Over the next few weeks, Alabama NewsCenter will highlight the inaugural class of 10 startups participating in the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator. The companies specialize in technology and business models to enhance the future of energy, including a digital marketplace for the electric wholesale industry, battery storage and microgrid solutions, and smart home software. Learn more about Techstars here.

Today we look at Con.doit.

Company Name

Con.doit.

Con.doit aims to make electrical system records digital, accessible, easy to update and useful for simulations and analysis. (contributed)

Company hometown

Birmingham.

Leadership team

Ian Hoppe, founder and CEO; Jim Crapia, founder and CTO.

Alabama NewsCenter: What is your company’s overall focus and mission?

Con.doit: To bring commercial and industrial electrical systems into the 21st century by taking records of electrical systems from paper drawings to digital electrical system records (ESRs) in the cloud, where they can be put through efficiency modeling, failure simulations, system analysis and IoT monitoring.

Alabama NewsCenter: What inspired you to develop this company?

Con.doit: Ian Hoppe spent several years in the electrical installation and design industries. His frustration with the collection, cataloging and analysis of existing electrical systems led to the idea for Con.doit. A couple of glasses of whiskey and a hard conversation with Nate Schmidt inspired him to actually take the plunge.

A screen shot of one of Con.doit’s interactive graphics. (contributed)

Alabama NewsCenter: What attracted your company most to the state of Alabama and the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator?

Con.doit: We’re from here! And we’re both huge fans and evangelists for Birmingham and the state of Alabama. Ian’s wife works for Innovate Birmingham, and both Ian and Jim have been deeply involved with the technology and startup scene in Birmingham for years.

Alabama NewsCenter: What does enhancing the future of energy mean to your company?

Con.doit: The future of energy means continuing to replace outdated, paper processes with digital solutions that make life easier and more profitable for those that use them. This is Con.doit’s mission. We’re enhancing that future by offering a suite of tools that will make electrical systems more efficient and reliable than they were before.

Alabama NewsCenter: Other than moving your startup forward, what is the most meaningful, long-term learning or takeaway you hope to gain for your company by participating in the Techstars class?

Con.doit: We’re already making great friends and networks with the other members of the cohort. We hope that we can gain a huge new network of connections and relationships that we can build for years to come, both personal and professional. We’re so excited to be here.

Alabama NewsCenter: What is the number one thing you would like potential investors to know or understand about your company?

Con.doit: There are at least 6 million existing commercial and industrial facilities in the United States alone that keep their electrical records in a forgotten roll of paper drawings under a desk somewhere. Con.doit has the plan, the know-how and the will to change that.