Author name: Owen Drury

Should VCs be giving founders startup ideas? And… did Procore just declare war on half of construction tech? In this week’s Bricks, Bucks & Bytes episode: 💡 Why great companies never start from investor ideas ⚙️ Procore’s AI agent announcement and why it could spell trouble for startups like Trunk Tools & DataGrid 🧠 The browser wars are heating up, and what OpenAI’s “Atlas” means for Google 🔭 Plus: how Mechasys is turning blueprints into laser projections, and why Handoff is teaching AI to think like a contractor But that’s not all: Patric Hellermann drops truth bombs on why VCs can’t manufacture “outliers.” Dustin DeVan explains why most AI startups are wrapping someone else’s data and why that’s a death sentence. Martin asks the hard question: Is Procore’s data even usable? And Owen calls out the industry’s obsession with vanity metrics (right after celebrating 740k views 😎). 🎧 Listen now for: What makes an outlier founder Why “Procore’s Agents” may not be as dangerous as everyone thinks How Mechasys’ laser projectors could outshine robots And how AI agents like Handoff are quietly rewriting the future of residential construction Watch the Full Episode You might also like: Buildots Acquisition, Procore Groundbreak’s Awkward Week, Pre-Con Is On Fire NEOM Cancelled, SoftBank’s $5.4B Bet, Track3D Raises $10M $500k Salaries for Mechanics, VC’s Getting Defrauded, DOT Causes Chaos $94M Fundraising Record, New Procore CEO, Oracle Push, Zoom Kills Careers Live from AU, Hosts World Travels, University Entrepreneurship Culture, NFL Insider Oracle $100B Hour, AI Government Fail, OpenSpace CEO, Barefoot Office Debate Microsoft’s $10M AEC Gamble, Autodesk $1.7B Earnings, Nemetscheck Acquires AI Startup Robotics Mega Show with Dusty Robotics and ex-Waymo exec & CTO of Bedrock Robotics Construction Productivity Myths, UAE Real Estate, TIMES VC Rankings, with Barton Malow $1.5M AI Employee Bonuses, Procore Growth Slowdown? & LinkedIn Growth Hacks with Derek Wong Powered by beehiiv

Want to get your message in front of {{active_subscriber_count}} highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers. This Week’s Quickfire BytesFuel your curiosity with this week’s contentW/C 20th October 2025 UPCOMINGBricks & Bytes LIVE at SpeckleCon 2025 – 07th November 2025, London It’s impossible not to get sucked into the AI hype. BUT based on thousands of hours of conversations we’ve had with industry leaders, we know 80-90% of these companies are nowhere AI-ready due to messy data. Cue Speckle. Global teams are using Speckle to transform their data into a state that makes it actually usable and ready for the AI hype. No more “Garbage In Garbage Out”. Join us at Speckle’s flagship conference – SpeckleCon 2025 – to see our very special live-stream and hear from AI leaders at Gensler, Haskoning, Suffolk Construction and more.  Read more here. And use our discount code “BRICKSBYTES” for 10% off your ticket. Get Tickets NEW EPISODES“We Tripled Our Profits In 3 Years With Automation” – Marc Barone – COO – Buro Happold Marc Barone, COO of Buro Happold, shares how they scaled from strong to exceptional, the real impact of AI on engineering productivity, and why listening matters more than action in your first 90 days as a leader. Find out how Buro Happold grew 75% in three years while tripling profitability, why understanding what to say no to is as important as knowing what to say yes to, and the truth about measuring AI productivity gains and what actually works. Buildots Acquisition, Procore Groundbreak’s Awkward Week, Pre-Con Is On Fire In this episode of Bricks, Bucks & Bytes we dig into the week’s biggest stories in construction tech, from strategic acquisitions to what actually happened at Groundbreak. We discussed why Buildots bought Genda and how tracking workforce alongside progress creates a competitive edge (especially for catching inflated change orders), Dustin’s firsthand account of Procore’s Groundbreak keynote, and Luigi La Corte from Provision explains how skimping on branding early hurt their credibility with customers (even while being capital efficient). 71% Still Use Spreadsheets in 2025 – Smart Staffing Solution from Top 20 GCs We sit down with Lauren Lake, co-founder of Bridgit, and Kevin Ferguson from AECO Product Marketing to uncover how two college students disrupted the construction workforce planning industry—and built a company that now serves half of the top 20 general contractors in North America. View all Podcasts BRICKS & BYTES PREMIUMEarly Release Episodes From CAD to VR: 13 Years of Digital Transformation – Gary Cowan – EARLY RELEASE Listen Now: Gary Cowan, Head of Digital Construction at Kane Group, reveals how an Irish MEP contractor evolved from treating BIM as a compliance checkbox to running 10+ simultaneous projects using VR. How Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine – Lori Peters – EARLY RELEASE Listen Now: Document Crunch’s Lori Peters shares the hard-won lessons from scaling a marketing team in one of the fastest-growing construction tech companies—and why their strategy looks nothing like 2 FAVORITE QUOTES: “There’s too much behind this and that’s why there’s not a book in it. There might be like a six page HBR article max.” – Marc Barone on the complexity of COO role “If you don’t do your own branding early, someone else will do your branding for you.” – Luigi La Corte’s key lesson from bootstrapping Provision SPECIAL OFFERSThe GTM Bundle Together, they give you the full GTM playbook for construction tech from building trust-first marketing to structuring your sales motion, pricing models, and land-and-expand strategy. Individually, each guide is $100. Today, you can get both for $150. GET THE GTM BUNDLE NOW YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE Premium Insights 10 Hard-Won Lessons from Founders Who Sold for Millions A Step-by-Step Guide to Clear Product Marketing