One reason Jason Martell has grown his business Inside Out Cleaning Services so strongly in recent years is his partnerships with Halifax-area startups, which have helped him to adopt a growth strategy and new technology.

Based in Blockhouse, on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, Inside Out expanded mainly because of the acquisition of a competitor in Halifax in 2016. But that deal went hand-in-hand with Martell working closely with Halifax startups Swept and Proposify to improve efficiency. In particular, getting to know Swept CEO Michael Brown – whose company provides software to janitorial companies – helped Martell understand the potential of his business.

“It has certainly helped us accommodate that growth and it has helped me as an owner get out of my own way,” said Martell in an interview last week. “The idea of growth was very daunting to me and Swept was one of the tools we used . . . to make growth less daunting.”

Martell’s parents started the company (then known as Martell's Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning) in 1977, and their son took over the company in 2003. Under Jason’s stewardship, the company began to move into the commercial cleaning space then targeted Halifax. Martell’s staff increased from about 35 to 40 people four years ago to 55 to 60 people today.

“He has taken the business to a new level of growth by leveraging technology,” said Brown. “I work with many cleaning companies around the world and Inside Out is second to none.”

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In 2015, Jason Martell met Brown at an event in Mahone Bay and the two became friends. Brown’s company, then called CleanSimple, provided cleaning services. As Brown’s business model changed to providing software tailored to the cleaning market, Inside Out became an early customer. 

The Swept software allows better communications between cleaning companies, their cleaners and their customers. It helps with scheduling, payroll, assignment of tasks and lets cleaners report back to head office.

“Before Swept, our workers had to fill out paperwork and had to get it back to us on a biweekly basis,” said Martell. “After Swept, we have moved entirely away from paper to gather information from cleaners, so I’m certain it has made their lives easier.”

Brown was also able to introduce Inside Out to Proposify, a Halifax startup that automates and enhances the process of producing proposals used to pitch to potential clients. Martell also adopted its technology, which has helped in reaching out for new clients.

Inside Out, whose business is now about 70 percent in the commercial market, is continuing to grow. Though the company’s main focus is adding clients in Halifax, Martell said he’s looking at growth throughout Nova Scotia and he’s working now on adding clients in the Annapolis Valley, Pictou County and Cape Breton. He credits his startup connections with changing the way he does business. It’s helped him realize he had to move the digital side of the business to the cloud and changed his processes.

“Working closely with them has taught me an immense amount,” said Martell. “Startups move so fast. They make decisions in generally a short amount of time. Sometimes they’re the wrong ones but it doesn’t matter – they [startup founders] learn from them and move on. . . . Working with the startup community has helped us to execute better and make not necessarily better decisions but to make them faster.”