Hviator

I work as a senior software engineer at Podium. For the last 12 months I’ve been building a system of record together with AI employees for HVAC businesses. It’s a niche I never thought I'd be educated in. HVAC is a subcategory of local business that is underserved. And certainly not the first you think of when talking about cutting-edge agentic technology.

You could also say I'm part forward-deployed engineer. Whatever that means. Said another way, I’ve ridden along with technicians to observe their workflows and get firsthand experience on the job. I’ve sat with CSR handling scheduling. And I’ve been close to customers throughout all my time building.

HVAC people are a unique group of people. I don’t always see why they do what they do. For example, why would a technician work their job for 20 years and be 100% content with their work? It’s customer-facing, manual labor, with teams that are rough around the edges and aren’t early adopters of technology. I have yet to see someone from the industry heavily using Claude's code (aka AI) to really change the work they do. Heck, a good chunk of these folks still run their business on pen and paper or manilla folders.

As for me, I've been lucky enough to be an early adopter of AI and its evolution over the last several years. I’ve been in the trenches using it to solve personal problems daily, as well as building it for local businesses. The introduction of AI is like a caveman discovering fire for the first time. Or like the creation of the internet nearly 3 decades ago. We’re witnessing something incredible unfold, and I feel I have a front seat.

If you know me, you know I’m a hustler. I’ve sold physical products online. I’ve built book editing software. I love the gamification of business and problem-solving. I’ve taken a 6-month leave from the side hustle home in order to finish our basement and prep for our 3rd baby on the way. My thought was to take a step back and reevaluate what I've learned. And come back the second half of the year with renewed energy for whatever I decide is my next project. Kind of like a rest period between sets at the gym.

Which leads me to now. I feel I'm uniquely qualified to go after an opportunity in the home services space, bringing AI solutions to local businesses. Starting with a niche customer within HVAC, businesses using a particular system of record doing 3+ million dollars in revenue that lack innovation with their system of record. A subset Podium is competing with and not serving directly.

Said another way, I can build workflows on top of systems of record that help customers make more money and grow their businesses. I’m confident in my ability to provide value through software but less confident in my ability to sell go-to-market. That’s why I plan to partner with someone who has complementary skills in sales and go to market.

I want to productize the skills of an AI engineer with vertical-specific context around field service management software such as Service Titan. As if these local HVAC businesses were hiring an on-staff AI engineer to query their data to surface high-value insights for their business. I am the product. Now I just need to package it in a way that makes sense and is easy to sell as an offer to their existing system of record.

https://hviator.vercel.app/simple