for AEC Startups 12 Lessons About Hiring From AEC’s Top Leaders More Insights NSFW: Build a F*cking Business McKinsey’s Secrets to Scaling Construction Tech How Flux Burned Through $29M – Lessons for AEC Innovators Ex AutoDesk CEO’s 12 Lessons For Developing Products Could an Entrepreneur in Residence Save Your Construction Firm? Most Popular Episodes How To Build A Unicorn In Construction Tech – Patric Hellermann Story Of A Modular Construction Startup That Burned Through £10M in 15 Months – Chris Spiceley McKinsey FINALLY updates their Productivity Curve, & The Future Of Construction – David Rockhill, Partner at McKinsey Procore’s AI Strategy & Implementation – AI’s Role in Modern Construction Disrupt Autodesk? This Ex-Autodesk CEO Has Some Advice – Amar Hanspal Super Series Super Series with Ediphi Super Series With Speckle Super Series With Monumental Super Series with Foundamental OUR SPONSORS Archdesk – The #1 construction management software for growing companies. Manage your projects from Tender to Handover. BuildVision – Streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform for contractors, manufacturers, and stakeholders. Powered by beehiiv

Want to get your message in front of {{active_subscriber_count}} highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers. UPCOMINGBricks & Bytes LIVE at SpeckleCon 2025 – 07th November 2025, London. It’s impossible not to get sucked into the AI hype. BUT based on thousands of hours of conversations we’ve had with industry leaders, we know 80-90% of these companies are nowhere AI-ready due to messy data. Cue Speckle. Global teams are using Speckle to transform their data into a state that makes it actually usable and ready for the AI hype. No more “Garbage In Garbage Out”. Join us at Speckle’s flagship conference – SpeckleCon 2025 – to see our very special live-stream and hear from AI leaders at Gensler, Haskoning, Suffolk Construction and more.  Read more here. And use our discount code “BRICKSBYTES” for 10% off your ticket. Get Tickets INDUSTRY INSIGHTSKane Group’s 10-Year Digital Transformation: Why Culture Beats Tools Most construction and AEC firms treat digital transformation as a checkbox. They invest in software, implement new platforms, and expect operational change to follow. But after a decade of watching this play out across the industry, the pattern is clear: technology adoption alone rarely drives meaningful business results. The real winners aren’t the ones with the fanciest tools. They’re the ones who fundamentally rebuilt how their organizations make decisions, manage information, and execute projects. One MEP contractor’s 10-year journey reveals exactly what that actually looks like. Gary Cowan, Head of Digital Construction at Kane Group, has spent over a decade watching his 200-person MEP contractor evolve from treating BIM as a checkbox exercise to running 10 to 12 simultaneous projects across multiple cities. The transformation wasn’t driven by flashier software or more features. It was driven by something far more fundamental: a cultural shift in how the organization thinks about technology adoption. His journey offers a masterclass in what real digital transformation requires. And spoiler: it has nothing to do with the tools themselves. Kane Group – Banbridge Head Office, Scarva Road, Northern Ireland. Credit: Kane Group TL;DR Most AEC firms think “digital transformation” means buying software. Kane Group’s decade-long journey proves otherwise. Key takeaways: Culture > Tools: Real transformation comes from changing how teams think, not what software they use. Discipline wins: Digital control must be maintained from start to finish, not just at project kickoff. People drive change: Success depends on training and multiple adoption pathways, not forcing uniformity. Alignment is everything: The enemy isn’t bad tech. It’s disconnected data and misaligned teams. Next frontier: Kane is now moving into AI, XR, and real-time decision systems, turning 10 years of learning into intelligent operations. Bottom line: Digital transformation in construction isn’t a sprint. It’s a decade-long culture shift and the only real differentiator left. The Adoption Paradox Most AEC firms make the same mistake: they treat technology adoption as a one-time event rather than an operating shift. What this looks like in practice: Purchase software Roll it out across the organization Declare victory •Move on When Kane Group first encountered BIM over a decade ago, they fell into the same trap. Technology existed. But it wasn’t driving operational change. “It was really only producing drawings and coordination,” Gary recalls. “It was hit and miss because they weren’t using it as it was intended.” The real issue: Most leaders conflate purchasing software with transforming operations. These are entirely different things. From Layering to Integration Stop treating technology as an output tool. Treat it as the operational spine that drives decisions across your entire organization. Kane Group’s breakthrough came when they stopped asking, “How do we use BIM?” and started asking “How do we build our entire operation around digital information?” Kane Group delivering MEP services & prefabricated energy centre at Lewisham Gateway, London A single digital model became the source of truth for design, manufacturing, logistics, and site execution. Coordinate-based set-out eliminated human measurement error. Real-time data meant changes propagated instantly across teams. The result: Kane scaled from one to two projects annually to ten to twelve simultaneous projects. That’s not a software win. That’s an operating model win. The Discipline Problem Establishing digital control at project start is one phase. Maintaining it through completion is another, and it’s significantly harder. Most leaders treat implementation as a moment. But digital discipline decays. Mid-project, changes go undocumented. Communication