Built on a job site,
by the people on it.
DirtIndex started where every load of dirt does — out in the field, between the contractor building the project and the engineer who drew it. Here’s how a job-site gripe turned into the marketplace the industry never had.
It started with a gripe on a job site
Seth and Ben were standing on a job site together one afternoon — Seth had designed the drawings as the project’s licensed professional engineer, and Ben, a construction company owner, was the one actually building it.
Ben started venting about the part of the job nobody puts on a spec sheet: how frustrating and expensive it was to source local material when he needed fill brought in — and how it cost him just as much to haul his surplus out to a dump site when he had too much. Money leaking out both ends of the same project, every single time.
For years he’d had the same idea rattling around: someone should build a marketplace that connects contractors, haulers, and everyone else who moves earth, so they can efficiently find local material available for import or export — instead of paying retail on one side and tipping fees on the other.
“I can make that happen — let’s do it.”
What Ben didn’t know was that the engineer standing next to him had taught himself to code about five years earlier. He had spent those years quietly turning ideas into working software on nights and weekends.
So when Ben described the marketplace he’d been imagining for years, Seth didn’t nod along and change the subject. He said, “I can make that happen — let’s do it.”
DirtIndex is what came out of that conversation: a map where any contractor can find clean fill, topsoil, rock, and aggregate from other contractors nearby, and offload their own surplus straight to someone who needs it — skipping the retail markup and the dump fees alike.
One builds it. One engineers it.
We think we’re a near-perfect cofounder match for this problem, because between the two of us we know the industry inside and out.
- Ben builds it. As a construction company owner, he lives the day-to-day reality of moving material — the quotes, the hauls, the dump runs, and every dollar that gets lost in between.
- Seth engineers it. As a licensed PE who produces the construction drawings — and a self-taught developer — he understands both the work on paper and the software it takes to connect the people doing it.
One of us has spent a career in the field; the other has spent one at the drawing board and the keyboard. The platform sits right at the intersection of both.
Every contractor who joins helps the next one
DirtIndex isn’t just useful — it gets better for everyone the more contractors are on it. That’s the whole point. A bigger network means more material moving locally, which means:
- Cheaper projects. More nearby supply and demand means better prices and shorter hauls on both the material you buy and the surplus you sell.
- Less environmental impact. Matching material across nearby sites cuts long-haul trucking distances — fewer miles, less fuel, less carbon spent dragging dirt across the region.
- A stronger industry. A growing network of contractors, haulers, and builders that pushes the whole industry forward instead of leaving everyone to solve the same problem alone.
The more of us are on the map, the more every job benefits. So if you move earth for a living, there’s a spot waiting for your first pin.
Come build the network with us.
Sign up free, drop a pin on your project, and the map opens at your location. Every contractor who joins makes the next match easier to find.
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