Social Currency with Sammi Cohen Maria Davidson (Kojo) on Record-Breaking Fundraising, Building a $4B Platform and Breaking Barriers in Construction
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Sep 23, 2025 Maria Davidson, the founder and CEO of Kojo, is transforming the construction industry with her groundbreaking procurement platform. She discusses how her immigrant roots and diverse educational background fueled her entrepreneurial spirit. Maria shares her scrappy beginnings, employing creative strategies like delivering pizza to earn meetings. She reveals lessons learned in fundraising, leadership, and the importance of customer feedback, emphasizing the growing allure of trade careers and her commitment to breaking barriers in a male-dominated field.
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Word-Of-Mouth Works In Trades
- Viral adoption is possible in construction because trades share tools and recommendations across projects.
- Field word-of-mouth can create strong inbound growth once a few teams love a product.
Make Onboarding Your Growth Engine
- Invest heavily in customer success early, especially onboarding and retention.
- Gamify adoption and treat onboarding as a distinct function to scale usage across projects.
AI Removes Field Friction
- AI accelerates field adoption by enabling voice-to-text ordering and automated invoice reconciliation.
- Digitizing invoices and inventory lets AI detect errors and surface actionable analytics fast.