protocols slip. The house of cards collapses. What happens when you lose discipline mid-project: Changes go undocumented Finance doesn’t adjust forecasts QS doesn’t update takeoffs The site discovers the issue during installation Rework multiplies Costs balloon Gary describes it this way: “It’s dangerous. You go in and establish control, and the company leaves. But as the building progresses and builds, sometimes that control is lost. It needs to be maintained through the whole thing, or else it starts to fall apart. It’s like a house of cards. If you start messing about with it later on, it can fall apart very quickly.” Your technology is only as good as the sustained protocols you build around it. Implementation budgets should skew heavily toward change management and sustained discipline, not licensing fees. This is the hard part. It’s also where the real value lives. The People Layer Adoption failures are rarely about the technology. They’re almost always about people. Construction teams aren’t homogeneous: People in their twenties working alongside people in their sixties English speakers and non-English speakers Digital natives and skeptics Credit: Digital Construction Week Kane Group designed multiple pathways. Some team members work through tablets and headsets. Others accomplish the same tasks on screens. Both are adoption. Neither is compromise. You cannot force cultural change. You can only create conditions where people choose it. According to World Economic Forum research on construction digital transformation, the construction sector remains human-centric, with training and upskilling being vital so that workers can effectively utilize new technologies. Data Silos: The Silent Killer Most digital transformations stall at the organizational layer, not the technology layer. Manufacturing makes a component change. Finance doesn’t update the budget.

Buildots’ Big Move, Procore’s Awkward Transition & The AI Agents Invasion In this week’s Bricks, Bucks & Bytes episode: 🚧 Buildots acquires Genda, a major step into workforce tracking. 🤝 Procore’s CEO handover at Groundbreak leaves the crowd uneasy. 🧠 Provision raises $7 million to redefine AI in pre-con. 💰 Candid Intelligence lands $5.5 million to collapse pre-construction timelines from years to months. But that’s not all: Patric Hellermann calls Buildots + Genda “a match made in heaven.” Dustin DeVan shares why “the best acquisitions are share deals and not cash deals.” Luigi La Corte (Provision) explains why accurate AI take-offs aren’t a commodity. Talha Faiz (Candid) reveals how AI could start construction a year sooner. 🎧 Listen now for: How Buildots is blending progress + workforce data to control site productivity. Why Procore’s “AI Agent era” might be all PR and no product. The coming wave of AI take-off startups and who will actually survive. What “collapsing pre-con” really means for infrastructure and profitability. Watch the Full Episode You might also like: NEOM Cancelled, SoftBank’s $5.4B Bet, Track3D Raises $10M $500k Salaries for Mechanics, VC’s Getting Defrauded, DOT Causes Chaos $94M Fundraising Record, New Procore CEO, Oracle Push, Zoom Kills Careers Live from AU, Hosts World Travels, University Entrepreneurship Culture, NFL Insider Oracle $100B Hour, AI Government Fail, OpenSpace CEO, Barefoot Office Debate Microsoft’s $10M AEC Gamble, Autodesk $1.7B Earnings, Nemetscheck Acquires AI Startup Robotics Mega Show with Dusty Robotics and ex-Waymo exec & CTO of Bedrock Robotics Construction Productivity Myths, UAE Real Estate, TIMES VC Rankings, with Barton Malow $1.5M AI Employee Bonuses, Procore Growth Slowdown? & LinkedIn Growth Hacks with Derek Wong Turner’s 44% Growth, Figma IPO Rogue Calculations, Meta’s $150B Block & AI’s 85% Fail Rate Powered by beehiiv

Want to get your message in front of {{active_subscriber_count}} highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers. This Week’s Quickfire BytesFuel your curiosity with this week’s contentW/C 13th October 2025 MILESTONEOur GOLDBECK Story Just Hit 740k Views! We’re thrilled by the unexpected success, a true reflection of our hard work to create the best AEC content. Who should be our next featured story? Watch it Here NEW EPISODES71% Still Use Spreadsheets in 2025 – Smart Staffing Solution from Top 20 GCs We sit down with Lauren Lake, co-founder of Bridgit, and Kevin Ferguson from AECO Product Marketing to uncover how two college students disrupted the construction workforce planning industry—and built a company that now serves half of the top 20 general contractors in North America. NEOM Cancelled, 21K Dead, SoftBank’s $5.4B Bet, Track3D Raises $10M In this episode we cover NEOM’s collapse, SoftBank’s massive $5.4B bet, the humanoid vs. specialized robots debate, and the AI circus. Plus, Calvin from CrewScope on using gamification to boost worker productivity (yes, leaderboards for drywallers are real) and NK from Track3D reveals how they raised $10M to turn reality capture data into instant project insights – no BIM model required. AI Isn’t Taking Your Job – It’s Taking Your Identity – The Self-Worth Crisis from a Built World Investor KP Reddy shares why most construction tech startups are chasing the wrong business model, how AI is fundamentally changing the value of human work, and why he’s now buying contractors instead of selling them software. View all Podcasts BRICKS & BYTES PREMIUMEarly Release Episodes From CAD to VR: 13 Years of Digital Transformation – Gary Cowan – EARLY RELEASE Listen Now: Gary Cowan, Head of Digital Construction at Kane Group, reveals how an Irish MEP contractor evolved from treating BIM as a compliance checkbox to running 10+ simultaneous projects using VR. How Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine – Lori Peters – EARLY RELEASE Listen Now: Document Crunch’s Lori Peters shares the hard-won lessons from scaling a marketing team in one of the fastest-growing