles. Appreciate it. Well, I'm Nilesh Panchal. I've been, you know, born in India. I immigrated in the US 20 years ago, and since then been working in the construction space. Worked with many, you know, construction companies along the way, many, you know, large engineering and construction utility companies. And the problem that we see is A lot of time our construction crews, uh, you know, focus on construction, which is their main part, but one thing they are really not, you know, good at is documentation. So we are trying to empower them so that— how do we empower them to give them the right tools so they can bring the data from the construction site back in the office? So that's what inspired me to start both Clarisight and Terra Assist AI.

Interesting. And I guess you had to sort of, uh, You had to quit a comfortable job, right, to get started? Like, uh, what— how uncomfortable was that move?

So, uh, yeah, I had a very, uh, you know, cushioned, cushy job. Um, uh, you know, um, really I was inspired, uh, to solve problem. Charles, you there?

Last year, back—

Oh, sorry, I lost you.

You're back now.

Okay. Yeah. So really, I mean, yeah, I had a very, you know, beautiful job, uh, very good company, you know, very, uh, you know, uh, really good, uh, people in the company. Uh, what inspired me was, uh, really creating an impact. Um, you know, when I was individual contributor or working as an employee, I could only create so much impact with my job, and I wanted to leverage my time and my energy. And that's what really made me start going independent. Again, it was scary like hell, not knowing what to do, how to do it, and how do we go about. And I'm big time into yoga, Charles. I do a lot of yoga every day. And then one day I was in my deep meditation, 2 things came into my mind. Getting the clarity, really, you know, what we want to do, right? You know, why and how. Clarity and insight. And once you have that both, then you can go after whatever you are trying to solve and it becomes easier, you know. So that was my inspiration. Clarisight is named after that 2 thoughts, clarity and insight. Charles, I can't hear you.

Sorry about that. Now you should be able to. It's such a niche into a niche. I love it. Did you leverage like your existing contacts to get it off the ground or?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been in the utility space, so I did reach out to some of my connection and that's how I got my first work order and we are still supporting them. It's been four years. Yeah, construction is a very niche space in that utility is a very small community. You know, everybody knows everybody. The relationship you built over the years, they help each other and we share, all share the similar challenges. So yeah, my network has been super helpful in really, you know, supporting. I mean, 100% of our work is through word of mouth and a relationship. So we are really proud of that and thank all the community to make that happen.

And how do you split time between both companies?

So I've been doing about 80% Clarisight. Again, you know, we work with utility and infrastructure clients, so I'm in a delivery side. So I do delivery, doing all the, you know, work like, you know, management, you know, running the payrolls, you know, taking care of the people. Uh, and, and then on Terra Assist, we are gearing up. So, uh, you know, been spending a lot of time, you know, lately on Terra Assist, you know, mostly, you know, evenings, nights, weekends. Uh, we are at a point that we are looking to raise money and, and really, you know, jump full-time. So Clarisight will, uh, continue, uh, but I'm trying to create some structure where, you know, I have a little more help and then I can focus on Terra Assist. You know, going forward.

Nice. Uh, what's your plan for fundraise? You have existing connection? How will you set up a pipeline of investors?

So we are just getting started, honestly. Uh, we, we did went to EPRI, which is Electrical Power Research Institute, uh, you know, uh, nonprofit organization. We, we got a lot of good feedback. Um, I think we want to leverage our overall feedback. Uh, we, we are deploying with a couple of clients, so we are just trying to get ready to go out and talk to investor and really kind of, you know, make everything put together, right? So we are in the very early stage.

Interesting. What does GTM look like at both companies?

So really reaching out to mostly our utility partners, again, talking to many utility executives last week and over the time, we see this problem as an industry problem, right? And one of the hardest problems to solve. So really we are looking after to, you know, work with them, really kind of creating a community of our construction field workforce and really kind of making sure everybody's aligned and they're aligned to solve this problem. I think what we are facing is more like cultural change. People have been doing this for years and now we are trying to change that, which is a little hard to sort of, you know, It's hard to navigate.

And your top of funnel, right? Like people that don't come from your own network, how do you get them to buy Terrasys?

Mostly, you know, community-wide outreach. You know, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, you know, getting the message out. You know, there's a lot of work happening in construction and we see this continue to move forward in a greater capacity. So we are trying to really outreach to our industry organizations, conferences, a lot of networking events. So trying to get the word out and see if we get any more feedback and traction.

Right, and what pain point are you exactly solving in that industry?

