Hardline Is Turning Construction Phone Calls into a Superpower

Most job site decisions still happen on a phone call. That’s where Hardline comes in: documenting key info without slowing anyone down.

Hardline is a mobile app that acts like an invisible assistant for superintendents and project managers. It listens—not by recording calls, but by intercepting and documenting the essential project details. The result? Workers can stay heads-down and hands-on, while Hardline makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Karly Heffernan grew up around construction and hockey. After playing for Team Canada and Harvard, she moved to LA to work in tech, only to feel pulled back to her construction roots. While managing projects, she was overwhelmed by the nonstop phone calls and the dangerous juggling act of keeping track of critical decisions while on the road.

“I was taking 50 to 100 calls a day,” she recalls. “Trying to field all that info was almost impossible.” That chaos lit the fuse for Hardline.

Hardline isn’t trying to be everything. It’s laser-focused on one thing: making sure frontline workers don’t get blamed for mistakes that could have been avoided. “We built this around what superintendents need,” says Heffernan. “They’re the ones who carry the burden when rework happens. We’re here to protect their time and their necks.”

Unlike tools designed for office-bound managers, Hardline meets field crews where they are—on their phones, in motion, speaking rather than typing. That makes adoption intuitive, not a burden.

While a specific customer case wasn't named, Heffernan mentions being blamed for a $150,000 rework mistake. That moment deeply informed Hardline’s design. The app is built to prevent exactly those scenarios.

Hardline is designed for the boots-on-the-ground crew, especially small to mid-sized general contractors who often lack tailored tech solutions. It's especially valuable to superintendents and project managers who rely on verbal communication but need accurate, real-time documentation.

The roadmap is all about voice. “Our biggest thing is powering the jobsite with just their voice,” says Heffernan. That means removing keyboards from construction workflows entirely. Integrations with Procore and Autodesk are already live, and a strategic partnership with Fieldwire is on deck for December. This is especially important since Fieldwire aligns closely with their ideal customer profile.

The bigger vision is to make voice the interface for construction. “It’s kind of funny—we fell into this voice AI trend accidentally. But it’s just how they work.”

Hardline isn’t a flashy startup chasing trends. It’s a tool built from the field up, designed by someone who’s lived the chaos it solves. For Heffernan, it brings back the kind of passion she once had chasing Olympic dreams: “It’s that feeling of complete drive, and doing it with people I love.”