CountertopSmart is raising via a SAFE at an $8.5 million valuation cap with no discount. Although the lack of discount is discouraging, the overall valuation is very reasonable. CountertopSmart has also seen early revenue, making the $8.5 valuation even more justified. As a result, the company’s price score is above average.

The United States countertop market was valued at $29.3 billion in 2019. However, the industry’s CAGR is estimated to be around 3%, so future growth will be very limited. Residential demand for countertops accounts for 80% of the market – which works to CountertopSmart’s favor as that is the customer that their product aligns with. The company is currently focusing on the market in Texas, specifically Austin and San Antonio. The company has identified cities like Dallas and Los Angeles as expansion cities, both of which provide a large market opportunity.

One thing working in CountertopSmart’s favor is its lack of direct competition. Consumers have the choice of going to businesses like Home Depot or Lowe’s to pay higher rates or opt to use CountertopSmart’s platform. The platform tells the customer exactly how much the entire process will cost, from the price of the slab itself to the installation cost – which allows for complete transparency throughout the process.

Balancing the market’s healthy size with its limited growth, CountertopSmart’s market score is middle-of-the-road.

Zach House is the CEO of CountertopSmart, as well as one of the original founders. House has experience in the home design industry as he ran a kitchen and bath showroom that focused on sustainable interior finishes for eight years. His experience working in the home improvement field gives him a great base of knowledge about the industry.

House’s co-founder in this venture is Tazio Diehl. Diehl works as the Director of Field Operations at CountertopSmart – which fits his previous work experience well. He worked as a Shipping and Receiving Manager at Concept Systems Manufacturing, a semiconductor manufacturing company. Following that work, Diehl co-owned a small asset recovery business where he specialized in purchasing and sales. 

Rounding out the team is the VP of Engineering, Dustin Lancaster. Lancaster brings with him 13 years of programming and web development experience, a vitally important skillset that every startup needs. 

CountertopSmart’s core team brings ample industry experience as well as some past entrepreneurial work. Taken all together, the team score for the company is quite strong. 

The current way to buy a countertop is to go to a store like Home Depot or Lowe’s and pick out a full slab of rock that needs to be cut down to fit the size you need. If you need 2.25 slabs for your kitchen, that means you need to buy three full slabs – making the whole purchase much more expensive than it needs to be.

CountertopSmart is creating an alternative to the way homeowners furnish or renovate their kitchens or bathrooms. Being able to handpick which slab of rock you get for your countertop ensures that there is less waste throughout the whole process and also cuts down on cost for the customer. CountertopSmart’s marketplace also benefits the fabricators of the countertops as well. Instead of having leftover slabs that eventually get moved to a landfill, they can now expand their profit margins by selling the entire slab.

While giving homeowners the chance to buy partial slabs is a major step forward in this market, it is not a highly defensible service. CountertopSmart is only providing the marketplace for these transactions to occur. By fulfilling a middleman position, the company will rely on the business of both countertop fabricators and homeowners looking for new countertops. If one side or the other does not perform strongly, the company may struggle. Furthermore, if another company arises which offers the same (or similar) service at a better price or with better selections, CountertopSmart could find itself pushed out of the niche it created. 

Balancing the uniqueness of CountertopSmart’s marketplace against its lack of defensibility yields the company a below average differentiators score.

Financially, CountertopSmart has little history to go off of. The most recent Form C filing has the company’s 2019 revenue at $315,221, up from $97,429 in 2018. Despite the increase in revenue, CountertopSmart’s net income dropped to -$386k in 2019 after being -$110k in 2018. A startup company losing money in its early years of operations is nothing surprising – and it’s in other areas where CountertopSmart’s performance is exciting.

Dating back to 2018, CountertopSmart has been impressively racking up accolades. The company was a finalist at CodeLaunch 2018 and was a part of Techstars Austin’s 2019 cohort (Techstars is a seed accelerator that has had a solid track record in picking and helping startup companies – notably ScaleFactor and Convey).

Beyond the accolades, CountertopSmart has seen real life success in their two markets thus far. The company reports that it has seen more than 2,000 partial slabs sold and, more impressively, has 22% of its revenue from repeat purchasing. With its eyes on markets like Dallas and Los Angeles for expansion, CountertopSmart could see solid growth over the next few years. 

With growing revenue and strong early traction, CountertopSmart’s performance score is quite high.

The business model of CountertopSmart doesn’t lend itself to a high growth rate. With net losses increasing year over year, the company will soon need to see money come in faster and faster in order to stay afloat. The company has managed to launch well in two cities, but they are both in Texas. There can be no guarantee that the company can successfully launch in Los Angeles or Chicago or New York – and a failed launch can be pricey.

CountertopSmart also benefits from being a local Texas business (it is based in Austin), so word of mouth is a strong form of advertising for it. In other cities and other states across the country, the company will need to pay for advertising and marketing campaigns to get its product in front of possible customers – which can be another pricey ordeal. If it fails to scale, CountertopSmart may manage to survive operating in Texas, but the return on investment could be minimal.

CountertopSmart has found a problem in an industry and created a product specifically designed to fix that problem – and it benefits both consumers and producers. As word-of-mouth spreads from fabricator to fabricator that they can earn money on their partial slabs by partnering with CountertopSmart, the company could see inventory skyrocket. If inventory grows, there will be more product for customers to peruse, potentially finding the perfect slab for their kitchen or bathroom.

 CountertopSmart has already seen two successful launches in large cities. It has the backing of companies like Techstars and, despite its net loss, has seen a sharp increase in revenue year over year. The executive team has experience in home improvement, supply and field operations, as well as engineering and design – all are important areas for CountertopSmart’s potential success.

The path towards profitability has begun for CountertopSmart. Expanding its operation to a larger market like Dallas or Los Angeles could catalyze quick growth.

CountertopSmart has identified a problem in the home improvement industry and tailored a solution that works for consumers and producers. The executive team brings varied expertise, and the traction has been solid thus far for the young company. The financial sheet is worrying, but nothing out of the ordinary for a new company. Failure to scale well could For all these reasons, CountertopSmart is a Deal to Watch.

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com. 

Analysis written by Ethan Thomas.