construction tech companies—and why their strategy looks nothing like 2 FAVORITE QUOTES: “Physical AI, man. Physical AI is the new term that we now need in order to describe robotics.” – Patric Hellermann on the industry’s tendency to rebrand existing concepts with AI buzzwords. “Papa buys bulldozers.” – KP Reddy on his 3-year-old’s understanding of venture capital SPECIAL OFFERSThe GTM Bundle Together, they give you the full GTM playbook for construction tech from building trust-first marketing to structuring your sales motion, pricing models, and land-and-expand strategy. Individually, each guide is $100. Today, you can get both for $150. GET THE GTM BUNDLE NOW YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE Premium Insights 10 Hard-Won Lessons from Founders Who Sold for Millions A Step-by-Step Guide to Clear Product Marketing for AEC Startups 12 Lessons About Hiring From AEC’s Top Leaders More Insights NSFW: Build a F*cking Business McKinsey’s Secrets to Scaling Construction Tech How Flux Burned Through $29M – Lessons for AEC Innovators Ex AutoDesk CEO’s 12 Lessons For Developing Products Could an Entrepreneur in Residence Save Your Construction Firm? Most Popular Episodes How To Build A Unicorn In Construction Tech – Patric Hellermann Story Of A Modular Construction Startup That Burned Through £10M in 15 Months – Chris Spiceley McKinsey FINALLY updates their Productivity Curve, & The Future Of Construction – David Rockhill, Partner at McKinsey Procore’s AI Strategy & Implementation – AI’s Role in Modern Construction Disrupt Autodesk? This Ex-Autodesk CEO Has Some Advice – Amar Hanspal Super Series Super Series with Ediphi Super Series With Speckle Super Series With Monumental Super Series with Foundamental OUR SPONSORS Archdesk – The #1 construction management software for growing companies. Manage your projects from Tender to Handover. BuildVision – Streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform for contractors, manufacturers, and stakeholders. Powered by beehiiv

This is an early release of our podcast, exclusive for premium subscribers. To get early access, upgrade here. EARLY RELEASEBuilding Twice: Inside MEP’s Digital Revolution What happens when MEP meets cutting-edge VR/AR technology? Gary Cowan, Head of Digital Construction at Kane Group, reveals how his team is building the future (twice). From real-time model collaboration in virtual reality to augmented reality site verification, Gary walks us through a digital construction workflow that most companies won’t achieve for another decade. In this episode, you’ll: Discover how prefabrication and digital coordination can compress decision-making cycles from weeks to minutes and why this matters for your bottom line Learn the real-world ROI of emerging tech like VR and AR from someone who’s implemented it across live construction projects (not just pilot programs) Understand the critical difference between technology that creates value and technology that creates noise, including Gary’s candid take on AI hype versus practical applications Hear how one contractor is building a competitive advantage by integrating robotics, point cloud scanning, and mixed reality into their end-to-end workflow Get an insider perspective on what makes tech vendors worth your time and what makes them waste it Chapters 00:00 – Introduction: What Does a Head of Digital Construction Actually Do 04:03 – Digital Workflows for New Build vs. Retrofit Projects 09:18 – The Reality of Point Cloud Scanning and Survey Control 16:00 – VR Evolution: From Tethered PCs to Real-Time Collaboration 20:00 – Workshop XR: Walking Through Live Models Together 27:14 – Augmented Reality on Construction Sites with Gamma AR 30:00 – Mixed Reality: The Future of Real-Time Problem Solving 32:40 – AI Advisory Board: Separating Hype from Practical Implementation 38:04 – The Problem with “BIM Influencers” and AI-Generated Expertise 43:13 – Rolling Out Technology: Live Projects vs. Endless Pilots 48:26 – Real-Time Data Flow: Breaking Down Information Silos 51:09 – Managing Technology Across Diverse Teams and Skill Levels 54:10 – Robotics in MEP: Today’s Reality and Tomorrow’s Challenges 56:20 – Diversifying Revenue: Digital Construction as a Service Offering 58:24 – The Future of Digital Construction and Industry Education »»» Listen Now (Premium Subscribers Only) ««« Subscribe to our premium content to read the rest. This is a subscriber only post. Become a paying subscriber of our annual or monthly paid subscriptions to get inside takes on growth in construction tech. Upgrade Translation missing: en.app.shared.conjuction.or Sign In Powered by beehiiv

Want to get your message in front of {{active_subscriber_count}} highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers. INDUSTRY INSIGHTSArchitects: Adapt or Die The architecture industry has a time problem. Early-stage design work that should take hours stretches into weeks. Teams spend more time checking codes than creating. Billable hours disappear into manual iterations that add little value. Now there’s a data point that makes this concrete. A Department of Transportation project. One to two weeks using traditional methods. With Snaptrude’s new AI, the same work happened in 16 hours. Three complete design iterations. The firm saved tens of thousands in billable hours on that single project. The numbers are real. The implications are bigger. Snaptrude just launched AI that analyzes sites, interprets zoning codes, generates compliant programs, and produces presentable designs from a simple prompt. Whether this feels like a threat or an opportunity depends entirely on how you respond. The question isn’t whether AI is reshaping architecture. It’s already happening. The question is: what does this mean for your career? TL;DR A Department of Transportation project that took 1–2 weeks was completed in 16 hours using Snaptrude’s new AI, with three full design