So yeah, so think about construction crews, like inspection crews. they work all day long and the expectation is that they write reports end of the day from the memory, right? I mean, they're tired, they want to go back home, and now they're sitting in a truck or a trailer and writing construction progress reports, you know, based on what happened over the day, right? So we want to change that. We want to give them a tool so they can capture the data as the work happens. Through either voice notes, photo, video, and all of that unstructured data gets filtered into our AI model, and then the reports are automatically populated in their own predefined templates, right? So really kind of empowering them to capture data as things are happening, as opposed to, you know, reconstructing from memory hours later, right? So that's the first thing. Now, second part is, you know, all of this data, gets captured in the central database alongside all their historical, you know, records like, you know, specification, contract documents, and they can learn from that data, right? So think about a few months ago, they had a safety incident, right? So they can learn from that. So they take a picture, provide their observation, and then model will tell you that, hey, you guys had a similar safety incident, you know, with similar situations. So these are the things that you need to be aware of. so that it doesn't happen again, right? So learning from your own data and then creating safe and productive environment.

I had a client named Fresco. They were a YC company. They did exactly the same thing. GTM was extremely hard for them. What we found out was that they needed to actually cold call these people and step on construction sites on the field, right, to make some sales. Do you have some of that plan to have the company grow?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I mean, one of the things is, so we have 3 co-founders in the company. I'm, I'm a CEO. I have another co-founder, his name is Billy Kilmer. He has spent 25 years in construction. He used to be an operator. So again, he has lived in this world, you know, like, you know, being an operator. So, so he understands it first, you know, firsthand how this problem impacts. So he has a really good connection across the union and a lot of construction companies. So we are trying to work with them and get that feedback, right? So we are still refining how do we approach and what exactly problem that we can solve.

How did you meet your co-founders and where's the synergy between the 3 of you?

So again, he owned a construction company leading, you know, 300 people across construction and operation and the company that I worked prior. Uh, he was the owner, so we, you know, I, I used to report to him or under his organization, and we sort of created a synergy, uh, and, and we wanted to create an impact in the construction community, especially your frontline workforce. And, and what I was doing in that company and also in Clarisight is really on the downstream. All of the data that comes from the construction I utilize to make, you know, data analytics, uh, and, and different reporting. So we thought about problem together and we thought, okay, maybe it's worth problem solving. You know, there are millions of construction people across the US having the very similar challenge and we want to change that, you know, give them, you know, good software or tool that can, you know, improve their lives.

So one's product coding, another is sales, another one is ops. Is that what I'm getting?

Yeah, yeah. So he's more like a our business development and revenue officer. So he brings his connection, you know, relationship experience in the frontline. And really what we are seeing, Charles, you know, when we talk to, you know, this frontline workforce, they need to feel relatable, right? We have to speak the same language. And that's what my co-founder brings. You know, he understands their pain point and he can speak the same language, right?

Got it. Um, any of you guys have like fundraising experience?

Um, uh, not yet.

Or CFO type of experience, right?

So, uh, we have been bootstrapping so far, you know. Uh, we all 3 are entrepreneurs, so we have built the companies from the ground up. Uh, we, we are learning this landscape of, uh, you know, raising, uh, you know, uh, so, uh, don't have a lot of experience, but we have some Some support, you know, along the way to help us, you know, kick kick off in in that direction.

How's the roller coaster so far?

So far, very interesting. I know we have a new baby girl. She's four weeks old, so really everything is coming together. You know, sleepless nights. You know. Yeah.

So you add that on top of the startup chaos, right? Any Chaos management tips for us?

Well, really, I mean, I believe in, you know, kind of bringing the balance. I do yoga and that's what, you know, balances my thoughts and emotion. No matter how crazy your day is, it's all about bringing the right balance, you know. So I try to do that again, you know, I mean, as a founder, we spend a lot of hours, you know, building these companies, but, you know, not losing the the, the insight of why we are doing this, right? I mean, that's very important, you know. Uh, if you are clear about why you are doing this, uh, no matter what you do, it's always worth, you know.

Yeah. Um, have you increased the yoga practice or have you diminished it since you had your kid?

Well, I mean, last 4 weeks has been super crazy. I mean, I'm definitely struggling, you know, uh, getting up and, and getting my practices done. So I've done a lot of advanced practices. So I spend about an average of 2-3 hours every day. So that has gone down, but I'm looking forward to sort of come back to my routine and start spending a little more time.

