Since FlowPath’s first iteration went live in January of 2020, the company has grown exponentially as a full-service facilities management tool. With the built environment ripe for improvement and innovation, FlowPath raised a seed round to accelerate growth and has begun funneling efforts into its Podcast project to provide the industry with a fresh perspective on a variety of common occurrences Facility Managers face.
For this blog we are taking a look at the three founders’ to uncover the story of how FlowPath came to be what it is today.
How the FlowPath Team Met
Brandon Cummings:
Griffin and I have known each other since kindergarten. Down the line, we became roommates in college and ended up moving to Atlanta around the same time. Around October of 2019, Griffin was in the midst of developing another company he started in the restaurant industry. One day, he called me up to speak about some complex issues he saw in the hospitality industry. He noticed how disorganized people were and their vendor management systems were all over the place, causing major friction in workflow and operational processes that could be avoided with a streamlined approach.
We wanted to figure out if we could create something to help make that process easier within facilities management. From there, we decided to bring in Alex, my brother, who has experienced parallel challenges running operations at his previous role. Once we brought our expertise together, it pretty much snowballed from there.
The Origin Story: Why FlowPath was Created
Alex: It was a mix of Griffin and my expertise at previous companies that helped spur the creation of this facilities management software. Griffin had hands-on experience as a vendor to restaurants and as he worked to better service a restaurant’s needs, he started to brainstorm ideas on how to assist facilities operators and managers in having better internal communication. This includes communicating with vendors, accounting, and scheduling routine maintenance; pretty much the whole cycle of the work order management system.
When I was at a previous company, we used a clunky CMMS software that simply wasn’t meeting the needs of the small teams that I managed. The facilities management industry was in clear need of more innovative software that helped remedy roadblocks rather than create them with difficulties that could arise from onboarding complications or everyday use.
With the pain points I was experiencing combined with Griffin’s industry insight, we set out to create a facility management product hyper-focused on changing the way people were able to manage their facilities and operations, in turn making their work lives a whole lot better and more approachable.
How FlowPath is Unique
Brandon: Our facility management platform is built for the small team but can seamlessly scale for large organizations. This puts our platform in a very unique position, with many of our competitors building their platform with a high-level approach and the enterprise as a whole in mind, rather than thinking of the person actually using the product on a daily basis. Enter FlowPath: Our main focus is providing a platform that a facility manager uses daily, and actually enjoys it. We want to make their lives easier and have them adopt the motto of “work smarter, not harder”.
Griffin: What makes us stand out from our competitors is also our ability to scale and grow with our customers. We have the infrastructure to serve facilities with small teams while also having the capability to customize our services if you decide to grow or expand locations. Not to mention, our team actually cares and prides itself on awesome customer service - if you win, we win.
The Problems FlowPath Solves for the Facilities Management Industry
Alex: Your facilities management and operations program is complicated. Simply put, FlowPath automates work orders, maintenance, events, notifications, projects, and reporting in a simple to use platform so professionals can effortlessly take charge of their facilities work.
We provide our customers with the ability to have a standardized facility management process across their work order system. They’ll be able to have accountability across all locations coupled with uniformity of your operational procedures. With the effective communication our software provides, we essentially eliminate the need for managers to use four to five different types of tools that may be used in numerous processes such as paper, phone, text and email.
The Future of FlowPath
Brandon: We are in a very unique industry and position that is very similar to a marketing automation platform, in a sense that we’re taking people out of spreadsheets and other disparate systems that causes them to fall down the overtime rabbit hole. We’re really looking forward to bringing more facilities managers into the digital realm and make their lives easier and more productive.
Alex: I’m excited about how needed our product is for customers, particularly with the industry shift we are seeing! When we talk to clients that are moving away from paper-based systems or a really bloated enterprise system that just doesn’t work, they see FlowPath and realize that what we offer is exactly what they need. The facilities management industry needs one tool that offers it all - work order management, reporting, procurement, project management, and more. And, as we grow, we’re excited to see what other needs we can uncover from our customers to continually gather intel to continue to refine and perfect our facility management software.
Griffin: It seems like facility managers are trying to create their own processes and make sense of the countless amount of information they need to keep track of. For example, they’ll try to piece together spreadsheets or keep up with handwritten notes scattered all over their work area. While this seems to be a faster method at first, having a scattered approach actually causes more headache and time spent deciphering cryptic, one-off post-it notes down the line.
Seeing that “aha” moment when facilities managers realize that all these processes are in one place, right in their pocket, is priceless and extremely rewarding to our team.
