Turning on the Tappr of plumbing ingenuity

Danny Hamilton has been a plumber for over two decades, successfully running his own business for the past 8 years, but after yet another late night spent hand-drawing sewer and drainage diagrams under a light box once the kids had gone to bed, he knew there had to be an easier way.

Danny set out on his problem-solving mission in a very Australian way, “I had a couple of catch ups with close friends over beers,” recalls Danny. “I wanted to work out what would be needed to design an App to digitise the way plumbers map out these diagrams.” A total game changer if he could figure it all out.

Obviously, the ice-cold froths were delectable, but they also led him to a catch up with Chris Hulsman, the meeting clearly going well, as these two are now business partners. “When Danny first mentioned the idea, I was hoping to help a mate out,” Chris explains. “As we got deep into the details and researching the business, we knew we needed to partner up and go all in.”

With an operations and production background within marketing and more recently technology start-ups, Chris was perfectly placed to assist Danny bring his idea to fruition. “Initially, we spent a lot of time researching and working out what the business was going to be,” says Chris. The feedback was clear and gave Danny and Chris a lot of confidence they were on the right track.

Plumbers hated creating these diagrams, commonly cited problem areas were issues with hand-drawing, specific pen thickness, paper quality, time wastage, late nights doing finicky work and, most importantly, a high rejection rate from councils when the diagrams weren’t done correctly. Chris explains, “With all the technology in smartphones and tablets, we knew we could leverage technology to assist with the process, automation, steps and integrations.”

Fast forward to today, Danny and Chris are the proud founders of Tappr, an App that allows plumbers, and everyone else, to easily create digital drainage and sewer diagrams on their phone or tablet while on site in under 10 minutes! These diagrams can then be used and shared with plumbers, builders, customers, inspectors and local councils.

The duo’s hard work, ground up strategy focused on word of mouth, shareability and a few strategic partnerships within the industry is paying off. Danny says, “We’ve had a lot of interest from plumbers doing new build and renovation projects for council approvals, plus leak/blocked drain plumbers that offer drainage plans as part of completion of works. Tappr can increase their revenue by $5-10k a month.” Chris adds, “We also have enterprise offerings for larger plumbing groups and project home builders, and we have new products planned on our roadmap.”

Passing several incredible milestones already, the most exciting seeing the App go live on the App Store, Chris and Danny are more focused than ever on Tappr’s future. Chris explains, “The focus is on the local market and doing it very well, then repeating what we’ve done here into new markets.”