The Sitemate Manifesto

Multiplying The Engineering Power Of The Built World

I’ve always found it strange as to why society idolizes bankers, financiers, lawyers, accountants and the like.

Maybe I’m just old school, but they always seem to look a little too posh, a little too greasy, to me.

Times have probably changed, but I suspect if you ask most parents, they often wish for their child to grow up to become a doctor, a lawyer, or something else of similar status.

And I guess, it kind of makes sense - these people do ‘important’ things, they wear nice attire, go to nice events, what’s not to like?

But personally, I’ve always wondered - what about the people that keep the lights on?

What about the people that keep our wheels turning?

What about the people that keep us fed, keep our supplies in stock, and keep us warm?

And of course - what about the people that charge our ever so important devices?

Much of the time, these people are forgotten - most parents don’t aspire for their child to grow up and become an electrician or a carpenter, a lead technician, a superintendent or a tunnelling engineer.

I believe it’s because most people are oblivious to the enormity and ever-present nature of the built world - our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our buildings, and our energy.

As a society, we’ve grown numb to it all - the concrete and steel, the wires and pipes, the water pressure and the electric currents - it’s like it’s all faded into invisibility.

The built world grinds the human race forward, in the daylight and the darkness, in the noise and in the quiet, in the heat and in cold, and it does so at both vast scale, and intricate, precise detail - all at the same time.

But there’s a problem, the people that do the engineering work of our built world are hurting - they’re stretched too thin, they’re managing too many competing priorities, and they’re burned out.

I was one of them.

I was inducted into the built world at the start of my teenage years - each time school holidays came around, I would travel down to Sydney and spend a week working on the tools for my dad’s sub-contracting business.

Dad arrived in Australia from New Zealand in his early 20s, coming from a modest family from south Auckland, and as one of four siblings - he had nothing but a few hundred bucks in his wallet and a backpack to his name.

He grew his business from scratch - taking on various types of jobs for property owners, builders and tier 1 civil general contractors.

Dad would never forget to remind me that he knew more about all of his jobs than the engineers he was working with and for;

I tell you Hartley, I haven’t been to uni, but their calculations don’t make sense - half the time I end up telling those bozos what to do.

I should be the bloody engineer.”

This experience led me to develop an affinity for the built world, although, given his strong mind and strong opinions, I wasn’t quite game to work with my dad and take over the family business.

So, I did something that mortified him.

I became, a bloody engineer…

One day, during my first twelve months working on site - it all just caught up with me.

The constant juggling act of scheduling multiple crews, ordering and coordinating logistics for materials being delivered, managing safety, managing quality, daily reporting, and everything in between - I finally tipped over.

I remember walking behind the site office, out of sight, and just standing there for a moment before breaking down - completely overwhelmed, anxious, and burned out.

It wasn’t the physical work that got me, not the 6am starts on site, until 6pm in the evening, it was the sheer weight of trying to keep it all together administratively, whilst also being fresh and inexperienced.

This was the moment that Sitemate began to pull itself out of me.

Although the Sitemate mission may have started with me, all of us have a connection to the built world - and it’s now our job to take it forward.

We’ve had some join Sitemate who experienced similar pain to me, and then similar journeys as founders in this space.

We’ve had others leave their engineering roles working in the field, and join Sitemate directly.

For others, it’s a first degree connection to the built world - someone close to you.

Like hearing stories from your dad, about all of the pipeline inspections across remote Western Australia.

Or, maybe your mom - an inspiration to you, and an inspirational engineer.

The ironic part about this manifesto, is the timing of its writing.

You’re meant to write these things at the start of the journey.

You’re meant to have it all figured out - a clear vision, a path neatly painted ahead.

Even coming from the industry, even solving my own problem - up until now, I didn’t really know how to explain it succinctly.

I guess my mission to date has just been to fix my own problem - to fix HP the engineer’s problem.

The journey of Sitemate has been a winding path - from the basement of the engineering building at UTS, the University of Technology, Sydney - to now approaching 3,000 customers.

The reality is - in order to truly understand the gravity of what we’re dealing with here, how many built world industries it spans - it has taken us this long to truly figure out.

Some would say it’s already been a success, and in many ways it has, but, for Sam and I - it feels like we’ve only just scratched the surface.

And, if I’m being honest, thinking back to myself as HP the engineer, after all of this time - we've barely solved my own problem.

Maybe this manifesto wasn't meant to be written until now, with the arrival of AI, and at the start of possibly the largest technology re-platforming event, since the birth of the internet.

It’s now clear to me, why I started Sitemate.

Sitemate will clear the path for our trades, our engineers, our technicians - the ones who work in the dark, work in the cold, and - work in the silence, away from the limelight.

Sitemate isn’t going to ‘take people digital’, or streamline things, we are going to unshackle our engineering workforce and free them of their burnout and their burden, so that they can overcome the built world’s largest challenges.