The now Tampa-based firm Archslate is positioned to help employers hire quickly as the United States implements a $1.2 trillion infrastructure program approved last year.
“We are actually providing the infrastructure and mechanism for fulfilling these thousands of jobs within the AEC [architecture, engineering and construction] industry,” points out Vaishnavi More, Archslate’s founder and CEO.
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The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, dubbed a once-in-a-generation investment, has broad reach, according to whitehouse.gov. It calls for rebuilding roads, bridges and rails, along with expanding access to clean drinking water, ensuring American have access to high-speed Internet, tackling climate issues and more.
That’s an opportunity for
Archslate, a platform connecting the entire AEC industry, from interns and freelancers, to professors and professionals.
“For me personally, being a women, a person of color, my focus is also to help the underrepresented people within the AEC space,” More says.
More moved the company, which opened in Silicon Valley in May 2021, to Tampa after she and her husband independently decided they’d like to live here.
“Florida is the Number 1 state right now when it comes to development, city planning and new towers,” she explains.
Her husband Harshneel, a senior applications security engineer for
Fast, didn’t need to go into the office anymore. He could work from anywhere.
“He wanted to move out of Silicon Valley as well, because of the pandemic. It was kind of becoming like a ghost town,” More adds.
Archslate is now headquartered at downtown Tampa’s startup hub,
Embarc Collective. It has a staff of 16, 12 of them working remotely from More’s native India. She has plans to double its staff, hiring 12 in Tampa and four remotely, by the end of the year.
The company already has signed up hundreds of employers and thousands of jobseekers. It is focusing on the U.S.market, for now. Its eventual goal is to a global leader in the AEC space.
Archslate derives its name from Arch, short for architecture, and slate, because it gives people a clean slate or blank canvas they can paint on. It attempts to deal with “pain points” she says she experienced first hand in her industry.
More, who holds a master’s in Design Studies, Architecture, from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, found job seeking a real challenge despite her education and high skill level. She received only three or four replies for every 100 applications -- and her friends weren’t doing any better.
“We’ve got the best quality education in the nation going to an Ivy League school at Harvard,” she recalls. “It took almost six months and 200 applications to receive a job.”
She discovered that employers were struggling to find top-notch employees.
“There is a massive disconnect between employers and employees,” she concludes.
What sets Archslate apart is its laser focus on the booming architecture, engineering and construction industry, which enables them to shorten the time to hire.
“We cut out the noise,” More explains.
Instead of taking the industry average of 52 days to fill a vacancy, employers can hire within hours.
Archslate offers free profiles to employees and free job posting to employers. It earns revenue from job candidates by offering e-learning, including certifications in software like AutoCad, Revit and BIM. Employers pay when they hire an employee.
The firm raised $700,000 in a pre-seed funding round, surpassing its initial goal of $450,000. Funds will be used on e-learning, growing teams across the United States, and adding freelancers to the marketplace.
“There are a lot of factors that make the architecture, engineering and construction industry special and different,” More adds. “That’s why it was super important for us to have a product built out by people of the industry.”