The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Canada’s construction sector, and Frenter is a prime example. The Halifax-based startup founded by teenage entrepreneur Zach Laberge is bringing new energy into asset management, working with its clients one-on-one to learn and grow as it develops new approaches to support construction fleets.
Frenter is taking advantage of its size to offer custom equipment tracking and monitoring solutions, with a long-term goal to provide an end-to-end platform that follows equipment from acquisition to eventual resale.
Frenter finds strength in rental and asset management
Laberge started Frenter in 2019 as a 14-year-old high school student, taking cues from the sharing economy to develop a peer-to-peer rental marketplace. As CEO, he brought on experts from the rental industry to help successfully grow the platform, but at the same time realized his initial approach needed to change.
“What we started to see was that the businesses were getting value from it as a way to market themselves and market their offerings to people,” Laberge describes. “On the consumer side of things, it didn’t really work – the consumer demand wasn’t there, and generally people would just rent directly from the companies instead of going through us.”
That realization drove Frenter’s first pivot away from peer-to-peer and toward servicing rental businesses of all kinds, from party rentals to equipment. As that began to develop, the team had another realization: businesses weren’t necessarily using e-commerce and website tools through the platform but were instead interested in inventory management.
“That’s where we’ve focused on now – can we build the best inventory management asset tracking system, whether that is through us building it ourselves or through being a bridge between other existing systems,” Laberge says.
The initial focus on general rental was narrowed down to heavy equipment based on simple economics, he adds.
“You can’t charge thousands of dollars a year per unit for a piece of equipment that’s a thousand dollars, so the unit economics just didn’t work, and it doesn’t make sense to GPS track a tent,” Laberge says.
The $60 billion heavy equipment market in North America provided Frenter with a strong target and significant growth opportunities.
Laberge notes that fleet management tools for the trucking sector, both from manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers, have grown rapidly, and he intends Frenter to take inspiration from that success.
“I think we’re seeing that shift in construction where adoption is taking place and these large companies are making big investments that trickle down to smaller companies,” he says.
To that end, Frenter has expanded its target market from the rental sector to a broader reach, encompassing all heavy equipment fleet owners adopting asset management solutions.
The Frenter platform today is focused on GPS tracking and analytics, giving managers a snapshot of their equipment location, activity, and condition. Theft prevention, using emergency alerts and location information, is part of Frenter’s offerings, as are logistics and optimization tools.
Read the full article here
