An Infrastructure Startup for All Those Crumbling Roads

Some students struggle to stay awake in their college civil engineering course. Coady Cameron was starting a business.

In 2012, during his fourth year, Cameron was learning how cities collect information about their street infrastructure. Turns out many road departments hire high-priced consulting firms to parachute into town and drive around in a van that tracks roughness by sending a laser into the pavement. “I was like, I can collect this data with what’s in my back pocket right now,” recalls Cameron. “Why are they using these big expensive pieces of equipment?”