iterations. The AI reads zoning codes, analyzes sites, and generates compliant, presentable designs from a simple prompt. This frees architects from repetitive tasks that consume 30–50% of design time. Snaptrude built from scratch: structured data, tested workflows, then layered AI as a collaborator, not automation. The result: Senior architects design more. Juniors learn faster. The real shift isn’t “AI vs architects”. It’s architects who use AI vs those who don’t. What AI Can Actually Do Now (And What It Can’t) Picture two architects. The first has 30 years of experience and can sketch a brilliant concept on a napkin in minutes. But her team is underwater, and she has no time to learn new tools. The second is a junior designer working late on tasks that a mentor could resolve in an afternoon, full of potential but missing accumulated wisdom. What Snaptrude’s AI handles: A 300-bed hospital with an oncology center, understanding site constraints and occupancy restrictions. It knows nurse rooms should be near patient rooms. It ensures emergency departments have direct ambulance access paths. All compliant with local codes. What takes days happens in hours. What it doesn’t replace: Creative vision. Client relationships. The judgment calls that define great buildings. The outcome: Senior architects stop checking codes and focus on creative decisions. Junior designers get fewer obvious mistakes and more time learning by doing. The AI becomes the mentor that never sleeps and the compliance checker that never gets tired. The 30 to 50 percent problem: That’s how much design time disappears into manual iterations. Not designing. Not creating. Just iterating, checking, redrawing, reworking. Half your billable hours are going into work AI can now handle. The math: Senior architects bill at $200 per hour. The DoT project that took 16 hours would traditionally take one to two weeks for a single iteration. Snaptrude delivered three iterations in that time. Scale that across thousands of projects and firms, and you’re looking at millions of billable hours recovered. The critical question: When that time is freed up, what happens? Two paths forward. Firms could cut headcount and race to the bottom on pricing. Or architects could take on more projects, explore more design options, handle more complex work, and focus on creative decisions that define great buildings. The technology enables both futures. The choice belongs to the industry. Too many tools are wasting time and distracting from the core task of design. Credit: Salmaan Mohamed Why Snaptrude Could Do This When Others Can’t Most companies bolt AI onto 20-year-old software. Snaptrude rebuilt from scratch through three deliberate phases over several years. Phase one: Build data infrastructure. They created structured, editable, unified data on a cloud-native platform where design, data, and documentation live together. Invisible to users but essential. Phase two: Solve the use case manually first. They focused on early-stage design, where things are most broken and important decisions are made. They proved it worked without AI and built real adoption. Phase three: Layer AI on top. With structured data and proven workflows in place, they introduced AI as a collaborator. The AI could now understand context, work with real design data, and integrate into workflows architects already trusted. This is why their AI actually helps instead of frustrating users. The key insight: Without structured data, AI can’t help much. Without solving real use cases first, adoption can’t happen. Legacy software can’t just add AI because foundations don’t support it. But infrastructure is only half the story. How they positioned it matters just as much. Everything in Snaptrude AI is editable. You delegate what you want to be automated and intervene anytime. You keep authorship. They could have positioned their approach as automation (we’ll do it for you) but chose collaboration (we’ll do it with you). Four core principles: Your agency first. You decide what to delegate and when to take the wheel. Transparency over magic. See the assumptions, edit them, then rerun. Interoperability with no lock-in. Speed with standards. Faster only counts if it’s compliant and buildable. The litmus test for real collaboration: Can you turn off AI for any step? Override its decisions? See what it did? If no, it’s automation pretending to be collaboration. Snaptrude AI is designed for ‘yes’ to all three. This positioning matters because architects fear losing control. Every word choice reinforces that you remain in control, you’re enhanced, you’re irreplaceable. Start the AI workflow by defining the project and its programs. Credit: Snaptrude The Launch Strategy Worth Stealing Snaptrude made an unconventional move: they published their entire roadmap publicly. What’s coming next: Envelope Agent for zoning-compliant building envelopes Program Packing for departmental layouts with circulation Massing to BIM for automatic LOD 300/350 model conversion Enterprise Knowledge to bring firm-specific standards into the AI Why show your cards? Most companies hide roadmaps, fearing competitors will copy or customers

