Redefining ERP for the other 80% of work.
ERPs run the world's back offices, but they've never reached the field. TextWork is building the conversational system of record for the deskless workforce — starting with SMS, and ending with operational intelligence in real time.
The Thesis
ERP was built for desks. The world's work happens in the field.
The legacy stack hasn't reached 80% of the workforce.
SAP, Workday, Oracle, NetSuite — every category-defining ERP assumes a worker at a keyboard. But more than 2.7 billion deskless workers power the physical economy: construction, facility services, hospitality, healthcare, logistics, retail. They never logged in. They never will.
The interface to that workforce is already on every phone.
Texting has 100% adoption, zero training cost, and works on a flip phone. Until recently, capturing structured data from natural conversation was impossible. AI fixes that. The keyboard era of enterprise software is ending — and a conversational system of record is taking its place.
We turn conversation into operational data, automatically.
Workers text our number. AI runs the right conversation for their role, validates the answers against schemas the company defines, and drops a clean, structured report into a real-time dashboard. No apps. No forms. No training. The data your ERP was always supposed to have, finally captured at the source.
The endgame is the operational brain of the field.
Reports are step one. The same conversational layer powers scheduling, time tracking, inventory, hiring, compliance, and client reporting — every workflow a deskless team needs. One system of record, accessed by typing the way humans already do.
Why now
Four shifts that make this category inevitable.
Distribution
SMS is the only universal interface left.
Every smartphone, flip phone, and contractor on a jobsite already has it. We bypass app stores, IT rollouts, and login walls — adoption hits 100% on day one.
Technology
Conversation became a data API in 2024.
For the first time, LLMs can run goal-directed conversations and emit schema-validated JSON. The unit economics of human data entry just collapsed. We were built for this moment.
Wedge
Field reporting is the entry point. ERP is the prize.
Daily reports get us in the door. Once we own the worker conversation, the same interface unlocks scheduling, hiring, compliance, time tracking, and client reporting — the full ERP surface.
Market
2.7 billion deskless workers. Almost no software.
Deskless workers are 80% of the global workforce. They generate trillions in economic value with double-entry spreadsheets and clipboards. The TAM is structural, not optional.
Traction
Live, real-world data from production customers.
These numbers update in real time, drawn from the same database that runs our customers' daily operations.
3.4k+
Structured reports generated
17k+
SMS messages processed
180+
AI conversations completed
50+
Field workers active
Where we are
Paying SMB customers in facility services and field operations, with conversations running daily across 80+ active jobsites.
What's working
100% adoption from field workers on day one. Owners reclaiming evenings. Zero apps installed. Reports flowing automatically.
What's next
Expanding the schema library, layering on scheduling and compliance workflows, and moving up-market into multi-site operators.
Get in touch
Building the system of record for the deskless workforce.
If you're an investor thinking about the future of enterprise software, AI-native workflows, or vertical SaaS — we'd love to talk.
Direct line to the founder.