Mavec Group

"We wouldn't be putting 40 people on a contract. We'd be putting four people on a contract. The growth that we're achieving in 12 to 18 months with Klear would have taken us five years."

Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO, Mavec Group

About Mavec Group

Mavec Group was founded by Buddy Gengler, a West Point graduate who deployed to Iraq with the Fourth Infantry Division before a career in institutional finance, where he managed a credit portfolio of a couple billion dollars. After years of helping small companies grow from the investor side, he built his own.

Based in his hometown of Wading River on Long Island, Mavec is a New York State and federally certified service-disabled veteran-owned business (SDVOSB). It runs three lines: union staffing, construction and refrigeration. Its millwork and carpentry crews work on some of New York's highest-visibility public projects, for construction managers like Gilbane Turner and Hunter Roberts.

The Challenge: more demand than capital to deliver it

Winning public work was never the hard part. As Buddy puts it, winning the contract "frankly is the easy part." Delivering on it takes capital up front: union payroll, benefits, insurance and compliance start on day one, while the general contractor pays net 30 at best.

• Payroll first, payment later. Staffing a new contract could leave Mavec eight weeks out of pocket before the first client dollar arrived.
• Banks said no. Buddy went to five banks. None had a fit for project-to-project government contracting.
• Costly alternatives. Non-bank options were priced to consume most of the profit on a job.
• Paper payments. Dozens of large New York general contractors still pay by check, slowing cash further.

The result: Mavec had more demand than it could satisfy, and was capped on the size of contracts it could take.

"I went to five banks asking for the solution that Klear ended up giving me." - Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO

The Solution: Capital Intelligence™ at the contract level

Klear started by understanding how Mavec gets paid: from the government to the state, to the prime contractor, to the subcontractor. Capital is mapped to each contract, so Mavec draws it as work is won and invoiced.

• Contract-level capital. Each contract is funded on its own, matching overlapping, lumpy project schedules that change week to week.
• Fast onboarding. Accounts were set up within 48 hours, and Mavec was drawing on capital in less than a week.
• Digital from end to end. Mavec sees what's in the system, what clients owe and when capital is available, without waiting on the mail.
• A partner on the pipeline. Klear joins Mavec's pipeline calls to ask what's being bid and what's coming, so capital is ready before the contract starts.

"My historical experience with financing companies has been that we have to fit into their box. That's been the opposite experience with Klear." - Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO

Feature Spotlight: room for clients who pay by check

Some of Mavec's largest general contractors, multi-billion-dollar names that drive most of its revenue, still pay by check. Klear started with Mavec's digitally paying clients, built a track record together, then took on the check-paying accounts as a test case.

"Klear said, we'll get back to you. About 48 hours later, they called and they said, we've got your back. It makes me emotional, because we get to have employees that we otherwise wouldn't have." Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO

The Results: bigger crews, faster cash, non-dilutive growth

• Growth that would have taken five years, in 12 to 18 months
• Crews of 40 people per contract instead of four
• Cash conversion cycle compressed by half
• $1.6M in invoice advances on Klear across 17 invoices, growing 4× from Q1 to Q3
• New markets in Chicago, Texas, New Mexico and St. Louis
• New scope: from end-of-job millwork into framing, carpentry and ceilings at the start of the job
• Every step non-dilutive, with no outside equity raised to fund contracts

"All the growth that Mavec has experienced since being with Klear has been non-dilutive. That is a monumental victory for my family." - Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO

Why It Matters

There are fewer than 2,000 service-disabled veteran-owned businesses in New York, and many have the know-how but not the capital to perform on large public contracts. When one veteran-owned firm delivers, primes trust the next one. Mavec's growth shows what happens when capital follows the contract instead of the balance sheet.

"The more veterans that outperform on these contracts, the more capital and the more contract opportunity will flow to our market." - Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO

Looking Ahead

Mavec expects to pass 100 employees in the coming months and is bidding on nationwide VA hospital work and a federal academy project.

"When I think about Klear's options and solutions for us, and the ability for them to compress our cash conversion cycle by half, that is actually a hunting license for us. That allows us to pursue big game, large infrastructure contracts across New York State that were a dream 12 months ago. They're now reality for us."

Buddy Gengler, Founder & CEO

Download the Mavec Group case study here

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