August 2023
Jon Maroney
Oregon Venture Fund (OVF) couldn’t be more excited to be part of Source’s recent $8M Series A investment round. Source has quickly become the leading marketplace for architects and interior designers to source interior finishes, furnishings, and fixtures for commercial buildings and hotels. The platform serves as the single source of truth for design selections, decision tracking, and procurement throughout the entire lifecycle of a new building project, from initial design through completion.
OVF led Source’s initial investment round in 2019 and this is OVF’s 4th investment in the company. When we first met founder Nicole Schmidt, we were impressed with her industry knowledge – she had worked as an interior designer, manufacturers’ rep, and digital marketing and sales manager in this industry. That work caused her to experience the pain first-hand that Source is now solving. At the time of our initial investment, Source already had a proof of concept solution for architects who needed to quickly receive materials samples of materials (think furniture, fixtures and equipment – flooring, countertops, light fixtures, water faucets) that go into a new building project. Since then, the company has expanded their platform to encompass all aspects of the workflow, connecting architect, builder, owner, and suppliers in one system. Source has created an all-digital workflow that works for the entire lifecycle of a commercial construction project and has created a solution that we believe has the potential to be the industry standard.
This automation of manual workflows is an area that our region has seen multiple successes over the last decade. Replacing emails, spreadsheet-based tracking systems and good ol’ “sneaker net” communication with software systems that can be the single source of truth requires deep industry expertise on the entire workflow and a vision for how to make everyone’s life easier in the process.
Our investment thesis is that Source has this vision and can become the leading platform and marketplace used by architects and designers to discover, specify, and procure furniture, fixtures, finishes, and equipment for new and remodeled commercial buildings.
From a business standpoint, the key unlock for the company was the realization that having all the data surrounding a project (the single source of truth) put them in a unique position to solve the most time consuming and inefficient step in the process – the final procurement and delivery of all the finish pieces from 100’s of vendors. Coordinating procurement and having everything delivered on time is a major cost center and cause of delays in a project and is exactly the valuable problem that Source is in a unique position to solve.
With the Series A round, we are pleased to be partnering with Anna Barber from M13, who brings deep marketplace business model expertise.
At OVF, we aim to invest in the best entrepreneurs in our region who are attacking the biggest markets and who have the opportunity and ambition to build long-term, standalone businesses. We feel that Source can be the next iconic construction software company based here in Portland, and we are excited to support Nicole and team along this journey.