Build something that’s actually yours.
You spent a decade building someone else’s company. Groundwork is the room, the playbook, and the software to start a real, cash-flowing contractor business — the kind AI can’t automate and a downturn can’t delete.
Founding cohort forming now · Limited to 100 members
Software ate the white-collar economy. It can’t pour concrete.
The smartest hedge against an automated world is owning something in the physical one. Groundwork exists to get sharp, capable people out of the layoff cycle and into businesses that can’t be offshored, automated, or taken away.
Recession- & AI-proof
Screen work is getting automated by the month. Demand for skilled, local, hands-on services only goes up. You want to be on the right side of that line.
Profit from day one
These are real businesses with real margins — no runway to raise, no five-year bet on a liquidity event. Book the job, do the work, get paid.
You already have the edge
Capital, systems thinking, marketing instincts, and the discipline to run a process. Most contractors never had those. You're starting with all four.
Everything you need to go from zero to open.
The Software
Run quoting, scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, and follow-up from your phone. The platform alone is worth more than the membership.
The Playbook
The exact system — ads, sales scripts, pricing, hiring, referral partnerships — documented in writing and on video.
Your Pod
A small, geography-based group of owners in non-competing trades. Your board of directors, your accountability, your people.
The Community
A private room of people building the exact same thing, in real time. Wins, deals, hard days, and answers — all in one place.
Live Coaching
Monthly group calls, ad breakdowns, and recorded real sales calls. Open with one how-to, then the floor is yours.
Masterminds & Retreats
In-person gatherings twice a year — part education, part the kind of relationships you only build face to face.
How members get to first revenue.
Apply & get matched
We screen for fit and culture, then place you in a pod with an open seat in your trade and market.
Get your stack
Software set up for your business, the full playbook unlocked, and a one-on-one onboarding call booked.
Pick your trade & market
Validate local demand, choose your vertical, and claim your territory — with the room pressure-testing your plan.
Open for business
Launch ads, take the calls, and book your first jobs — using scripts and systems that already work.
Scale with the room
Hire crews, raise prices, and compound — alongside owners doing the exact same thing, one step ahead and one step behind you.
This isn’t theory. It’s a working contractor business.
Groundwork is built and taught by the team behind Hill Country Slabs — and it runs on the same software you’ll get on day one. You’re learning from an operator who is still in the field, not a guru selling a course.
Revenue built from one truck
From first job to a real team
Jobs delivered
Founding member seats
“I built this with a truck and a phone. The only thing I wish I’d had was a room full of people who’d already done it. That’s the thing we’re building.”
Join the founding cohort.
Membership is by application. We keep it small on purpose — and reward the people who get in early.
$5,000 your first year, then $10,000 — locked at the founding rate for as long as you stay.
- The full crew-management software
- John's documented playbook + video library
- Your geography-based pod (non-competing)
- The private member community
- Monthly live coaching with John
- Two in-person masterminds + a retreat
Only 100 founding seats · Reviewed in the order received
The honest answers.
No. Most members come from tech, finance, or corporate backgrounds and start fresh. The playbook assumes you've never swung a hammer — and your operating, hiring, and marketing skills are a real advantage over the average contractor.
Lay your groundwork.
The work that everything else gets built on starts now. Founding applications are open — but not for long.