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Why are there no startups in the real estate construction sector?

• ChrisArchitect 3y ago
  Ask HN: put that in your post titles
• danielvaughn 3y ago
  I remember meeting the CEO of Planhub which sounds very similar to what you're describing: https://planhub.com/ https://planhub.com/
• bdcravens 3y ago
  At least in some parts of the country, much of the labor force is undocumented. This increases the risks when trying to systemize and scale.
• trimethylpurine 3y ago
  It's just a lot of work. That's the part that makes most people say, "you can't." Look at all these answers why "you can't." Try it and see where they got stuck. Odds are, it's not that you really can't. It's that when you see how much work it takes, you'll give up. But if you don't, you might be the next big thing. I've done it in a different industry. It's not easy to make software that does stuff that everyone else "can't" but it's a hell of a lot of work and it's not always profitable.
• iancmceachern 3y ago
  There are some. Buddy of mine works at Rugged Robotics, they're in that's space.
• oarfish 3y ago
  This is one I know: https://www.gropyus.com/ https://www.gropyus.com/
• patrickhogan1 3y ago
  Startups in construction technology exist, we just aren't as flashy as those in other sectors like crypto. For context, more than 129 real estate and construction companies are part of the Y Combinator alumni, representing over 3% of all YC firms. I began to catalogue them all in this post, only to realize that I would eventually run out of space.
• aas1957 3y ago
  There are actually a lot of start ups in the space. Most are related to support services such as electronic plans, job bidding sites, inspection apps, timesheets, material logs and so on. You don't build with technology, but there are lots of bits and pieces to the business process whether a large or small job.
• raj555 3y ago
  what does start up in construction even mean and do?
• MichaelZuo 3y ago
  There are, just in China, CIS, Eastern Europe, etc. For example, the world's largest and most advanced modular building company was just a tiny startup in Hunan making niche HVAC equipment 2 decades ago: http://en.broad.com/ProductShow-131.aspx http://en.broad.com/ProductShow-131.aspx
• x11antiek 3y ago
  Not clear what do you mean by "primary association with real estate construction". Like Blokable? Or Juno? There are a lot of companies, they aren't really present online because their customers and investors prefer shaking hands. ;-)
• pharmakom 3y ago
  I think the main barrier to construction is zoning and planning laws, which tech can do little about.
  • martin8412 3y ago
    They could always do like a lot,of different gigeconomy startups and completely ignore the law in the start, and afterwards lobby to have it legalized.
    • vel0city 3y ago
      I wouldn't be willing to dump a significant chunk of my wealth into a structure built by a company who makes a point to ignore building codes and zoning laws. Sounds like a disaster.
      • pixl97 3y ago
        "What do you mean their house imploded like a submarine" Heh, also it seems tech side doesn't know what a certificate of occupancy is. Or what banks will give loans on. Or what insurance companies will cover.
        • martin8412 3y ago
          It all depends on the area things were built in. I don't know if bank loans were involved, but a bunch of houses in Southern Spain burned down in a forest fire. The insurance refused to cover because the paper work for the buildings got accepted due to corruption. Those areas were not legal to build in.
      • bombcar 3y ago
        You'll love this: https://structuretech.com/new-construction-home-inspections-part-v/ https://structuretech.com/new-construction-home-inspections-... Yes, part FIVE.
    • sidewndr46 3y ago
      That doesn't work. You can't get hook ups to power, water, & sewer without the right permits. The police or sheriff absolutely will be dispatched to halt your construction if you try this.
• Simulacra 3y ago
  It's nearly impossible to be a "startup" in the construction industry. Aside from employment, permitting, funding, and real estate, the whole notion of a startup just does not work in the construction industry. The timeline is long and slow, the upfront commitment is high, and the entire endeavor is risky. It's not just writing code and creating a website. Edit: There might be startups brought on as subsidiaries to do specific tasks, but I think those are very rare.
  • askmany 3y ago
    yeah so the expansion is not as quick as any tech startup thus doe snot excites investors
    • pixl97 3y ago
      Oh and the being held to a rule of law doesn't excite them either.
• WastingMyTime89 3y ago
  > It is a highly profitable business It’s not. Margins are thin. Most companies make money though sheer size.
  • ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    The typical lifespan of a residential contractor is MUCH LESS than alternatives (commercial, industrial). This is mostly due to the difficult nature of constant-lowest-bid-acceptance — and no amount of change orders will make up for such an unrealistic bid. At the end of the day, what you are building is typically a single individual's most valuable possession, and they have every right to nitpick poor build quality (which is endemic). A couple "bad make-up jobs" can end a contractor entirely, and usually quite suddenly (even in the middle of a project). In my 20 years working residential, it was extremely rare to find a crew that didn't have a scheduling, drug, and attitude problem. Towards the end of my career ("retired" 2020) I began working primarily on 5000sqft homes thinking that this wealthier clientele might have less difficulties — turns out there's more. ADVICE: invest in commercial/industrial tradeshops, because residential is "fly by night" in their much shorter existences. SRC: Retired residential electrician (IBEW-trained).