Neom’s Dream Falters. Robotics Roars. Gamified Construction Rises. In this week’s Bricks, Bucks & Bytes episode: 🏙️ Saudi Arabia halts NEOM – The $500B desert utopia now buried under $40B in delays. 🤖 SoftBank buys ABB’s robotics arm for $5.4B – A signal that Physical AI (the fusion of AI + robotics) is the next frontier. 👷‍♂️ Crewscope raises $1M to gamify productivity – Turning jobsite performance into a points-based system that actually works. 📸 Track3D raises $10M to turn reality capture into real insights – Bridging the gap between drones, cameras, and project truth. But that’s not all: Patric Hellermann explains how ABB’s sale signals the West’s capitulation to China in industrial robotics. Martin argues NEOM will return (“Burj Khalifa was once halted too”). Owen reveals what makes Crewscope and Track3D two of the smartest new bets in construction tech. 🎧 Listen now for: Why NEOM’s collapse exposes the risks of startup dependence on state mega-projects. How SoftBank’s $5.4B play could rewrite robotics strategy globally. The startup redefining worker incentives through gamification. Why Track3D’s plug-and-play data engine is quietly reshaping construction monitoring. Watch the Full Episode 🗣 Bonus banter: Martin swears by his Garmin sleep tracker. Patric defends walking 16k steps a day as a productivity hack. Owen’s Turkish “holiday” with toddlers? More cardio than rest. You might also like: $500k Salaries for Mechanics, VC’s Getting Defrauded, DOT Causes Chaos $94M Fundraising Record, New Procore CEO, Oracle Push, Zoom Kills Careers Live from AU, Hosts World Travels, University Entrepreneurship Culture, NFL Insider Oracle $100B Hour, AI Government Fail, OpenSpace CEO, Barefoot Office Debate Microsoft’s $10M AEC Gamble, Autodesk $1.7B Earnings, Nemetscheck Acquires AI Startup Robotics Mega Show with Dusty Robotics and ex-Waymo exec & CTO of Bedrock Robotics Construction Productivity Myths, UAE Real Estate, TIMES VC Rankings, with Barton Malow $1.5M AI Employee Bonuses, Procore Growth Slowdown? & LinkedIn Growth Hacks with Derek Wong Turner’s 44% Growth, Figma IPO Rogue Calculations, Meta’s $150B Block & AI’s 85% Fail Rate $555K Salary for Construction Engineers, Trunk Tools $40M Round, Stone Carving Robots Powered by beehiiv

Want to get your message in front of {{active_subscriber_count}} highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers. This Week’s Quickfire BytesFuel your curiosity with this week’s contentW/C 3rd October 2025 NEW EPISODESDesign Is Easy, Construction Isn’t – The Manual Labor Problem No One Solves In AEC James Mize from CRB shares why pharmaceutical and biotech construction is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with digital twins, the real reason most companies stick with their tech partners, and why information management is construction’s biggest unsolved problem. Find out how predictive maintenance using digital twins is saving pharmaceutical companies millions in downtime costs, why design innovation is racing ahead while construction remains stubbornly manual, and the partnership model that actually works when choosing construction technology vendors. $500k Salaries for Mechanics, VC’s Getting Defrauded, DOT Causes Chaos We dive into the messy reality of construction tech funding, government policy shakeups, and the AI hype that’s burning through millions. Key topics discussed: the brutal truth about EU vs US startup ecosystems and where the smart money is going, why safe notes are “stupid money” and how founders are getting away with zero accountability, and heavy equipment mechanics earning $500K through on-demand platforms while dealers pay them $80K. Why 70% BIM Adoption Is A Lie (And What Procore Just Did About It) – PROCORE’S BIM STRATEGY We sit down with Dave from Procore’s BIM team and Tore Hovland, founder of NovaRender (recently acquired by Procore), to unpack what’s really happening in the BIM space and why two major acquisitions just changed the game. We discussed why BIM adoption is actually 20-30%, not the 70% everyone claims, the hidden 2GB browser limit killing your ability to view large models, and how building from 2D vs 3D vs full BIM changes cost overruns from 20% to 5%. View all Podcasts BRICKS & BYTES PREMIUMEarly Release Episodes How Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine – Lori Peters – EARLY RELEASE Listen Now: Document Crunch’s Lori Peters shares the hard-won lessons from scaling a marketing team in one of the fastest-growing construction tech companies—and why their strategy looks nothing like Bridgit’s Workforce Planning Story – Lauren Lake & Kevin Ferguson – EARLY RELEASE Listen Now: How do you replace Excel at enterprise scale? The Bridgit story shows exactly how to build category leadership in construction tech. 2 FAVORITE QUOTES: “Indians are extremely to the tee and you cannot get by winging it. The amount of documents is insane.” – Patric Hellermann on the bureaucratic complexity of Indian business operations “I think one of the biggest pain points we’re facing is where does this file get saved? Where do I find it? Right. How do I find it?” – James Mize on the persistent challenge of document management despite advanced technology SPECIAL OFFERSThe GTM Bundle Together, they give you the full GTM playbook for construction tech from building trust-first marketing to structuring your sales motion, pricing models, and land-and-expand strategy. Individually, each guide is $100. Today, you can get both for $150. GET THE GTM BUNDLE NOW YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE Premium Insights 10 Hard-Won Lessons from Founders Who Sold for Millions A Step-by-Step Guide to Clear Product Marketing for AEC Startups 12 Lessons About Hiring From AEC’s Top Leaders More Insights NSFW: Build a F*cking Business McKinsey’s Secrets to Scaling Construction Tech How Flux Burned Through $29M – Lessons for AEC Innovators Ex AutoDesk CEO’s 12 Lessons For Developing Products Could an Entrepreneur in Residence Save Your Construction Firm? Most Popular Episodes How To Build A Unicorn In Construction Tech – Patric Hellermann Story Of A Modular Construction Startup That Burned Through £10M in 15 Months – Chris Spiceley McKinsey FINALLY updates their Productivity Curve, & The Future Of Construction – David Rockhill, Partner at McKinsey Procore’s AI Strategy & Implementation – AI’s Role in Modern Construction Disrupt Autodesk? This Ex-Autodesk CEO Has Some Advice – Amar Hanspal Super Series Super Series with Ediphi Super Series With Speckle Super Series With Monumental Super Series with Foundamental OUR SPONSORS Archdesk – The #1 construction management software for growing companies. Manage your projects from Tender to Handover. BuildVision – Streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform for contractors, manufacturers, and stakeholders. Powered by beehiiv

