Granum CEO Mark Sedgley on Leading the Green Industry’s Digital Overhaul

Landscaping and arborist businesses, also called the green industry, are often misunderstood. To outsiders, the green industry can appear low-tech or low-skill, a collection of small operators keeping lawns mowed and trees trimmed. In reality, it’s a complex, highly technical ecosystem spanning arbor care, landscaping and outdoor design-build work, where safety, skilled labor, project management and profitability all intersect.

Across North America, roughly 700,000 green businesses generate billions annually transforming outdoor spaces where people live, gather and connect. Many of these businesses are still early in their technology adoption journey, relying on paper-based estimates and manual scheduling, but that’s beginning to change.

Granum is helping lead that shift. The company brings together three established brands – Landscape Management Network (LMN), SingleOps and Greenius – into a single software platform that supports everything from estimating and scheduling to safety training, crew development and budgeting, helping arborists and landscapers run safer, more profitable businesses.

FTV invested in SingleOps in 2022, drawn to the combination of a massive, fragmented market and a sector still early in its digital transformation. Two years later, we backed the company’s strategic merger with LMN, the largest provider of landscape business software and crew training across the U.S. and Canada. And in late 2025, the company rebranded as Granum, uniting all offerings (including Greenius, focused on safety and training) under one umbrella.

Granum CEO and seasoned entrepreneur Mark Sedgley says his goal is to bring unprecedented scale and efficiency to landscapers and arborists and make Granum synonymous with the green industry. We spoke with Mark about the biggest challenges facing the green sector, the strategy behind Granum’s three-company merger and why AI will make it easier to be green.

Why were you drawn to the green industry?

I’ve always had a deep passion for small to mid-sized businesses. My entrepreneurial journey started when I was 16, mowing lawns for $20 a job. Later I spent time in the towing business, working with blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth operators.

When I learned about SingleOps and dug into the green industry – the market, customers and opportunity – I thought: this is a match made in heaven. Arborists and landscapers are the epitome of entrepreneurial spirit, capitalism and very hard work.

One of our intrinsic motivators as a company is to be the ripple effect in our customers’ lives. Equip them to be prosperous, profitable and efficient, which will flow down to their employees, their families and their communities. That flywheel of beneficial value creation is core to how we operate at Granum, and that was very attractive to me.

What are the main challenges facing the green industry today?

There’s a perception problem that really irks me – the idea that this is low-skill work couldn’t be further from the truth.

Our customers run incredibly complex, diversified businesses. Yes, some work is routine in nature. But much of it is building outdoor kitchens, a 30-foot driveway and living spaces where people gather, or felling a 50-foot tree. The amount of precision and skill needed to run those projects is insane, requiring highly skilled labor, strong project management and deep knowledge of safety standards.

Then there’s labor access and development. The labor pool itself is a big component of success, and education is critical. This is why Greenius is such an important part of Granum, helping us raise the bar for training and safety.

Another challenge is helping customers achieve velocity. Can we ensure they’re gaining efficiencies or have the right tools for estimating costs and profitability? I had a customer say to me: ‘For the first time in my life, I know what I should be bidding.’ Green companies are highly curious and desirous of new tools that will boost their businesses.

What was the strategic rationale for unifying three companies under the Granum brand?

As CEO, I have two jobs: grow the company and don’t run out of cash. As I started thinking about what we wanted to be, I knew it was to build software for the entire green industry, not just a piece of it. Our decision to acquire LMN was about the most strategic way to gain domain expertise and technological capabilities to give us both the potential to grow faster. Greenius also adds strategic value on the safety, training and employment front.

When acquisitions work, it’s because each company brings something distinctive and truly complementary. This was a rare situation where one plus one plus one equals more than three.

As Granum scales, how would you describe your leadership style?

My leadership ‘superpower’ is to deeply understand customers. For me, this starts with curiosity and an obsessive customer focus.

When I joined SingleOps, one of the first things I did was go into the field and take deep field notes, and I still do this today. I want to understand how customers actually operate: what motivates them, where the friction is, how decisions get made and how technology fits into their daily workflow. Those notes create continuity across the entire customer journey and inform how we build and sell our products.

I’m also a huge believer in preparation and reflection. I’m a methodical journaler. I rehearse for everything – an all-hands meeting, executive discussions, speaking engagements – and I expect my team to do the same. If you don’t reflect and practice, it shows, especially in high-stakes moments like acquisitions.

How has FTV supported you and Granum in its evolution?

The word that immediately comes to mind when I think about FTV is ‘supportive.’ Rob Anderson, Payam Vadi and the entire team have consistently run shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

They brought deep expertise and a high level of precision to the LMN transaction, from research and diligence to clear expectations. I never felt alone in the process, and despite high-stress moments, their support was unwavering.

I’ve genuinely become a better CEO working with FTV.

How do AI and automation fit into a traditionally hands-on industry?

I’ve been pounding the table on AI for a while, and we’ve created a lot of infrastructure around this.

AI will fundamentally change the way businesses operate, and it already has at Granum. Glean saves us time in sales, and AI product tools mean we spend less time fiddling with prototypes and more time validating solutions. There’s a lot of talk about the diminishing value of humans, but once people learn how to use the tools effectively, suddenly humans become the arbiters of success again.

Our focus is building deeply integrated, durable software that helps customers accelerate progress. Long term, I want Granum to be synonymous with the green industry itself. If we get that right, everything else follows.