CommanderAI says it’s building the Salesforce for the waste management industry

David Berg learned a lot about the waste management industry by driving a garbage truck around the country as the first employee at Ohio-based Battle Motors. He discovered that despite the sheer number of sales prospecting platforms, selling to the waste management industry is still an offline endeavor.

“All of them had a unanimous way of going to market, which was old-school ways of pen and paper, door-to-door knocking, [and] little-to-no technology on both CRM prospecting or any bit of the sales funnel,” Berg told TechCrunch. “We saw an opportunity there to be the first, not only to build within the space, but to disrupt an entire market.”

Berg launched CommanderAI in early 2024 as a customer relationship manager (CRM) and sales prospecting platform built for waste management — and other industrial services like dumpster rentals and industrial recyclers — to fill that gap. Berg, who is also the CEO of CommanderAI, said that while Salesforce or HubSpot could be customized for the waste management industry, the technology is too complicated and lacks the necessary nuances about the industry to see widespread adoption.

These platforms don’t have the specific types of data that waste management companies use to find customers. Waste management companies sell to small, standalone businesses that might not have an online presence, and to new construction projects that aren’t widely advertised. CommanderAI pulls that information for its users using AI. “That’s where the AI [large language model] pipeline comes in. There’s many more nuances within waste,” Berg said.

Waste management isn’t a small industry. The U.S. waste management industry generated more than $100 billion in revenue in 2024. The company’s platform is designed to work for haulers with one truck up to enterprise-size businesses, and is currently focused on mid-to-large regional players. Currently, the company is finding success with medical and hazardous waste management companies.

CommanderAI has just raised a $5 million seed round led by 11 Tribes Ventures with participation from Watchfire Ventures, Gaingels, and Rad Fund. Berg said the company will use the capital to bulk up the company’s sales team in addition to continuing to build out the product with features including mapping, marketing, and routing. The company plans to expand outside of waste management and into adjacent industries when the timing is right as well.