Most B2B tech founders would consider writing code their first priority. But when Ryan Fink set out to transform home construction, he took a radically different approach. “We interviewed 25 or more builders before writing even a single line of code, just to get like our prototype out in front of them, have them test it, use it, and then we would iterate,” he revealed in a recent episode of Category Visionaries.

This commitment to deep customer research before development has paid off spectacularly. Within their first year, Digs has achieved a 41.4% stickiness ratio – nearly triple the “world-class” benchmark of 16% – and onboarded over 5,000 homes across all 50 states.

Flipping the Construction Software Playbook

While most construction software companies approach the market purely from a builder’s perspective, Digs identified an overlooked opportunity. “A lot of folks have looked at some of the builder pain points, specifically from the builder perspective, and have approached solving them from that viewpoint, where we had both a homeowner perspective and a builder perspective,” Ryan explains.

This dual perspective emerged from personal experience. After building his first home, Ryan found himself “left with a physical binder with very little of the information on my home.” This frustration, combined with his background in computer vision and machine learning, led to a novel insight: “All the information on the home flows freely and exists throughout the build process. But it’s not captured organized in any meaningful way.”

Strategic Focus in Product Development

Rather than trying to compete with established project management tools, Digs maintained strict focus on their core value proposition. “Digs is not a project management software. There’s great companies out there like builder trend who have really captured that part of the market,” Ryan emphasizes. “We’re focused on the client experience layer for pre-construction design, handoff and warranty.”

This focus required systematic evaluation of feature requests. “It takes a village… It’s our EPD team, our engineering, product and design team, really making sure that we’re ingesting customer feedback and then doing the distillation process, making sure that we’re distilling it against who we are.”

Early Investment in Marketing Strategy

Unlike many technical founders who delay marketing hires, Digs prioritized marketing strategy from day one. “One of our first hires was VP of marketing… and her mission was to come on from day one and help us create our go to market strategy and really deeply understand our core target audience,” Ryan shares.

This early investment in marketing has driven remarkable results. “We’re seeing about 20% of our users are coming into Digs by just word of mouth referrals,” Ryan notes. The strategy extends beyond traditional marketing to include strategic partnerships with industry influencers like Mike Rowe, aligning with broader industry challenges like workforce development.

Concrete Value Demonstration

Instead of making vague promises about efficiency, Digs focuses on specific business outcomes. Ryan cites concrete examples: “We have builders like Masarosa out of Oklahoma who he sold ten more homes this year because of Digs.” This approach to value demonstration has helped overcome traditional resistance to new technology.

For B2B founders targeting traditional industries, Digs’ success offers several key lessons:

1. Deep customer research should precede product development
2. Look for opportunities to solve problems from multiple stakeholder perspectives
3. Maintain strict product focus even when facing feature requests
4. Invest early in marketing strategy and relationship building
5. Demonstrate value through specific, measurable outcomes

The construction industry’s supposed resistance to technology may have less to do with inherent conservatism and more to do with how solutions are developed and presented. By starting with deep customer understanding and maintaining strategic focus, Digs has shown how even the most traditional industries can be transformed through thoughtful technology implementation.