What if mining admin no longer capped growth? One Perth founder is finding out
Once those workflows are automated, then the business can start to focus on their customers and focus on business growth, without being hamstrung by all these administration workflows.
Guy Kennedy did not begin with a plan to build mining software. He began with the ambition to build something of his own, then looked to Western Australia's largest industry for a problem worth solving.
Living in Perth, the opportunity was close at hand. So were the mining services businesses whose work keeps the industry moving.
What led me to be a founder was the excitement of starting my own thing and launching something that solves a problem that nobody else solves. When I look around, I see the mining industry. So that's where my focus is.
Guy Kennedy, Founder, DrilLedger
The administrative burden behind every project
Companies supplying BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue and other major miners carry a substantial administrative and compliance load. Timesheets. Safety procedures. Procurement. Mobilising personnel to mine sites. The regulations and reporting requirements that accompany each project.
None of this work is optional. But as a mining services business takes on more projects, the administrative burden grows with it. Guy spent his early months examining these workflows and the constraints they created.
“I saw that in my hometown of Perth, that was a big operational drag, or back-office drag, that was a cap on their growth,” he says.
For Guy, this makes administration more than a back-office inconvenience. It becomes a business constraint. “If they want to expand the project, then they're capped by the number of people that can administer those projects, or safely mobilise the labour hire people to site,” he explains.
If they don't solve this problem, then it's going to be a productivity problem, lower profits, plus a cap on their growth.
Guy Kennedy, Founder, DrilLedger
Seventeen agents across four desks
To address that problem, Guy is building DrilLedger, a platform made up of 17 AI agents.
The agents are organised around four functions already found within mining services businesses: people, safety, operations and finance. They are designed to hand work from one agent to another as a task moves between those functions.
Guy's examples are deliberately practical: moving timesheet data into Excel, managing safety procedures, coordinating procurement and handling finance-related workflows. This is repetitive work that consumes administrative capacity. Guy's goal is to reduce that burden so businesses can direct more of their attention elsewhere.
Once those workflows are automated, then the business can start to focus on their customers and focus on business growth, or whatever strategy they want to follow, without being hamstrung by all these administration workflows.
Guy Kennedy, Founder, DrilLedger
A focus on local data
For Guy, automation must be accompanied by trust. The workflows DrilLedger is designed to support can involve sensitive operational, financial, personnel and safety information. Guy says data security is therefore a core focus of the product, with data stored locally.
The aim is not simply to automate work, but to do so “securely and safely for Australian businesses.” That is a deliberate part of DrilLedger's proposition. Productivity gains will matter only if mining services companies are confident about how their information is handled.
From building first to listening first
During the eight-week SMEC AI Pathfinder program, one piece of mentoring became particularly influential. Amir, Guy's mentor, encouraged him to look beyond building demonstrations and an MVP and spend more time speaking with prospective customers.
“I have done that over time and then gone back to developing a solution based on a conversation I've just had,” Guy says.
That changed the rhythm of his work. Rather than treating customer engagement as something that would happen after the product was built, Guy began using those conversations to inform what he developed next.
The program combined group workshops, smaller discussions with four or five other participants, and individual mentoring sessions. For Guy, that structure created regular opportunities to test his thinking and decide where his time would be best spent.
The other founders also became part of that process. “You got to meet other people that are in the same boat as you and share ideas,” he says. “The program is really helpful in structuring the work to go forward.”
You could validate at every step of the way. It was a great way to find out that you're on the right track and then use your time in the most efficient way and work on things that were likely to build success.
Guy Kennedy, Founder, DrilLedger
Making the value tangible
As he prepares to take DrilLedger further into the market, Guy is concentrating on a challenge that is commercial rather than technical: explaining what each automation is worth to a customer. He has been developing a framework to calculate the potential return on investment from individual workflow automations and AI agents.
“What we're talking about here is a new type of technology that's going to do all sorts of different things,” he says. “But the first step is creating a framework that the customers understand.”
Rather than asking prospective customers to buy into AI as an abstract capability, Guy wants to discuss its value in familiar business terms. “That's what I've spent a lot of time on: calculating the return on investment from each of these workflow automations, or AI agents, so that the customers have a tangible understanding of what the benefits are.”
Our purpose is to consistently deliver more in value than we ever take in subscription costs.
Guy Kennedy, Founder, DrilLedger
The next test is in Perth
On 16 and 17 September 2026, DrilLedger plans to exhibit in the Transformative Tech Zone at the WA Mining Conference and Exhibition.
Guy sees the event as an opportunity to speak directly with the businesses DrilLedger is intended to serve: mining service providers, labour hire companies, engineering firms, mechanical services businesses and other suppliers to tier-one mining companies. Those conversations will provide the next test of both the problem Guy has identified and the way he communicates DrilLedger's value.
He intends to begin with a simple question: what becomes possible when mining admin no longer caps growth?
The Impact
What changed for DrilLedger
DrilLedger platform of 17 AI agents spanning people, safety, operations and finance
Product direction now driven by customer conversations, not build-first assumptions
ROI framework that explains each automation's value in familiar business terms
Exhibiting at the WA Mining Conference and Exhibition in September 2026
“You could validate at every step of the way. It was a great way to find out that you're on the right track and then use your time in the most efficient way and work on things that were likely to build success. You got to meet other people that are in the same boat as you and share ideas. The program is really helpful in structuring the work to go forward.”
