Skytree Scientific is a US-based SaaS startup modernizing how the construction and engineering industries handle lightning protection. Drawing on more than two decades of field experience, the founders saw the same pattern across the sector: lightning risk assessments were slow, prone to manual errors, and difficult to use for anyone outside a narrow group of specialists.
In 2024, Skytree partnered with HBM to turn that domain expertise into a working product, an AI-powered lightning risk assessment platform built to automate complex calculations, generate professional multilingual reports, and connect to authoritative industry data sources. The mission was clear: take the company from concept to a market-ready MVP, then scale it into a full commercial platform.
HBM led the process end to end. We shaped the product roadmap alongside the founders, defined the technical architecture, and built both the core web application and the supporting tools around it, giving Skytree a single delivery partner from the first product conversation through launch.
"Working with the HBM team over the past few months has been genuinely rewarding. They've been consistently well-organized and productive in our meetings, and proactive about keeping priorities aligned with our timeline.
What stood out most was how seriously they invested in understanding the lightning risk assessment domain — that effort showed up in the quality of our discussions and the decisions we made together."
Christopher Bean,
Co-founder and CEO, Skytree Scientific
Skytree had the engineering knowledge but needed a technical team capable of translating it into reliable software, without compromising on accuracy, compliance, or speed to market. Several constraints shaped the engagement from day one:
HBM took ownership of the full product lifecycle and built a delivery setup that matched the complexity of the domain:
Worked directly with the founders to translate decades of lightning protection expertise into clear product requirements, user flows, and a phased delivery plan.
Designed a system architecture built around the calculation engine, with the AI layer integrated, where it added measurable value: protection recommendations and an in-product chatbot trained on the lightning risk assessment domain.
Built an interface that holds up for engineers running detailed assessments and for occasional users who need clarity.
Delivered the web application, project, and client management features, organization-level user management, and a multilingual reporting module capable of producing comprehensive technical documents.
Connected the platform to lightning flash data providers and other external sources powering the risk calculations.
Developed and fine-tuned the AI models powering the platform's recommendation engine and domain-specific chatbot. We trained them on lightning protection standards and engineering data so the outputs hold up to expert scrutiny.
Validated functional accuracy across the platform, with particular focus on risk calculations measured against international lightning protection standards.
Assessed the platform's security posture ahead of launch, identifying and addressing vulnerabilities to make sure client and project data stayed protected in a product built for regulated engineering work.
Built the external marketing website, prepared the user guide, and handled team staffing and project management throughout the engagement.
Skytree moved from idea to a launched, investor-ready SaaS platform within the planned timeline.
Key results include:
.jpg)
.jpg)