    • expertentipp 3y ago
      > it was extremely rare to find a crew that didn't have a scheduling, drug, and attitude problem I guess the only area for potential improvement by a startup is the physical labor, which no one wants to perform. As others mentioned in the comments, there exists stereotype that people in construction are dumb which is linked to the profitability "secret" - finding the cheapest labor. To the point even of importing entire crews from dictatures on another continent. Otherwise real estate is full of architects, designers, inspectors, controllers, agents, and whatnot. They oftentimes have education and qualifications, access to data not available to you, and a professional network.
      • ProllyInfamous 3y ago
        The "smarter" you are, the faster you leave this industry (if you can help it). Unfortunately the massive usage of drugs (alcohol, minimum) to cope with a failing body from decades of not-being-given-a-hoot-about... tends to dull any potential brain development. Around the time most subs begin "realizing their value [wage]," is when the next-lowest bidder becomes king. I'm stereotyping my own kind, and once thought of myself as "a fairly intelligent person" — but my occupational history would prove otherwise. I absolutely loved the freedom of running my own shop (typically just myself, one-man one-van) — but after standing up for a few undeserving GC's, one of them sat me down and explained that "he has insurance for a reason, and necessarily must continue using sub-qualified labor to remain competitive [insurance covers his good name, he says]".
• jaclaz 3y ago
  Maybe because building is tough? There are a few start-ups about 3D printing houses, but - at least for those that I have seen that actually demonstrated something - they seem to be the "usual" startup led by some brilliant people that never worked in traditional building/construction[1] and propose a new, revolutionary approach that resolve a non-problem (building the walls) and forgets to address all the rest of the building (where the actual problems are), let alone compliance with the various technical norms (very often local, i.e. not even country or state wide). They can usually print a rudimentary shed in little time, but the same or better shed can be built in less time with prefabricated elements or in a little more time (at a comparable cost) with traditional means. [1] and know nothing on the complexity of building a house
  • delfinom 3y ago
    Honestly those 3d printed houses scare me, it basically turns houses into non-repairable junk that will have to be torn down the first pipe that bursts. Normally framed houses out of metal or wood are king for reparability that can be repaired for over a hundred years if not more. The biggest obstacle to building houses in my opinion are entirely legislative/political. Towns oppose density and cause suburban sprawl galore which drives up costs of everything. Rich elites have also bought up land en-masse over the country so that even if you want to plop a house on a empty lot in a quaint town, they'll charge you half a million just to acquire the lot.
    • pixl97 3y ago
      Eh, the rest of the world builds concrete houses without issues. Just cut out the damaged area and fill it back with fiber reinforced concrete. Zoning is the biggest issue in most cases as you said.
      • delfinom 3y ago
        Seems like this still massively overprices the cost of repairs since you are now using a diamond saw to cut through concrete, plumbing new lines and doing new concrete work to fill it in. Compared to a handyman just handling it in 2 hours at most with typical wallboard.
• askmany 3y ago
  I guess there are not many startups in this segment because these kind of business can never grow exponentially like any other tech business.
• Oarch 3y ago
  There's loads! Historically it's not seen much investment, there are definite cultural issues but I see the sector as a sleeping giant that's often overlooked. Here's a long lists of startups: www.aecplustech.com Regular Conferences: NXT DEV, AEC Tech run by Thornton Tomasetti, MIPIM NY is a big PropTech event I work for a construction tech startup (KOPE.ai) which is building a platform to bring the world of construction system manufacturing closer to that of architectural design.
  • LegitShady 3y ago
    its a bim system where you include pricing information on suppliers who have signed up with you? Are you charging on both ends?
  • Oarch 3y ago
    If you're more looking for startups with construction hardware try Offsite Market (offsite.market)
  • askmany 3y ago
    Has it raised any funds ? And what's your work like ?
    • Oarch 3y ago
      Yep! See our Crunchbase. It's mostly raised from industry rather than VC so far, Series A is next year. There's a decent talk/demo here but it requires signup: https://nxtdev.build/view-on-demand/ https://nxtdev.build/view-on-demand/
• wlesieutre 3y ago
  People start companies, but they're more "sole proprietor plumbing services" and less "spending someone else's money on customer acquisition in hopes of 1000x exit" so it's not what people categorize as "startups." There's no magic construction sauce that will let you scale up to taking over the entire market, so it doesn't attract that sort of investment. You get related startups for software to manage projects, building codes, etc, but not for doing the actual construction part.
