Category Visionaries Shelley Copsey, CEO & Co-Founder of FYLD: $48 Million Raised to Transform Field Work Execution Category
FYLD has raised $48M to transform how infrastructure field workers execute their daily tasks safely and efficiently. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Shelley Copsey, CEO and Co-Founder of FYLD, about creating a new category in field work execution and building during a pandemic. The company has achieved 3x ARR growth last year and is on track to double bookings revenue this year, with near-zero churn rates.
Topics Discussed:
- The daily challenges of infrastructure field workers in utilities, roads, and railways
- Creating and capturing demand in a new software category
- Enterprise sales strategy in the infrastructure sector
- Scaling during COVID with remote customer discovery
- The reality of labor shortages in field operations
- Building customer trust in critical infrastructure
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
- Rethink conventional wisdom on market problems: While many discuss a labor shortage in field operations, FYLD's data shows 30-35% standing time across companies. Shelley explains, "I'm not convinced that there is a labor crisis... when you begin to look at that level of standing time, I think you've got to question if we've got a labor shortage or we've just got a problem of understanding what the people in the field are doing." Sometimes the most discussed market problem isn't actually the root cause.
- Design pricing models that encourage full adoption: FYLD shifted from per-seat licensing to enterprise-wide deals after realizing usage limitations undermined platform value. Shelley notes, "If what your premise is by collecting large volumes of data, you can help people do their jobs better and more efficiently, your go-to-market model can actually undermine delivering the benefit from the platform." Pricing should align with your product's value creation mechanism.
- Leverage industry-specific collaboration dynamics: In infrastructure, safety improvements aren't viewed as competitive advantages but as shared responsibilities. As one CEO told Shelley, "If you can help me keep workers safer, more mums and dads are going to think that this is a good career for their kid... if we can all keep people safer, we're all going to be able to grow as an industry." Understanding these dynamics can accelerate market penetration through referrals.
- Navigate complex stakeholder alignment: Enterprise sales in infrastructure require buy-in from COOs, heads of safety, CIOs, and CFOs. Shelley shares, "Enterprise sales cycles are well known to take 9, 12, 15 months. In the infrastructure industry, we're moving a bit quicker than that." Success requires systematically addressing each stakeholder's priorities while maintaining momentum.
- Build for end-users first: FYLD maintains an 8/10 customer satisfaction score among field workers, unprecedented in their industry. Shelley emphasizes, "There's no point going out and selling a product related to fieldwork if the field workers hate using the platform and won't adopt it." In B2B, while buyers sign the checks, end-user adoption drives long-term success.
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