Yeah. Your goals as the CEO this year, I guess fundraising, unlocking more clients and product, is that the top 3?

Yeah, yeah, I think that's it. I mean, we are deploying with some of our clients. So really the goal is to successfully deploy, get the feedback, refine the product, you know, go out, raise some funding, scale. A couple of clients that we are supporting, they are a very big client, so we need to scale pretty fast. And then one of the bottlenecks is, you know, of course, you know, the support and the dollar, right? So once we do that, I think it will help us expand a little faster.

Any revenue traction so far?

So right now we have 2 clients, you know, on the Terrasys side. One of the clients is a very big client. Uh, we are just in the second month of deployment, so we are in a very early revenue phase. Uh, but I think we are looking about, uh, you know, close to about $100,000, uh, you know, revenue end of this year. And then next year we'll ramp up pretty fast, you know.

Love it. Um, have you thought about like partnerships, right? Like reaching out to people that already sell, uh, to construction, uh, companies, right? And just not having to do the legwork all the time. They're already in, they refer you as a partner. Is that Like, uh, on the near-term priorities?

Yeah, yeah. So we are working with some of the PMIS, uh, which is like project management system, um, and they have a huge construction client, uh, database. So we are working with them for a partnership. Again, what we do is really feeding all of the data in back in their system. So we are more like a supporting, uh, you know, tool, um, and I think we see really good, uh, good synergy in that. So we are working with that. Hopefully that will happen pretty soon and then we'll be able to leverage some of their network as well.

Right. Nilesh, the company, why not go through YC or incubators like that at an early stage? Why make that decision to just go by your own?

I mean, that's a good question, Charles. Again, when we started, you know, we were pretty clear whom we are targeting. Um, you know, um, so we, we had a very strong why, uh, why we are doing this. Um, you know, it's been 12 months now and, and we were able to validate with many of our clientele. Um, so really it's all about, um, and one of our co-founders has experience, you know, um, you know, kind of, you know, like being a founding, founding engineer with a startup. They are now unicorn, so he has experience scaling the business, right? So we thought we have enough sort of experience in all 3 fronts to, to kind of take this forward. Uh, my another co-founder really has experience, you know, leading companies, large construction companies. So we, we felt that we have enough experience on the table to kind of take this forward. So we'll see, you know, how that kind of goes in the, you know, along the way. Yeah, you're on mute, Charles.

What kind of feedback have you got from the pitch competition so far?

So, uh, the last week, uh, we were in, um, Salt Lake City in, in Aperi, uh, AI Power Challenge, uh, you know, Pitch Fest. So they had about 150 applications. Out of that, they selected 23 finalists, and we were among them. Um, I mean, we talked to VPs, CEOs, COOs, uh, executive-level audience, and, and, and they all agree that a lot of their current documentation is either through paper or digital form, and everything happens pretty much most, for the most part, end of the day, right? So they see this as an opportunity where they can capture more accurate and quality data. I think, I think the challenge that we see is on the executive side, you know, there is a buy-in, but then how do we make sure it rolls down to the operational level, right? So there are a lot of layers that we have to navigate. So that's, that's, we are trying to kind of, you know, resolve. to make sure the challenge, you know, is being, you know, you're able to reach the operational level to get the buy-in.

What challenges have you faced so far trying to get your product in? Because your ICP is notorious for not using technology, pen and paper, and being comfortable and not wanting to adopt any new computer stuff.

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, that's, that's been a challenge. I think it's— we are trying to change a culture. I see that the people who are using this platform are very happy, and for the reason being, think about in their shoes, right? They're spending 10, 12 hours on the job site, they're tired, and they're then being expected to write, which is not their craft, right? So they are expecting something that they are not supposed to be doing, you know, as part of their job. So they are happy that they don't have to do that anymore. Uh, again, you know, my co-founder Billy, you know, himself, you know, he said, um, one of the best inspectors left this job because they never like to write. They like to solve problems on the construction site, right? They want to get things built, not to write reports. So I think we, we see it as a good opportunity. Um, I think that's always a challenge, you know, when you're trying to change a culture. It's always a you know, a challenge, but I think we are solving, you know, one crew at a time.

There you go. Nilesh, thanks for being on. Where can people find out more about you?

So you can reach out to our website, terraassist.ai, or my email, nilesh@terraassist.ai, or I'm active on LinkedIn. You can just look for Nilesh Panchal, and then yeah, happy to connect, learn from you, and support you.

Was Nilesh and Charles