In this interview, ToolBeltData co-founder James Bowman talks about why he started the company, how the platform serves residential construction distributors and manufacturers, and how ToolBeltData fits into the broader Buildertrend ecosystem.
James explains ToolBeltData’s core pillars Enrich, Explore, and Engage, shares where the company is seeing the strongest product market fit, and offers a preview of what is coming to the contractor data platform in 2026.
Kirill: Tell us a little about your background and why you decided to create ToolBeltData.
James: I have been in technology entrepreneurship for the better part of 20 years. ToolBeltData is actually the third startup I have worked on. My background has always been on the technology side, building and scaling our products.
The idea for ToolBeltData came out of a prior startup, a company called Motili. At Motili, we built a managed service network of HVAC contractors, electricians, and plumbers to support large property owners and property managers. Our network helped them keep HVAC systems running correctly and handled repair, replacement, and installation work.
At Motili we struggled to find good contractors for our network – it was a recurring problem. I asked myself whether other companies had the same challenge. Maybe manufacturers that sell to contractors, or other managed service networks, were also struggling to find well qualified contractors.
That idea became the genesis of ToolBeltData. We identified a gap in the market and set out to solve a contractor data problem in residential construction by building a high-quality reference data set for who is doing what in the “built world”.
Kirill: What is ToolBeltData and who uses the product today?
James: At ToolBeltData, we make data products for the residential construction industry, data that has been intelligently and thoughtfully compiled.
You will hear the word “insight” a lot in the industry. When we talk about insights in this context, it means bubbling up information about contractors. Who they are, how to contact them, where they work, the type of work they do, and the type of business they run. We make that information accessible and actionable.
Our data products focus on the residential construction industry. Our primary customers are suppliers, and we generally group them into two categories:
- Manufacturers that produce building products for residential construction
- Distributors that sell manufacturers’ products to contractors
To use HVAC as an example, you might have a company like Daikin or Carrier that manufactures HVAC units. Those units are then available through distributors such as Home Depot, Ferguson, or other distribution centers where a contractor can walk in and buy off the shelf.
We also work in several adjacent industries, but our core focus is suppliers serving the building and residential construction industry.
Kirill: There are a lot of data-as-a-service platforms out there. What makes ToolBeltData different from other contractor and lead intelligence platforms?
James: We like to say those data platforms are a mile wide and an inch deep. ToolBeltData is the opposite – an inch wide and a mile deep.
We are a verticalized data products company, we focus almost exclusively on the residential construction industry. That specialization is one of our key differentiators.
The second differentiator is our relationship with Buildertrend. ToolBeltData was acquired in 2022 by Buildertrend, the leader in SaaS-based construction management software for the residential construction industry.
Our data products leverage Buildertrend’s first party data. We combine that first party data with our core contractor data products. That gives us a unique advantage that other contractor intelligence platforms do not have.
So the two big differences between us and other data providers are:
- We are deeply specialized in residential construction
- Our direct insights into real-world construction activity powered by Buildertrend
Kirill: You describe ToolBeltData around three pillars: Enrich, Explore, and Engage. Can you walk us through each one?
James: These are the core concepts we use inside our application to make it easier for users to navigate and understand what ToolBeltData does.
Enrich
Enrich is about enriching our customers’ data with ToolBeltData’s contractor data products. Many of our customers have strong point of sale systems and customer files, but they lack additional context about those contractors.
A typical supplier might know:
- Contractor name
- Basic firmographics such as address, phone, email
What is often missing is:
- The jobs those contractors are doing
- The services they provide
- The type of business they are
- Their trade focus and activity patterns
Data enrichment overlays our contractor intelligence on top of a customer’s existing data. That lets suppliers understand customers better, define ideal customer profiles, segment intelligently, and target the right contractors more effectively.
Explore
Explore is all about finding new opportunities. You can think of it as prospecting and lead generation.
If we start with enrichment, we first help you understand your existing customer base. The next logical step is to go find lookalikes: contractors who are not your customers today but resemble your best customers.
With Explore suppliers and manufacturers are able to:
- Discover net-new contractors in HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, and other trades
- Identify the right geographies and trade categories to enter
- Build contractor databases in greenfield markets
Some manufacturers come to us without any existing customer list they want to enrich. They simply want to build a contractor database from scratch. In those cases we often skip enrichment and go straight to Explore.
Engage
Engage is about the intelligence layer and tools that make it easier to use ToolBeltData’s platform.
On the integration side, we aim to support direct connections into popular CRM and marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo. That makes it easy to push enriched records or newly discovered leads into the systems teams already use.
On the intelligence side, we work with customers to:
- Define their ideal contractor profile (ICP)
- Build models based on trade type, job type, region, or campaign goals
- Apply those models across our data products to generate targeted opportunities
- Set up repeatable plays using activity and recency data (2026 Initiative)
For example, a supplier might want to identify contractors who are likely to be doing jobs in the next two, four, or six months. We can deploy that model in the platform so those opportunities are surfaced on a recurring basis.
