Innovation Endeavors investment in Trunk Tools

At Innovation Endeavors, one of our most fundamental philosophies is that technology can transform labor. More specifically, the potential of technology to radically increase labor efficiency is one of the most important opportunities of our time. We see the domain of labor efficiency as having two primary levers: (1) augmenting human labor with better tools, such as robots and automation, and (2) increasing the productivity of humans themselves with better workflows, software, and incentives. In the former bucket, we have invested in about a dozen robotics companies over the last decade, and in the latter, we have made numerous investments in applied machine learning for traditional enterprise, vertical market software, and emergent generative AI applications. Our latest investment is in Trunk Tools, which is bringing together data, AI, and psychology to make construction work more productive, safer, and more rewarding.

The construction labor crunch limits growth

The scope of the opportunity to make labor better is exploding. In the largest pillars of our economy, the pain associated with the current labor shortage is reaching a fever pitch as our collective goals for building infrastructure, growing food, and manufacturing goods, continue to expand. As one example, the demand for U.S. factories has hit a remarkable inflection point (i.e., Ford announcing the largest ever DOE loan) with the tailwinds of the Inflation Reduction Act, reshoring, and global market shifts all coming together.