Every real objection, every question we get on calls, answered without spin. If something's live, we say live. If it's on the roadmap, we say roadmap.
Three revenue streams. Monthly retainers from crane companies, where we act as their remote sales arm against market signals. Brokerage commissions on equipment transactions we source and close. And Crane Access Agreements (CAA), subscription contracts with large project owners who need guaranteed crane access during build-out phases.
The model is simple: crane companies and equipment buyers pay us. General contractors and developers never pay a dime.
It doesn't replace a salesperson , it replaces the prospecting work a salesperson would otherwise spend most of their time doing. Your closer still closes. We just make sure they're talking to people who actually have a crane job coming up, not working a cold list.
The financial case is simple: most crane companies doing $3M–$10M in revenue have day rates between $3,000 and $15,000. One incremental job per month that wouldn't have come in otherwise covers the retainer several times over. We're not asking you to bet the business , we're asking you to run a 30-day pilot and measure whether the leads we generate result in booked jobs. If they don't, don't renew.
What permit-sourced outreach gives you that a traditional salesperson can't: a specific reason to call. "We saw your permit at 4821 N Kedzie, looks like a structural steel set in Q3 , want a crane shortlist?" converts differently than a cold call. That specificity is what we're selling access to.
No. The free lift estimator on /estimate/, crane sizing reports, and crane sourcing assistance are free for general contractors. We get paid by crane companies and equipment sellers, not by the people who need cranes. That keeps GC-facing tools useful without a paywall and keeps our permit outreach credible. We are not pitching GCs on a subscription.
No. The long-term architecture has three layers. Near-term: retainer revenue from crane companies as a fractional sales team. Mid-term: CAA contracts with data center operators , SLA-backed crane access at $5K–$150K/month depending on scale. Long-term: acquisition roll-up of 30–50 owner-operated crane companies at 3–5× EBITDA, consolidated into a platform that exits at 8–15×.
The intelligence layer , permit data, EDGAR signals, contact enrichment , is the moat that makes the retainer and CAA products defensible. Lead gen is just the entry point.
When we source or broker an equipment deal , crane sale, lease-purchase, or fleet expansion , we earn a 3–5% commission from the seller. The buyer pays nothing extra. We arrange financing through Ascentium Capital at no additional cost to the buyer. On a $500K crane transaction, that's $15K–$25K in commission per close.
Dodge is a project database built for GCs trying to find work , not for crane companies trying to find GCs. Their product is data at $3K–$15K/year per seat. You still need your own sales team to work it.
CraneGenius does three things Dodge doesn't:
Dodge gives you information. We give you a booked calendar.
ConstructConnect and similar tools are designed for general contractors and subcontractors to manage bids, projects, and subcontractor relationships. They don't serve crane companies at all , cranes are just a line item on a GC's project, not a customer segment these platforms care about.
Procore is project management software for construction teams, not a sales intelligence or equipment sourcing tool. None of these platforms do what we do: identify which projects need a crane, find the person who controls the equipment decision, and run outbound on behalf of the crane company.
United Rentals is the largest equipment rental company in the world , but they carry zero cranes. Their managed services product handles general equipment for large accounts. There is no crane-specific equivalent of a URI fleet management agreement in the market.
CraneGenius CAA contracts are built to fill that exact gap: SLA-backed crane access for data center operators and hyperscalers who need reliability guarantees on heavy lift equipment, with a platform that manages vendor relationships, pricing, and dispatch. URI doesn't compete here. No one does.
Technically yes. In practice, no. We've seen the results of that approach. Municipal permit APIs require API keys, data normalization, deduplication logic, and filtering pipelines. A raw Chicago permit pull returns 13,000+ rows , 90% irrelevant. The scoring, enrichment, domain resolution, email candidate generation, and verification pipeline took months to build and test.