Engage is ultimately about making it easier for customers to run campaigns, activate enriched data, and consistently use ToolBeltData inside their own workflows.
Kirill: What does an ideal customer look like for ToolBeltData? Where are you seeing product market fit today?
James: Right now we are seeing a lot of success with medium to large suppliers. That includes both distributors and building product manufacturers in residential construction.
We are actively building features that will help us support smaller, more local suppliers and manufacturers in the future. Today, though, most of our traction is with mid-market and enterprise suppliers that want a scalable contractor data platform for residential construction.
Kirill: How do you position the product so that integrations and day-to-day use feel natural for teams?
James: We want it to be as easy as possible for customers to access our data products. The goal is not to send Excel or CSV files unless that is explicitly what a customer wants.
Most of our customers experience ToolBeltData through our web application, Atlas. Atlas is the platform where users can log in and:
- Explore our contractor database
- Upload their own customer data for enrichment
- Download segments and lists as needed
- Configure integrations into Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, and other tools (2026 Initiative)
For more technical teams, we support access via API and programmatic integration so they can wire ToolBeltData directly into internal systems and data pipelines.
Inside Atlas, a user can run a query, hit export, and send that dataset straight into their CRM or marketing automation platform. We design everything to minimize friction and keep the workflow inside tools that sales and marketing teams already live in every day.
If a customer uses a system we do not yet support, we are willing to work with them to add new integrations. The platform is highly extensible.
Kirill: Some construction suppliers are still very low-tech. How do you reduce friction for companies that might be hesitant to adopt a contractor data platform?
James: We are willing to meet customers where they are. If a supplier wants to work with us in a lower-tech way, we can explore that.
At the same time, we encourage people to simply try the application. Accessing Atlas and using the tool is intentionally intuitive. We are happy to sit down, walk through it, and make sure the experience is as easy as possible for teams that are less familiar with data platforms.
Kirill: What does onboarding look like? Is it a standard process or customized to each new customer?
James: Onboarding is tailored to each engagement. Not every customer cares about the entire residential construction universe that we cover. Many are focused on one or two trade categories such as HVAC or plumbing. Larger distributors might be interested in all the trade types we support.
We start by understanding:
- Who a customer is trying to target
- Which trades and regions matter to their business
- How they plan to use enriched or net-new contractor data
From there we configure a subscription that fits those needs at a technical level. Turning access on is largely an internal configuration process. Once the scope is defined, getting into the platform and starting to work with data is a matter of minutes.
If a customer wants a deeper API or service integration, that takes a bit longer because we coordinate with their development teams. But logging into Atlas, uploading a dataset, and starting to explore or enrich can happen very quickly.
Kirill: Does ToolBeltData cover the entire United States, or are there specific regions you focus on?
James: Our flagship offering is the ToolBeltData Contractor Universe. It is a national database focused on the United States and covers all 50 states.
Within that universe, we currently track 42 trade types, including:
- Builders and general contractors
- HVAC contractors
- Plumbers
- Electricians
- Roofers
- Other residential construction trades and subcontractors
There are over 5 million business profiles in the ToolBeltData Contractor Universe. These profiles are enriched and augmented with the data we collect.
Kirill: How does ToolBeltData fit into the Buildertrend ecosystem?
James: We are one of Buildertrend’s product offerings, but we sit on the supplier side of the market.
Buildertrend’s core platform is focused on servicing builders, general contractors, and residential remodelers. ToolBeltData is focused on helping supplier partners connect with those same builders, general contractors, and remodelers.
In other words:
- Buildertrend serves the builder / general contractor side
- ToolBeltData serves the supplier side and helps suppliers better understand and reach a variety of different contractors
We are a complementary product that lives adjacent to the Buildertrend platform rather than inside it.
Kirill: Looking ahead to 2026, what are you most excited about on the ToolBeltData roadmap?
James: We are very excited about 2026. We have three big bets on our roadmap. The focus is on expanding our product offerings and taking advantage of additional activity data and new streams of information we have line of sight into.
Some of the work will show up as enhancements to our existing data products. For example, new activity segments will become available as part of the current ToolBeltData Contractor Universe subscription – that is part of our data-product-as-a-service model. When we improve the underlying product, customers automatically get the benefit without an upsell or additional fee.
We are also planning to launch new data products that go deeper into transactional and activity-level information. Those will be separate products or SKUs that customers can subscribe to. Once subscribed, they will receive the same benefits: ongoing refreshes, enhancements, and a reliable update cadence.
The roadmap is about giving suppliers and manufacturers more ways to understand contractor behavior, time their outreach, and run smarter go-to-market strategies in residential construction.