This is an early release of our podcast, exclusive for premium subscribers. To get early access, upgrade here. EARLY RELEASEHow Document Crunch Built a Community-Led Growth Engine In this episode, Owen sits down with Lori Peters, VP of Marketing at Document Crunch, to unpack the marketing playbook that took a construction tech startup from seed stage to Series B in record time. Lori pulls back the curtain on what actually works in AEC tech marketing, from building community-led growth engines to navigating the AI hype cycle while staying authentic. Lori shares hard-won lessons from nearly a decade in construction tech marketing, including why the industry-standard advice to avoid conferences is dead wrong for AEC, how Document Crunch built their “Crunch Community” into a competitive moat, and the specific frameworks they use to prove marketing ROI in an industry that still values handshakes over clickthrough rates. In this episode, you’ll: Discover why Document Crunch’s CEO wishes he’d hired marketing leadership before sales and what that means for your go-to-market strategy Learn the exact framework for evaluating which conferences and associations deliver real pipeline versus vanity metrics Understand how to operationalize word-of-mouth growth instead of just hoping it happens organically Get insider perspective on marketing AI solutions in construction without falling into the “AI-washing” trap that’s killing trust Hear why generative engine optimization (GEO) might matter more than SEO for your next customer acquisition strategy Learn how to build customer advisory boards that actually shape product and marketing—not just rubber-stamp your decisions Chapters 00:00 – From Consulting to Construction Tech: Lori’s Unconventional Path 05:30 – The Marketing Strategy That Helped Close Series A and B 12:30 – Why In-Person Still Dominates in Construction (And How to Make It Efficient) 18:45 – Building the “Crunch Community”: Accidental Success or Strategic Genius? 24:15 – Expanding Beyond a Single Buyer Persona Without Diluting Your Message 29:17 – The Customer Advisory Board: Your Secret Weapon for Product-Market Fit 31:30 – Navigating AI Hype: How to Build Trust When Everyone’s Skeptical 37:05 – The Partnership That Changed Everything: ABC’s Role in Scaling Trust 43:30 – GEO vs SEO: Why Generative Engine Optimization Matters for Construction Tech 46:15 – Thought Leadership and Founder-Led Marketing: Still Critical or Overrated? 49:10 – Building a 9-Person Marketing Team: When to Hire Specialists vs. Generalists 51:50 – Lori’s Predictions: Where Construction Tech Marketing Is Headed »»» Listen Now (Premium Subscribers Only) ««« Subscribe to our premium content to read the rest. This is a subscriber only post. Become a paying subscriber of our annual or monthly paid subscriptions to get inside takes on growth in construction tech. Upgrade Translation missing: en.app.shared.conjuction.or Sign In Powered by beehiiv

Want to get your message in front of {{active_subscriber_count}} highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers. INDUSTRY INSIGHTSInside Skanska’s Tech Stack Problem: 27,000 Employees, Hundreds of Tools, One Mission A project team in Boston was drowning in software. Not because they lacked training. Not because they resisted technology. But because they were required to use 18 different tools daily just to maintain project information. Duplicate data entry between contractor and client systems. Constant context switching between platforms. More time managing software than managing construction. This wasn’t an edge case. It was a symptom of a deeper problem spreading across the industry. Danielle O’Connell and Michael Zeppieri see this pattern repeatedly in their roles leading Skanska’s emerging technologies team. O’Connell runs the tech enablement program. Zeppieri came to construction through the Army Corps of Engineers and aerospace software development. What they’ve discovered challenges a core assumption in construction tech: more innovation doesn’t always mean better outcomes. Skanska field team in action. Credit: Skanska TL;DR One Skanska team used 18 tools daily just to manage project data. Company-wide: 200–300 tools and growing tech fatigue. Decentralized adoption = chaos, not innovation. Skanska’s new mission: consolidate, not add. Pilots capped at 3–6 months to kill “zombie apps.” Success now means integration over features. Vendors: replace tools, don’t add them. Builders: innovation = subtraction. The 18 Tool Reality The project wasn’t trying to be cutting edge. The team wasn’t experimenting with new technology for the sake of it. “It was because there were 18 tools between the Skanska systems and the client systems that they were required to touch and use daily to maintain their project information,” O’Connell explains. Duplicate data entry across systems. No integration between platforms. Project managers spend more time managing software than managing construction. This is tech sprawl in an exaggerated form. How Hundreds of Tools Accumulated Skanska operates with approximately 27,000 employees globally. Their software portfolio sits somewhere between 200 and 300 tools. The accumulation wasn’t a strategy. It was the inevitable result of decentralization. Multiple entry points for software adoption meant business units could respond quickly to market conditions. A project team in New York could pilot a tool without waiting for enterprise approval. A superintendent in Boston could experiment with field management software that solved an immediate problem. The flexibility created agility. It also created chaos. Industry experts now call this the “accordion effect”. Companies push to adopt point solutions with the latest