How A Contractor Created The Catch-All to Solve a Problem

The best contractor products come from the field - The Catch-All exists because Heath Hicks and his team at AVCO were frustrated by nails left behind on job sites and decided to solve it themselves.

Contractors already spot the problems - the daily 'I wish this tool did X' moments are a huge, often-wasted opportunity to be innovative and build your own solution.

Failed attempts are part of the process - strongest-magnet rigs scraped on speed bumps, and metal detectors wasted hours chasing false positives from East Texas iron-ore soil.

Reframe the problem to unlock the answer - the breakthrough came from asking 'how do we keep nails from ever touching the ground?' instead of how to pick them up, inspired by a trampoline net.

Rapid-prototype cheaply before you commit - the team used 3D printers (and even a nerf football zip-tied to a pole) to test proof-of-concept pole-toppers before spending on tooling.

Design for simplicity - fewer moving parts means fewer things to break and cheaper manufacturing, a principle that guided every iteration.

Injection molding pays off at scale - after two years of 3D-printed parts breaking from low shear strength, investing in expensive tooling produced a stronger, cheaper final design with an added rigidity sleeve.

Use your own company as the test market - running AVCO funded the R&D and gave four crews a year-round proving ground, letting the product mature before it went to market and became a business doing 10x its prior volume.