Why we built this
HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors have been underserved by software for decades. We spent 18 months embedded with service businesses before writing a line of code.
The gap in the market
The founding team spent years watching contractors struggle with a brutal choice: pay enterprise prices for software that takes six months to implement, or use tools so simple they hit a ceiling the moment a third technician joined the company.
Nobody was building for the 3-to-50 technician shop, the family-owned HVAC company doing $2M a year, the plumbing contractor with 12 trucks and no dedicated dispatcher. These businesses need real dispatch power, real payment processing, and real reporting, without taking on a heavy enterprise rollout.
Before writing the first line of Thorbis code, the team spent 18 months embedded with service businesses: riding along on HVAC calls, sitting in dispatch centers on summer rush days, and watching dispatchers manage scheduling with printed spreadsheets taped to the wall. The product decisions made during that time show up in every feature we ship.
Where competitors fall short
Quote-based enterprise software
Built for complex field service organizations that expect a larger implementation motion.
Published package pricing
Often a fit for simpler shops that want a lightweight way to start organizing work.
$299/month + usage at cost
Built for growing service teams that need dispatch, payments, AI, and unlimited users in one system.
Our principles
Values become principles when they're specific enough to make a hard decision easier. These are the commitments that govern how we build and operate Thorbis.
Operators over admins
Every UI decision gets stress-tested against a dispatcher's daily workflow, not an admin's quarterly report. If a dispatcher can't complete the action in two taps on a Tuesday morning rush, we redesign it.
Real data, not demos
Every feature page uses actual field names, actual status values, and actual API names from the codebase. We don't mock up workflows that don't exist in production.
One price, full access
$299/month + usage at cost includes every feature and unlimited users, plus a $100/month utilities credit. We don't charge per seat or per integration, only utilities past the credit bill at published rates. You know the number before you sign the contract.
Honest about limitations
Some features require setup time you can't shortcut. Twilio A2P 10DLC carrier registration takes 3-5 business days. We say that upfront in the onboarding flow, not buried in the support docs.
Our story
From founding to today, we have stayed focused on the dispatch, field, payment, and customer follow-up work that decides whether a service company runs cleanly.
Founding
Thorbis founded to modernize trade operations
Our founding team met while building software for national HVAC brands. We set out to give every contractor modern operating tools.
Research
18 months embedded with service businesses
Ride-alongs on HVAC calls, summer-peak dispatch center sessions, and owner interviews shaped the product before line one of code.
Build
The core platform takes shape
Jobs, customers, dispatch, equipment tracking, and the settings workbench shipped first; payments, communications, and the Thorbis Brain are in active development.
Now
Early access opens
The waitlist is live and invites are sequenced by trade and workflow fit. Everything we're building next is published on the public roadmap.
The stack
We believe operators deserve to know what's under the hood. Here's every major technology Thorbis runs on, and why we chose it.
Next.js 16+ with React 19
Server Components first, with server-rendered product surfaces wherever the workflow allows. No useEffect data fetching for server data. Async params and cookies throughout.
Supabase
PostgreSQL with Row Level Security enforced on every table. Realtime websockets power live GPS on the dispatch map. React.cache() deduplicates queries across Server Components.
Vercel
Edge-cached marketing pages, separate projects for web and admin, and Turborepo build pipelines for predictable deploys.
Payrix
Embedded payment processing, not a Stripe reseller. Same-day deposits, tap-to-pay, and stored payment methods without leaving the Thorbis interface.
Twilio
A2P 10DLC SMS with ten-digit long codes. Appointment reminders, job-status updates, and review requests. Carrier registration handled during onboarding.
Google Distance Matrix API
Route optimization across technician stops. Calculates drive-time matrices and reorders job sequences to minimize windshield time.
SendGrid
Transactional and bulk email with domain verification and DKIM signing. Invoice delivery, estimate approvals, and marketing campaigns through a single provider.
Server Components first
Thorbis is designed around server-rendered product surfaces wherever the workflow allows. No useEffect data fetching for server data. Server Actions handle form submissions. React.cache() deduplicates database queries across components so repeated data requests can be shared during a render. The result is a smaller client surface and fewer loading states in the workflows operators use all day.
18 months in the field before line one of code
Most software companies build for the buyer, the owner who signs the contract. We built for the operator, the dispatcher who lives in the software 8 hours a day.
Ride-alongs
Team members rode along on HVAC installs, plumbing service calls, and electrical inspections. We watched how technicians actually use a phone on a job, gloves on, crouched under a unit, trying to enter materials in a form that required 12 taps.
That's why the Thorbis mobile app has one-tap materials entry and a signature canvas sized for a thumb, not a stylus.
Dispatch center sessions
We sat in dispatch centers during summer peak season, the single hardest operational moment for HVAC contractors. A dispatcher managing 20 techs, 60 jobs, and a waiting list of emergency calls doesn't have time to scroll through menus.
The drag-and-drop timeline view and the one-click reassignment flow came directly from watching dispatchers navigate those mornings.
Owner interviews
We interviewed owners of 3-to-50 tech shops about what they actually track, what keeps them up at night, and what software they'd tried and abandoned. The pattern was consistent: they'd bought something that was either too simple to grow into or too complex to get their team to use.
Thorbis is the answer to that gap. Powerful enough to run a 40-tech fleet. Simple enough that a dispatcher can learn it in a day.
Built with specifics, not generalities
Vague software ships vague features. These are the actual numbers that guided Thorbis product decisions.
60s
AI monitoring cycle
Pending Actions AI re-evaluates every open job and invoice every 60 seconds, not on page load, continuously.
4
Scheduling views
Timeline, Kanban, Map, and CSR view. All four stay synchronized. A dispatcher switches without losing context.
800×240
Signature canvas
Sized for a thumb on a smartphone screen at arm's length. Not a desktop canvas shrunk down.
0
Customer logins required
The customer portal uses token-secured /pay/[invoiceId] links. Customers pay without creating an account.
1hr
QuickBooks sync interval
Hourly auto-sync to QuickBooks Customer:Job hierarchy. No manual export, no CSV, no reconciliation backlog.
3-5 days
Twilio A2P registration
Carrier registration for 10DLC SMS takes 3-5 business days. We say that upfront. It's in the onboarding checklist, not the fine print.
RSC
Server-first surfaces
Server Components are the default across the Thorbis web app wherever the workflow allows. Less JavaScript shipped, faster first paint, smaller attack surface.
$299
Monthly platform fee
Every feature and unlimited users included, plus a $100/month utilities credit. No per-seat pricing. No integration fees. Utilities past the credit bill at published rates.
51+
Zustand stores
State management across the web app. Zustand for everything shared. useState for local UI only. No React Context, ever.