From Zero to Category Creator: How Part3 Defined Construction Administration Software

Category creation is often seen as the holy grail of B2B software – but what happens when your category has “the least sexy name in the world”? In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Part3 founder Jack Sadler revealed how they turned construction administration software into a compelling new market category.

Finding the White Space

The construction software landscape was already crowded when Part3 launched in 2020. But rather than competing with established players, they identified an underserved segment: architects and engineers managing construction projects.

“Construction administration is through the lens of designers. So architects and engineers, you know, mechanical, structural, civil, and the rest of the consultants that design buildings and structures,” Jack explains. This focus wasn’t arbitrary – it came from identifying a specific gap in the market.

Naming the Category

The company’s name itself reflects their category creation strategy. “Part3 comes from. We kind of did a hat tip. We’re a Toronto based company and under the Ontario association of Architects. Part one is kind of like design and documentation. Part two is that tender and bidding phase before construction. part three is construction administration,” Jack shares.

This strategic naming does double duty – it resonates with their core audience while literally defining their category. “The category of construction administration software is non existent,” Jack notes. “There’s nothing. If you google it, I’m pretty sure you’re going to find us. So we get to create it. We get to tell the market, what it’s about, what it means.”

Educating the Market

Part3’s approach to market education focuses on staying laser-focused on their core audience’s needs. “We make sure we only speak about problems we’re passionate about,” Jack explains. “There’s a lot of conversations in architecture on things like sustainability, on things like energy efficiency and harbor neutral buildings. And those are really important conversations to have that I’m not qualified to be a part of.”

Instead, they focus specifically on “business model innovation, the use of technology, and the use of things like AI in the industry.” This focused approach helps them cut through the noise in an increasingly crowded construction tech landscape.

The Platform Strategy

Their category creation extends beyond marketing – it’s deeply embedded in their product strategy. “What we’re really trying to do here around construction administration is create the de facto platform that connects every one of these professionals that’s involved,” Jack shares. This platform approach helps reinforce their category ownership.

The strategy is working. Part3 has achieved 175% net revenue retention and maintains a one-third close rate on qualified opportunities. In 2022, they increased top-line revenue by 6x, followed by 2.5x growth in 2023.

The Future of the Category

Part3’s vision for the category goes beyond simple digitization. Currently, Jack notes, “90% of what they do is documents, 10% is data. The opportunity is to flip that. The opportunity is to provide this entire industry something that looks 90% data, 10% documents just moving around after the fact.”

This transformation addresses a fundamental problem: “An architect spends a lot of time becoming a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager on any given day, and that shouldn’t be the case. We just want to free him up, get him back to design.”

For B2B founders, Part3’s story offers valuable lessons in category creation. Sometimes the best opportunity isn’t in disrupting the biggest market, but in identifying and serving an overlooked segment with unique needs. By focusing specifically on the needs of design professionals in construction, they’re not just creating a new category – they’re building what could become the essential operating system for architects and engineers.