How Billy Built Their Go-To-Market Strategy Around Procore’s Platform: A Partnership Case Study

In B2B software, the conventional wisdom is to build your own distribution channels. But what if the fastest path to market runs through someone else’s platform? In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Billy’s founder Nyasha Gutsa shared how they turned platform integration from a feature into their core GTM strategy.

The Platform Decision

After pivoting away from construction payments, Billy made an unconventional choice. Rather than trying to build their customer base from scratch, they decided to leverage existing infrastructure. “We purposely focused on partnering with Procore,” Nyasha explains.

This wasn’t a random choice. Having been an early employee at Procore, Nyasha understood the platform’s potential. But more importantly, he recognized that Procore’s customer base aligned perfectly with Billy’s target market.

Finding the Sweet Spot

The platform strategy helped Billy identify and reach their ideal customer profile with remarkable precision. “What we’re seeing are what I would call emerging to mid-size construction companies… those that do anywhere from 25 million to just over 250,000,000 and they work with anywhere from 500 to 750 subcontractors.”

This specificity came directly from understanding Procore’s ecosystem. Instead of casting a wide net, they could focus on companies already using modern construction technology.

The Integration Imperative

Billy’s approach to platform integration reveals a crucial insight about B2B software adoption. “I’m a big fan of DocuSign software,” Nyasha shares. “You can go and get up and running with DocuSign in just under five minutes. So this is exactly how we built Billy.”

This philosophy shaped their entire integration strategy: “The integration with Procore is just as simple as log in with your Pro Corps and you’re integrated and start using the software right away. There’s no logins for the other people that have to submit documents because for contractors, that creates a lot of friction.”

Solving Platform-Specific Problems

Instead of trying to solve every insurance workflow problem, Billy focused specifically on the challenges faced by Procore users. They discovered that many contractors were “storing all those things in a manila folder despite using the software that we built at Procore.”

This targeted approach allowed them to build features that complemented Procore’s functionality rather than competing with it. By focusing on insurance workflows – a critical but underserved aspect of construction project management – they could add value to the platform while building their own customer base.

The Cultural Alignment

What’s particularly interesting about Billy’s platform strategy is how they’ve aligned their company culture with their integration-first approach. “I believe that building a people first company allows you to build a forever business,” Nyasha explains. “If the employee shows up engaged and excited, they’re able to solve problems for us. And if they solve problems for us, it drives business.”

This culture-driven approach helps them maintain the high level of service necessary when operating within an enterprise platform ecosystem.

Building Beyond the Platform

While Billy started with deep Procore integration, their vision extends much further. They aim to become “the kayak of business insurance, where you just go and you can compare insurance coverage in a couple of minutes. You can purchase it, you can hire or fire your broker if you want, but all powered by Billy.”

This reveals a crucial insight about platform-first strategies: they’re not just about distribution – they’re about building credibility and expertise in a specific market before expanding to adjacent opportunities.

The Platform Partnership Playbook

Billy’s experience offers several key lessons for B2B founders considering platform partnerships:

1. Deep platform knowledge is invaluable – Nyasha’s experience at Procore gave them unique insights about the ecosystem
2. Focus on reducing integration friction – make it as easy as possible for platform users to adopt your solution
3. Solve platform-specific problems first – address the unique challenges faced by users of your chosen platform
4. Use the platform to define your ideal customer profile – let the ecosystem guide your product development
5. Build for expansion beyond the platform – use your initial platform success as a foundation for broader market opportunities

For B2B founders, Billy’s journey suggests that sometimes the best way to build a category-defining company isn’t to create a new ecosystem, but to add crucial value to one that already exists.