By Jorge Mercado Monday, March 2nd, 2026

Matt Lafferty and Brian Gonzalez have been doing things together for a long time. The two met through some like-minded friend groups while Gonzalez was attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and stayed connected even when the early parts of their career took them to other places.

Even with Lafferty living in Southeast Asia for seven years, the two never lost touch — it helps that Gonzalez and his wife even took a trip out there to visit. So, when life brought the two back together in Ventura, they had the same idea.

“We just said, ‘Hey, why don’t we start a company together,’” Gonzalez told the Business Times. “We just have very complementary skill sets where I like to code and he likes to do people-related things and we just thought we could do something special.”

So far, the two have created something “pretty special.”

Lafferty and Gonzalez founded Ventura-based Curri in 2018, with the former now serving as the CEO and the latter as CTO. Curri is a construction and industrial supplies delivery company.

The idea for the company was sparked after the two were at Gonzalez’s house, talking to a plumber, Mike Buck. Buck expressed frustration over the fact that delivery of goods was rapidly shifting for many industries except his — construction.

“He makes anywhere between $80 to $120 an hour as a plumber, so any time that he spends not doing plumbing, he’s basically losing money, any time he spends going to the supply house to pick up materials himself, he’s basically losing money,” Gonzalez said. 

So, the two wanted to help fix the issue. They wanted to make the process of ordering supplies to a job or construction site as quickly as a person ordering a burrito to their house for dinner.

Within the first few months, Lafferty said, they realized “all these places we are picking up from, the distributors, will still serve contractors even through a booking platform like Curri.” So, the company was born.

“We really are just focused on selling our services to the distributors and suppliers who are selling construction and industrial supplies,” Lafferty said.

Lafferty noted that the time spent on securing supplies for jobs can delay projects for days to weeks to even months. That is because as a plumber or a construction workers begins a job, there might be a need for a part or two that comes up during the process that was not originally accounted for, so they have to take time away from the site to secure those pieces. 

That’s where Curri comes in, providing an elastic fleet of trucks so that both the distributors can increase their sales while also helping contractors get their supplies much faster, improving their workflow and productivity.

“Once we saw what Mike Buck and contractors were dealing with, we were able to see up the value chain for a massive business across the United States,” Lafferty said. “We got excited and decided this was the best avenue for us to pursue.”

So far, it has worked out for the two. 

Curri has grown in sales every year, according to the founders and total headcount across the country has reached 191, with 41 of those jobs coming out of the Ventura headquarters.

Investors are also impressed, as in 2023, Curri raised a $42 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from existing backers Initialized Capital, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Rainfall Ventures, and others.

“We’re by far the largest player in the space, but we are not ones to rest on our laurels,” Lafferty said. “We have a lead in the market, but are worried about how we will maintain that lead. No matter how big we get, we are going to treat everything aggressively and keep working hard at this problem.”

The two also have no plans to leave the Central Coast region. The two settled on Ventura for a number of reasons, but the main one is that it was a great place to raise their respective families — it helps that Gonzalez’s wife is from Ventura.

So as the business scales and their families grow, so will their presence in Ventura.

“Hubs of talent in any region are born out of providing opportunities in those areas, so why can’t Brian and I start a business here and be an avenue of opportunity and talent for people to aggregate towards?” Lafferty said. “We have been extremely lucky to attract the talent we have, but Ventura has only helped that equation; it’s a beautiful place and very conducive to a thriving business.”

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