Beyond the data work: the outreach has to be permit-referenced and human-readable to convert. Generic "we provide crane services" emails don't work. Emails referencing the exact address, the lift type, and offering a crane shortlist do. That copy discipline requires systems and iteration, not a VA with a spreadsheet.
Here's an honest read of the current state:
Straight answer: the Claude API is live in the pipeline for domain resolution , resolving contractor names to company websites. The on-site chatbots (marketplace, lift planner) are Claude-powered and responding in real time.
What isn't AI yet: the crane class prediction and timing estimates are currently rule-based lookup tables, not AI inference. The plan is to wire the Claude API into description analysis so crane class and outreach timing are derived from actual permit text , that upgrade is on the near-term build list and will materially improve accuracy.
We won't claim AI is doing something it isn't. The data pipeline is real, the outreach is real, the contact base is real. The AI layer is partially live and expanding.
~7,800 contacts total , sourced from Apollo.io export and the permit enrichment pipeline. Of those, ~5,400 have verified emails (MillionVerifier validation). The verification pipeline filters out name-generated email guesses and only passes seed-partial and high-confidence enriched domains, keeping bounce rate under control.
The pipeline currently covers 25 cities across the US. The three legacy markets (Chicago, Dallas, NYC) have the deepest contact databases , 7,000+ contacts combined. Every new city we wire in adds to that base. We add cities as client demand grows , if your market isn't live yet, it will be.
The 70+ signal architecture is the full CapexLayer intelligence layer and the roadmap for what the platform becomes. Today, the customer-facing system combines automated project signals, backup exports, manual review, and verified contact workflows so buyers are not blocked while deeper automation continues to come online.
The roadmap adds EDGAR 10-K capex guidance, EPA permit filings, utility interconnection queues, BLM right-of-way filings, federal procurement notices, and labor market signals. Each signal feeds the same enrichment and outreach pipeline. We're building sequentially , one proven signal at a time , rather than claiming all 52 are active.
We run your outbound. Every week we pull new permit data from your target market, score it for crane probability, enrich the records with contact info, and send permit-referenced emails on your behalf. Replies come to a shared inbox we both monitor. Hot leads get handed off to your team with full context , permit address, project type, estimated crane window, and suggested crane class.
You don't touch the outreach infrastructure. You just respond to warm leads and close the jobs. Monthly reporting shows emails sent, reply rate, leads generated, and any active pipeline.
Yes. The permit pipeline runs across 25 US cities , Chicago, Dallas, NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, and more. The Pacific Northwest is the current focus for our first retainer client, but the system is market-agnostic. If your city isn't producing contacts yet, we wire it in , most cities with a public permit API are live within days.
If your market isn't currently live, we can onboard it in days. The data structure is the same; it's just a new API endpoint and location filter.
We offer a pilot structure: 30 days, outreach to GCs in your market with permit-referenced emails. If you see zero leads, no renewal , and you walk away knowing exactly what permit activity looks like in your market, which has value on its own.
Retainers run $2,500–$5,000/month depending on market size and outreach volume. The pilot month is at the standard rate , we don't discount to get in the door and then reprice. One incremental job in month one typically covers the full cost of the engagement.
In practice: permit-referenced outreach with a legitimate reason to contact (we saw your permit at [address]) converts at meaningfully higher rates than cold outreach. We're not promising a specific number of jobs , crane sales cycles are 2–6 weeks and depend on timing, pricing, and availability. What we're promising is qualified, permit-sourced conversations.
CraneGenius is an intelligence and sales platform , we don't own cranes. When a GC requests availability, we reach out to our crane company partners in that market and return a shortlist with equipment specs, availability windows, and estimated day rates. Think of us as the crane-specific equivalent of a commercial real estate broker: we don't own the building, but we know who has the right space and we negotiate on your behalf.
For CAA contracts with data center operators, we pre-arrange priority access agreements with crane companies in the target market, so availability is guaranteed under the SLA terms of the contract.
