The situation
Burns Dirt had a genuinely smart idea: a “Moneyball” approach to bidding — modeling haul scenarios with data instead of gut feel. The problem wasn't the strategy. It was the container. The whole thing lived in a Google Sheets prototype that was powerful but fragile: it kept breaking, it couldn't scale, and it was nearly impossible to share beyond the person who built it.
Worse, the cost modeling behind it ran on assumptions — estimated fuel prices, estimated mileage — when the real numbers were out there to be had.
What we built: BattleShip
- Haul Scenario Modeling
- Pit & Fleet Comparison
- Cost-per-Ton Engine
- Live Fuel & Mapping Data
- Competitor Bid Simulation
BattleShip turned the prototype into a real platform. It models haul scenarios across pits and fleets, calculates true cost-per-ton, pulls live fuel and mapping data into every estimate, and can even simulate competitor bids — all behind a clean interface anyone on the team can use, not just the spreadsheet guy.
Running now
Bidding strategy isn't an idea in a fragile spreadsheet anymore — it's baked into how Burns Dirt operates every day. Bids turn around faster, run on live numbers, and the platform is built to scale to other dirt contractors down the road.
- bid turnaround — no manual spreadsheet modeling
- Faster
- fragile prototype became a reliable platform
- Sheets → App
- real-time fuel & mapping in every cost model
- Live data
- adoption through a clean, simple interface
- Whole team
“We had a solid prototype in Sheets — but it kept breaking, and we hit a wall. Xeratec turned our rough concept into a clean, reliable tool anyone on our team can use. BattleShip took our ‘Moneyball’ strategy from idea to execution — it's now baked into how we operate.”