features, eventually creating a tangled ecosystem of disconnected applications. Construction technology executives are finally questioning whether new solutions can actually fit into tech stacks they’ve already invested in. The pattern repeats across the industry. One problem, one tool. Repeat 200 times. Field teams facing fragmented systems. Credit: Skanska Field Teams Drowning in Software Project teams send contradictory signals. They want to innovate. They want new capabilities. They read about competitors using advanced technology and ask why Skanska isn’t doing the same. They’re also overwhelmed by the volume of change hitting them daily. Project management carries the heaviest burden. Client requirements add another layer of complexity. When owners mandate their own project management systems alongside Skanska’s platforms, teams face constant context switching and duplicate data entry. The result is what O’Connell calls “tech fatigue.” Skanska now has an effort underway focused specifically on reducing the burden on field teams. The mission isn’t about adding technology. It’s about subtraction. The Zombie Application Problem Pilot programs created another layer of dysfunction. Teams would sign agreements to pilot tools on projects. The understanding was simple: test the software, provide feedback, make a decision. In practice, pilots lasted as long as the project. Two years later, applications remained in use whether they delivered value or not. Teams forgot about them. No one made adoption decisions. The software became what O’Connell describes as “zombie applications.” The team now defines specific pilot durations: Three months for lightweight tools Five to six months for complex implementations Clear alignment with project phases A pilot that starts during demolition but won’t be useful until steel goes up is a wasted pilot. The tool needs to be tested during the phase where it actually provides value. Timing matters as much as features. The Consolidation Imperative Research from ADAPT shows that 68% of technology leaders are planning to consolidate their vendor landscape. A majority target a 20% reduction in vendor count. The construction industry is following the same trajectory. Skanska built a tracking system this year for all tools under evaluation or in pilot. The system answers a critical question: do we already have solutions that address this problem? When requests come in for new software, the response often surprises teams. We’ve already evaluated three tools that solve that exact issue. Would you like to pilot one of those instead? The approach shifts the conversation from acquisition to utilization. The team is also mapping hundreds of tools to business capabilities. The exercise identifies redundancies and asks harder questions about replacement rather than addition. Engineering leader balancing tech and operation. Credit: Skanska Key filtering criteria now include: Does this solve a problem we haven’t already addressed? Can this replace multiple existing tools? Will this integrate with our current platforms? Does the timing align with project schedules? The bar for new tools keeps rising. The Procurement Paradox Large enterprise buyers want standardization. Procurement teams push for enterprise deals that simplify vendor management and reduce the number of contracts. Decentralized organizations need flexibility. Regional offices want autonomy to select tools that match their specific needs. These competing pressures create what Zeppieri describes as “the procurement versus what we really need conversation.” The tension extends to how software companies operate. Startups want explosive growth. Once they secure a deal, they push for aggressive expansion and extensive contracts. Construction moves at a different pace. Tools need field testing. Pilots need to align with project schedules. A superintendent won’t adopt new software two weeks before a project completes. The friction between software industry expectations and construction reality remains constant. When

SAFE notes are broken. AI hype is peaking. And Europe’s money printer is warming up again. In this week’s Bricks, Bucks & Bytes episode: 💰 The SAFE note reckoning – why founders and investors alike are sleepwalking into chaos. 🇪🇺 Europe’s startup “renaissance” – real growth or just another debt-fuelled illusion? 🤖 AI in construction – from wrappers on drawings to the real frontier of project intelligence. But that’s not all: Patric Hellermann calls out the venture capital “perversion” of the past three years. Dustin DeVan explains why SAFE notes are worse than useless Mike Powers breaks down how the AI gold rush is already repeating 2021’s sins. And Martin, flying solo, drives straight through EU policy, startup hype, and construction’s AI mirage. 🎧 Listen now for: Why SAFE rounds could destroy early-stage venture How AI in AEC is chasing the wrong problems Why US startups still outpace Europe’s best And how to spot the next great construction tech idea before the bubble pops Watch the Full Episode You might also like: $94M Fundraising Record, New Procore CEO, Oracle Push, Zoom Kills Careers Live from AU, Hosts World Travels, University Entrepreneurship Culture, NFL Insider Oracle $100B Hour, AI Government Fail, OpenSpace CEO, Barefoot Office Debate Microsoft’s $10M AEC Gamble, Autodesk $1.7B Earnings, Nemetscheck Acquires AI Startup Robotics Mega Show with Dusty Robotics and ex-Waymo exec & CTO of Bedrock Robotics Construction Productivity Myths, UAE Real Estate, TIMES VC Rankings, with Barton Malow $1.5M AI Employee Bonuses, Procore Growth Slowdown? & LinkedIn Growth Hacks with Derek Wong Turner’s 44% Growth, Figma IPO Rogue Calculations, Meta’s $150B Block & AI’s 85% Fail Rate $555K Salary for Construction Engineers, Trunk Tools $40M Round, Stone Carving Robots Vibe Coding Will Die, nPlan CTO Warning, Woodchuck $3.75M Raise, Parsepec $20M Series A Powered by beehiiv