A Richmond-based technology company is providing AI tools to blue-collar workers.
Rising Tide recently announced subscription-based software designed to improve employee efficiency and knowledge retention at service companies such as delivery companies, exterminators, and home repair companies.
Following the product launch, the company has secured $650,000 in investor funding to grow its team in recent weeks.
Jeff Corbett, CEO and co-founder of Rising Tide, said the new product aims to address a problem faced by many service companies. That means employees such as repairmen and delivery drivers typically rely on their personal experience to do their jobs. The knowledge of skilled workers is typically lost as employees come and go.
“Fixing an air conditioner, installing a refrigerator at a hardware store, doing lawn care. All of these people are traveling in a van and doing something, but once they get to the door, they're basically someone's You're using everything you have in your head. The fluidity of the industry, the coming and going of people, reduces the amount of success a company can guarantee,” Corbett said.
Rising Tide and its software work with such companies to build online toolkits featuring video and audio files created by their employees. These resources can be accessed through a mobile app and are used by field workers to get everything from tips on the location of a home's utilities to an overview of a homeowner's quirks. Corbett likened the experience to searching for videos on YouTube to learn how to do something.
“George, 70, who's been doing this job since 1965 or so, will talk to you as if you were in the truck together. He'll say, 'Hey, Mrs. I like going back to.’ This oil tank is on the right side of the house, under the magnolia tree,” Corbett said.
Corbett said the new system uses generative artificial intelligence.
“Currently, our customers have a knowledge management problem: sharing what their best employees know with new employees,” he said. “That’s where AI comes in, because we can push what’s in Sally’s head to other employees, replicate that knowledge, and tell them how to do it.”
Corbett said a key element of the platform is employee buy-in. Because the employee needs to create his how-to resources for co-workers to use.
“They bring content expertise to us. We're focused on replicating technology and having them bring their expertise,” he said. “All we have to do is facilitate knowledge sharing and let the AI learn.”
Rising Tide's programs also use blockchain, a technology commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, so clients can maintain permanent records such as warranties, claims, and other information that employees can view in one place. You can build a database that can be accessed with .
Leif Wilkinson, Rising Tide's vice president of strategic revenue, said similar productivity technologies are typically targeted at office workers, but Rising Tide's program represents what appears to be an untapped market in blue-collar fields. He said he was looking for.
“Everyone is taking AI from a B2C, white-collar approach, where chatbots are helping people write emails and things like that. We're really looking at the everyday blue-collar worker. We're automating their day so they can easily get where they want to go and know what they need to do each day,” Wilkinson said.
As of early March, Rising Tide had 15 to 20 companies subscribed to its service, Wilkinson said.
The company launched a software service called “The Rising Tide” in January. The launch comes ahead of the completion of a $650,000 investor round that closed in late February and is being leveraged to scale the Rising Tide team.
The company currently has six employees and plans to increase the number to 10 by June. These new hires will primarily be software engineers and developers, with additional roles included.
To date, Rising Tide has secured approximately $790,000 in funding. Wilkinson said February's funding comes after raising $140,000 in a friends and family round in summer 2023.
Looking ahead, Rising Tide plans to raise $2.5 million in future funding.
Rising Tide was founded in 2022 and co-founders are Corbett, Nels Yehnert, Craig Huber, and Zachary Robinson. The company is based at Startup Virginia, a business incubator located at Capital One's Michael Wassmer Innovation Center in Shockbottom.
Corbett, who has a background in the logistics industry, said the startup initially focused on last-mile delivery, but expanded its efforts after service companies expressed interest in Rising Tide's efforts.
“What we quickly realized was that the problems we were trying to solve were much more diverse than we anticipated,” he said.