GroundControl

What do they actually do

GroundControl is a web app that automates regulated inspection paperwork for aerospace, defense, and other controlled manufacturing. It extracts requirements from engineering drawings, links them to measured results, and produces official exports such as AS9102 Rev C forms, Net‑Inspect files, and PDF/Excel bundles. Key workflows include auto‑ballooning of drawings, OCR/GD&T parsing, measurement import from CMMs, and configurable exports to match customer/OEM formats (product site; docs).

A typical use is: upload a drawing, balloon characteristics, import or enter measurements, verify pass/fail against tolerances, and export a compliant FAIR package. The company reports 70+ manufacturing facilities onboarded and roughly 1,000 inspection reports generated per month; a public case study describes 30‑minute operator onboarding and clearing a FAIR backlog in a month (YC profile; case study).

For regulated buyers, GroundControl advertises ITAR registration, NIST SP 800‑171 controls, and AWS GovCloud hosting (pursuing FedRAMP Moderate). They also offer VisitorControl, a visitor‑management tool tailored to factories, indicating expansion into site operations and integrations across supplier→OEM workflows (security/compliance; VisitorControl).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Quality manager at a tiered aerospace/defense supplier: Spends hours ballooning drawings and stitching spreadsheets/PDFs to meet AS9102 and customer formats, causing shipment delays and risk of non‑compliance (docs; YC profile; case study).
• Inspection technician / CMM operator: Manual data entry and slow ballooning create backlogs and long onboarding; needs a faster path from measured values to compliant FAIRs (docs; case study).
• Supplier quality engineer or buyer at an OEM: Receives inconsistent files and missing metadata from many suppliers, forcing manual rework to validate parts and update procurement/PLM systems (exports/integrations).
• Manufacturing/quality engineer at a regulated medical device or ISO‑controlled shop: Error‑prone paperwork and fragmented records slow audits and increase recall risk; needs traceable, audit‑ready inspection packs (product site).
• IT/compliance lead at a defense contractor or government supplier: Must vet third‑party SaaS for ITAR, NIST, and secure hosting before allowing supplier data into enterprise systems (security/compliance).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run high‑touch pilots with warm intros from founders/YC network and early customers; use the supplier’s drawings and CMM output, provide hands‑on onboarding, and waive setup to remove friction (case study; docs).
• First 50: Leverage referrals from initial pilots, publish detailed case studies and a CMM/import playbook, and run targeted outbound to quality managers/technicians in aerospace clusters; supplement with select trade events and CMM/ERP integrator partnerships (case study; docs).
• First 100: Pursue OEM‑approved supplier status and enterprise channels by completing/marketing compliance (ITAR, NIST, GovCloud; pursuing FedRAMP), hiring a small sales team, and deepening connectors (Net‑Inspect, ERP/PLM, CMM) so outputs are accepted without rework (security/compliance; YC profile).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Analyst reports estimate a $1.2–$1.4B global 2024 market for aerospace quality/inspection software, which directly covers AS9102/FAIR workflows that GroundControl automates (DataIntelo; MarketIntelo; docs). Broader QMS/inspection software markets span multi‑billion to tens‑of‑billions over the next few years (Grand View Research; MarketsandMarkets).

Bottom-up calculation:

If you assume on the order of 20,000–30,000 aerospace/defense supplier sites globally and average annual inspection/QMS spend of ~$20k–$50k per site focused on FAIR/inspection tools, that implies roughly $0.4B–$1.5B in potential spend—directionally consistent with the top‑down estimates (AIA context on “thousands” of suppliers). GroundControl’s current footprint (70+ sites; ~1,000 reports/month) is a small share of this base (YC profile; case study).

Assumptions:

• Global count of target aerospace/defense supplier sites is ~20k–30k, inferred from industry descriptions of “thousands” of SMEs and adding international suppliers.
• Average annual software spend dedicated to inspection/FAI/QMS modules is ~$20k–$50k per site (varies by size and compliance scope).
• Estimate includes suppliers primarily; OEM QA operations would increase the total but are not fully counted here.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• InspectionXpert (Ideagen Quality Control): Desktop tool for auto‑ballooning and building AS9102/PPAP inspection sheets with measurement import; overlaps core FAIR tasks but is desktop‑centric vs GroundControl’s web SaaS built for regulated hosting/integrations (InspectionXpert; GroundControl).
• SOLIDWORKS Inspection: CAD‑integrated inspection that balloons drawings, uses OCR for tolerances, imports CMM results, and exports AS9102/Net‑Inspect/Excel; strong when shops want tight CAD linkage, while GroundControl emphasizes browser‑based regulated exports and supplier→OEM data flow (SOLIDWORKS Inspection; GroundControl docs).
• Verisurf: Metrology/CMM software focused on CAD‑driven inspection and FAIR generation; overlaps in reporting but is metrology‑first, whereas GroundControl centers on drawing parsing, report assembly, and customer‑format exports as a shop‑facing SaaS (Verisurf; GroundControl).
• Hexagon PC‑DMIS: Widely used CMM software that can export results into AS9102 and other formats; competes on measurement/report export, while GroundControl targets the end‑to‑end FAIR package workflow and standardized customer/OEM outputs (PC‑DMIS; GroundControl docs).
• ProShop ERP / QMS: ERP/MES with integrated digital inspections and audit‑ready reporting for AS9100/AS9102; competes at site/operations level, while GroundControl positions as a specialist FAIR/reporting layer that plugs into ERPs/PLMs (ProShop; GroundControl).