Original Ariba Founders Come Together To Join Dibbs Advisory Board for New Construction Bidding App

Dibbs Technology partners with advisors and board members that share several decade's worth of combined trustworthy development and delivery of the most successful technology solutions in existence.

NEWPORT, R.I., May 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dibbs, the new mobile app that is revolutionizing construction bidding, launched in late February for Rhode Island contractors and suppliers. This comes after a successful seed fundraising round of over $2.5 million, along with building a list of top advisors who are affiliated with companies such as Ariba, LinkedIn, DocuSign, HubSpot, and Snowflake.

The company is excited to share that the advisory board includes the original executives of Ariba (now SAP Ariba) that successfully built the company from a start-up idea into a team of 4,000 that achieved cash-flow positive operations in the first three quarters, executed a highly successful IPO, and achieved $250 million in annual revenues within four years. 

Rob DeSantis, a former co-founder of Ariba and early angel investor of LinkedIn, helped found Dibbs with CEO Luke Fleury and COO Case Olszewski late in 2020 after connecting with Fleury at the Aquidneck Club in Rhode Island. Fleury, a successful General Contractor, and Real Estate Investor was initially seeking a real estate investment from DeSantis. After DeSantis shared his accomplished background in tech and business, Fleury was inspired to partner on a project much more ambitious.

Immediately, he began brainstorming every major issue he faces as a General Contractor and how to solve them. The friction in the bidding process and the lack of technology solutions in the construction industry was easily his biggest pain point. This is where the idea of "Dibbs" stemmed from. A solution that would give contractors, suppliers, and homeowners an all-in-one platform to find and close deals more efficiently. DeSantis was fully sold on the idea and the potential and decided to be a co-founder of Dibbs Technology.

"When I met Luke, it was apparent to me that he was going to be part of some great things during his lifetime. He and Case have all the qualities needed to build a great company. They are smart, thoughtful, and extremely hard working. What they wanted to build was a strong match with my experiences and network and when they asked me to be part of the company, it was easy for me to say yes. The opportunity to automate and mobilize a very fragmented and paper-based marketplace in such a huge market is very compelling. The Dibbs team has taken a thoughtful, customer-driven approach and now has an amazing product hitting the market. The team is strong as well as their advisors, investors and early customers."

Rob has been instrumental in bringing the vision to life with the help of his network and advisors and previous co-workers at Ariba. Previously, he was the head of Ariba's global sales and business development sector. His expertise in building and scaling start-up companies makes him a key player for Dibbs.

Ariba's success is grounded in the collaboration of Rob's skills with Ariba's co-founding EVP and CFO Edward Kinsey's financial and operating skills. Together they engineered a long-term revenue model that deferred contract revenue for revenue predictability, they built a sales hiring and compensation model that attracted the best sales and development talent in the industry, and they scaled the company for high performance. Their work resulted in Ariba's total market capitalization of more than $40 billion. Ed, joined Dibbs as the acting CFO and as a board member in July 2021. His expertise helped to scale the now dominant DocuSign from just fifty employees to several thousand. As Dibb's acting CFO, Kinsey has built a strong foundation of financial structure and provided guidance on fundraising efforts as Dibbs prepares to raise their Series A. His reputation in the Financial industry is well renowned.

"Luke, Case, and Rob form an impressive founding team and they have recruited a great team around them. The success of their seed funding is a reflection of the powerful business model they've created. I've enjoyed helping them build the operations to support high growth." Shares Ed Kinsey.

Case Olszewski states, "Having the support from our advisors has been extremely helpful and has instilled confidence amongst the team. These advisors and board members share several decades of combined trustworthy development and delivery of the most successful technology solutions in existence."

Guiding the company in the area of development and technology stands Zack King, CEO & Founder of SHYFT Analytics. Founded in 2005, Zack created SHYFT to help medical companies track data sources and allow them to understand how their drug was being used in the real world. In 2018, his company was acquired by Medidata for $195 million. His background in software engineering has helped the Dibbs development team create a scalable product with an easy-to-use interface for the construction industry.

"Existing solutions are basically ad networks that source leads and don't provide value for homeowners or service providers. Dibbs didn't just tackle one aspect of the home improvement and construction ecosystem - they solved the entire experience from real project posting, live project bidding, seamless payments, and communication. It provides tremendous value for both service providers and homeowners." shares Zack King

Guy Haskin Fernald has been a tech advisor for Dibbs since mid-2021, providing guidance on building the most reliable and user-friendly product on the market. Previously, Guy was one of the founding engineers at Ariba in 1996 and brings over 30 years of engineering experience to the Dibbs advisory team. Guy quickly joined the Dibbs Advisory board after hearing the vision and seeing the amount of support the company had from the original Ariba executives.

In addition to his accomplishments at Ariba, Guy also co-founded NetMarket. The first company to conduct secure transactions on the internet which he later sold to a large multinational company.

"I'm very excited about the Dibbs platform and the product they have built. The team has an expansive vision for transforming the construction bidding space by dramatically reducing the friction in making these transactions."

John Mcmahon is another top advisor joining the Dibbs team. John is known for building some of the most successful sales teams at five public software companies. This includes BladeLogic, BMC, Ariba, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), and GeoTel. As COO of BladeLogic, he was able to bring the company from a startup to over $870 million before its acquisition. In addition to his success in sales, John Mcmahon is a best seller for his book titled The Qualified Sales Leader. Mcmahon has been instrumental in advising Dibbs on their long-term sales strategy and growth plan.  

"I see Dibbs as a national product that will truly enhance the construction industry. There is nothing on the market like it. Having helped to create their long term sales strategy I truly believe that the company will accomplish great success in a short period of time and am excited to be a part of that success" shares John

The current bidding process in the construction industry is time-consuming and provides no peace of mind getting to the best price. With Dibbs, users cut the time it takes to place and review bids in half. The app was made for the trade, by the trade as CEO Luke Fleury is a General Contractor himself. The support and experience they now have with the original Ariba team will help Dibbs propel into different markets throughout the US.

Dibbs is looking forward to furthering the success that will come with the help of these top tech advisors and their experience in growing startups. To learn more about Dibbs you can visit their website or, download the app.

SOURCE Dibbs