A Houston software firm that decided to be useful to one industry instead of adequate to all of them.

Position

Why this, and why here.

Thrive Development started as a general software practice. Web applications, mobile, product design, and eventually the AI work clients kept asking about. That last part is what made the focus obvious. Building another chatbot for a technology company is a crowded exercise. Building the thing that gets a tag from a crew into billing the same day is not, and very few people are doing it well.

Houston is why that is a business and not just an observation. Within an hour of this office there are thousands of contractors with real revenue and real paperwork problems, and almost no exposure to what software can now do to a stack of documents. Their vendors sell them seats. Their consultants sell them decks. Almost nobody will stand in the yard, watch how the work actually gets recorded, and then go build something for it.

That is the whole company. Engineers who ship, pointed at one industry, working on the paperwork between finished work and money in the bank.

Who you work with

No juniors. No offshore. No account managers.

A team of six senior engineers and designers, and everyone here writes production code. That includes whoever sat in your office during the Audit week. The person who scoped your project stays on it until handover, so there is no transition from the people who sold the work to the people who do it.

Practically, we run 2 builds at a time and no more. When we are full we will tell you when we can start rather than starting badly.

Who we build for

Mid-market contractors, Texas-wide.

Typically $10M to $300M in revenue, privately held or sponsor-backed, with an owner or executive who can make a decision without convening anybody.

• Mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors
• Industrial and plant services
• Turnaround and shutdown contractors
• Scaffolding, insulation and coatings
• Oilfield and energy services
• Equipment rental and distribution
• Inspection, testing and compliance
• Civil and site work

Where we work

Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast

On site, routinely

Beaumont, Port Arthur, Lake Charles and the corridor between them. This is home ground and there is no travel premium.

Permian Basin, DFW, south Louisiana

On site for engagements

Midland, Odessa, Dallas–Fort Worth and Lafayette. We travel for the on-site portion of the work and plan it around your crews rather than ours.

Everywhere else

Remote, with a caveat

The build runs fine remotely. The first two days of the Audit are materially better in person, and if we think distance will hurt your project we will say so before you pay for it.