Building permits are public records. Municipal governments publish permit data through open data APIs , it's the same information anyone can look up on a city planning portal, just structured and searchable at scale. We monitor permit activity across major markets and flag projects that are likely to require crane work based on permit type, project cost, and description.
If we reached out, it's because your permit looks like a project that will need a crane , and we thought we could help you find the right one at the right price before the mobilization window.
Nothing. The free estimator on /estimate/, crane sizing reports, and equipment sourcing help are all free for general contractors and project managers. We are paid by crane companies, not by you. We want you to find the right crane quickly. That is how we show value to the crane companies we work with.
The wizard on /estimate/ outputs a crane class and tonnage range based on your inputs , lift radius, load weight, height, and site conditions. It is a planning starting point, not an engineering stamp. The recommendation is accurate enough to shortlist crane types and start vendor conversations, but a certified lift director will always produce a formal lift plan before any pick.
Think of it as the difference between knowing you need a 100-ton hydraulic truck crane versus not knowing where to start. The tool gets you to the right conversation faster.
A CAA is a subscription contract paid by the data center developer or hyperscaler. They pay for guaranteed crane access , priority dispatch, SLA-backed response times, and no availability surprises during the crane-intensive phases of a build.
The pain is real: a $500M data center project has a commissioning deadline, a construction draw schedule, and penalty clauses if it slips. A crawler crane not showing up when the mechanical equipment needs to be set is a project-stopping problem. That risk is worth real money to eliminate before it happens.
On the supply side, crane companies participate because a CAA gives them guaranteed utilization , booked work they can staff and plan around, instead of hoping the phone rings. They typically accept a modest rate discount in exchange for that certainty. CraneGenius earns a margin on the spread plus the subscription fee.
Tiers range from Starter ($5K–$25K/month) for single-site coverage to Enterprise ($50K–$150K+/month) for dedicated fleet allocation with 24/7 dispatch support and multi-year contracts.
The crane company isn't paying for anything , they're getting paid. A CAA gives them guaranteed utilization: committed work they can staff, schedule maintenance around, and build revenue forecasts on. In exchange, they agree to prioritize CAA subscribers and accept a modest rate discount versus spot market pricing. That's a trade most crane operators will take , predictable revenue beats chasing jobs.
CraneGenius locks those supply agreements before selling coverage in a given market. We don't offer a CAA in a geography until we have committed crane capacity there. That's why the product is in build , the supply relationships have to come first.
For Enterprise tiers, specific equipment is reserved for the subscriber's program. The crane company gets a long-term booking. The developer gets a crane that shows up. We capture the margin in between.
Three situations where a CAA makes sense even if you have existing vendor relationships:
Most hyperscaler construction teams use a primary vendor and a secondary coverage layer. The CAA is structured to be that coverage layer , not a replacement for relationships you've already built.
The acquisition roll-up is real and it's the long-term exit strategy , not a marketing hook. The target is 30–50 owner-operated crane companies acquired at 3–5× EBITDA, consolidated under a platform that exits at 8–15× via strategic sale or recapitalization.
We're not raising capital for acquisitions today. The sequencing is deliberate: retainer revenue first, then CAA contracts, then use that cash flow and track record to structure the first acquisition. Any capital conversation we have will be tied to a specific deal , not a general fundraise. That discipline keeps the business grounded.
The standard structure: 50% seller note (you carry paper for 3–5 years at market rate), 5–10% sponsor cash at close, and SBA or SBIC debt for the remainder. You stay on as operator for a defined period , we're not buying businesses we don't understand how to run.
Sellers in the first cohort of acquired companies also receive preferred equity in the platform , meaning when the roll-up exits, you participate in the upside. It's designed as a retirement plan with real money at the back end, not just a clean exit at one multiple and goodbye.
Three reasons we hear from owners who've talked to PE firms:
Get a straight answer on a 15-minute call. No pitch, no pressure.