How ‘raving fans’ in small town Kansas built this govtech startup’s sales funnel

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to Entrepreneurial Growth Ventures (EGV), a business unit of NetWork Kansas supporting innovative, high-growth entrepreneurs in the State of Kansas.

MANHATTAN, Kansas — A trio of govtech veterans is carving a niche in their industry, as GovBuilt partners with small and medium-sized municipal governments across the country to provide customized permitting and licensing software solutions.

The team identified a gap in the ecosystem: larger software providers weren’t offering unique solutions to small and mid-size cities and counties, said Robert Disberger.

“What we learned is that these smaller municipalities have their own unique processes, too,” explained Disberger, co-owner and vice president of sales at Manhattan-based GovBuilt. “For them to buy an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution hampers their processes to where they can’t actually fulfill them in the way they want.”

The startup already has caught the eye of the GROWKS equity program, recently joining the federally-funded, state-directed initiative’s portfolio — which also includes WorkTorch, Celerity Enterprises and ELIAS Animal Health.

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“We saw the need, basically, for small to medium-sized municipalities to have an outside-the-box solution, and be able to provide that to them so they can have a truly unique experience that actually accomplished what they needed,” he added.

The GovBuilt platform — which features online forms, modules, workflows, and payments — was created to be highly configurable and tailored to each government, said Matt Kenney, co-owner and chief technology officer.

“Every product that was out there required them to fit in a box,” Kenney said, noting that — by contrast — GovBuilt’s personalized approach has paid dividends. The startup now works with city and county governments in 10 states from coast to coast since being founded in 2020. 

“We have a proprietary platform that allows us to build modularly, and we will probably be building it out for the next 10 years,” he added. “But what we have built out now puts us right in the same [category] as all our competitors. … We’re able to complete everything that has been required by any of our clients.”

Solutions for the little guys

Besides its customization capabilities, the GovBuilt platform has been successful because it removes pain points for both government employees and contractors, Disberger said, as the forms and workflows streamline processes and reduce inefficiencies.

“Our system helps those smaller to medium-sized municipalities really be able to help follow and make sure the accuracy of their building codes are done correctly, from permitting to inspections to issuance of a certificate of occupancy,” Disberger said.

GovBuilt Dashboard

“The flip side of it is for a building contractor, if the city is slow in responding to getting a permit issued and not not very good at being timely with inspections, it slows their project down to where it costs them more money before they can actually sell that apartment complex, or that building, or that house,” Disberger continued. “So it speeds it up for the contractors and the residents to get what they want quicker.”

The driving force behind GovBuilt’s founding was a desire to provide a software solution that benefitted all parties, especially for the “little guys” of government, said Tim Grant, COO and co-owner at GovBuilt.

The founding trio initially bootstrapped the company without a product, Grant said, eventually pitching their solution to officials in Pottawattamie County — which contains a portion of Manhattan — who jumped at the opportunity to purchase the software.

A few years and numerous clients later, Grant believes GovBuilt has ample room to grow.

“We have a very unique product compared to our competitors, and once municipalities and agencies dive in and see that, they really see a difference,” Grant said. “That’s fun, because that will start to spread like wildfire. We know we’re gonna grow, because municipalities like to talk to each other. … When you have us three, we’re gonna work to fix whatever they need to be fixed to make it great.”

Kenney echoed that sentiment, noting GovBuilt aims to make its product so strong that the company can rely on its clients to build out its sales funnel.

“Our goal internally is to build a product so good and build a client base so good that we don’t need [Disberger] and his team to sell,” Kenney said. “That is one of our differentiators as a company. We don’t want clients; we want raving fans. If we can’t create a raving fan, then we probably shouldn’t do business together.”

Magic in the Midwest

As the GovBuilt leadership team plans for growth, Grant said, they expect expansion to touch all aspects of government, not just permitting and licensing.

“I see this as a platform that government runs on, not only licensing and permitting,” Grant said. “[Kenney] has designed the platform to be expandable, so we’re not done reaching into the silos within these municipalities. … Everything that government does, I wanna be in that space.”

Robert Disberger, GovBuilt; photo courtesy of Pipeline Entrepreneurs

Specifically, Disberger listed parks and recreation, asset management, agenda management, and budgeting software as examples of government departments where GovBuilt could be a natural fit.

“The way we created GovBuilt is that we can continually build onto it, and that’s the magic of how we can grow,” said Disberger, who was announced this winter as a member of the current Pipeline Entrepreneurs fellowship.

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GovBuilt has already created a content management system built specifically for governments, Disberger noted, which allows the company to build websites, as it did for Saline County, Kansas.

That Midwest-focused approach is at the heart of GovBuilt, Disberger added, noting that the founding trio intentionally chose to build their company in Manhattan.

“Living in Manhattan, Kansas, has given us a perspective of living in communities that are medium-sized to small municipalities and seeing how midsize markets can definitely use software like what we provide,” Disberger said.

“We’re all born and raised here in the Midwest, and for us, there’s this sense of pride to be able to launch a govtech company in the midwest that serves all areas of the country,” Disberger added. “We didn’t have to come from Silicon Valley or New York to do this; we did it right here in Manhattan, Kansas.”

This story is made possible by Entrepreneurial Growth Ventures.

Entrepreneurial Growth Ventures (EGV) is a business unit of NetWork Kansas supporting innovative, high-growth entrepreneurs in the State of Kansas. NetWork Kansas promotes an entrepreneurial environment by connecting entrepreneurs and small business owners with the expertise, education and economic resources they need to succeed.