  • askmany 3y ago
    Yeah agreed but the secret sauce can be operating at no margins for initial years since there are almost no startups in construction thus nobody else would be able to do the same thing and a bit of market can be captured. what do you say ?
    • notfromhere 3y ago
      Construction is actually pretty low margin, builders survive with credit and volume. The secret sauce for construction is just finding the cheapest labor you can. There’s not a lot of efficiencies to be had.
      • ProllyInfamous 3y ago
        >secret sauce for construction is just finding the cheapest labor you can And then "sorting out" all the mistakes you can expect from such kwality.
        • jimmychoozyx 3y ago
          Someone just told me about a construction business practice: - Hire 5 guys, on the books. - Those guys each bring 5 guys, off the books. (illegal immigrants) - Those 5 guys on the books get paid for all 25 guys and distribute it within their team. It's a bit sad to hear about this sort of thing happening, but it seems all too common in business. That same person told me about another story-- regarding quality: - At another job site, the company had a new project manager. The new PM approved moving forward into a new phase of the project without plans (plans didn't arrive by the time contractor arrived). The contractor of that project build something incorrectly (as you'd expect) due to lack of coordination with other contracting teams (i.e. lack of plans). The result: $1-2 mil worth of work needing to get fixed.
• 015UUZn8aEvW 3y ago
  There's a long list of construction startups who thought the industry was low-tech simply because everyone in it was dumb, and that they would be the smartest guys in the room who'd revolutionize everything. Those startups are pretty much all roadkill. The construction industry's fundamental constraint is that it manufactures products that are too big to fit in highway lanes. That means they can't be shipped from a centrally-located factory to their final destinations. So they need to be built at the site, which means they need to be built with more labor-intensive methods (since it's too expensive to build a capital-intensive factory for just one unit of output). Building components that are small enough to fit in highway lanes, on the other hand, are manufactured in centrally-located, capital-intensive factories and shipped to their final destinations, just like cars or electronics. Think: boilers, doors, windows, air handlers, etc. And, like cars and electronics, these building component products are manufactured by a small number of big companies, rather than a large number of small companies. The equilibrium capital investment and company size is much different when the product is small enough to be manufactured in a central location and shipped.
  • giantg2 3y ago
    "That means they can't be shipped from a centrally-located factory to their final destinations." There are modular homes that are shipped on highways, usually in sections.
  • cosmic_quanta 3y ago
    That's an interesting perspective. I wonder then why pre-fabricated homes (e.g. https://www.profab.ca/en/ https://www.profab.ca/en/) never really took off?
    • notfromhere 3y ago
      They depreciate in value like a car and have a stigma associated with the poor
      • 015UUZn8aEvW 3y ago
        That is true of "manufactured homes", a.k.a. "trailers", but not of "prefab" or "modular" homes, which are built using the same components as conventional homes.
• gadders 3y ago
  PlanGrid was a YC one that eventually got acquired by autodesk for $875m on $69m raised. https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/20/autodesk-agrees-to-buy-plangrid-for-875-million/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/20/autodesk-agrees-to-buy-pla... First HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3659159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3659159
  • 015UUZn8aEvW 3y ago
    PlanGrid is typical of the successful construction tech startups in that it addresses the way that information is transmitted during projects without impacting the actual way that buildings are physically assembled.
    • idid 3y ago
      Shameless plug: at Speckle[0] we have the same attitude (we even have Ralph, Plangrid cofounder, on the cap table). Only difference is we deal in 3D rather than pdfs, and we're open source for too many reasons to type on a mobile phone, but happy to elaborate if needed. [0] https://github.com/specklesystems/ https://github.com/specklesystems/
      • gtfoutttt 3y ago
        Would you consider the product you provide a BIM product? I think what is fascinating about this space is that the tech is there for full 3d models, machine control, and BIM smart design. It's all just so expensive, only the huge companies get deep into all of it. As a PLS, we've been delivering site topos for decades with full 3d surfaces, only to deliver those to the engineers and after design they print out a plan set.
        • LegitShady 3y ago
          it looks like it interfaces with bim products
      • 2pointsomone 3y ago
• onion2k 3y ago
  It is a highly profitable business.. I don't know anything about construction, but generally speaking founding a startup in a historically profitable industry means that there's a lot of room for competitors to counter if you try to disrupt the industry (eg they can afford to invest and improve, they're just not bothering because they don't need to), and it's hard to win on price because competitors aren't particularly cost conscious as they don't need to be. If you want an easier time when you found a startup look for an industry with potential to grow. Then you can focus on growing the market rather than trying to compete for customers. Customer acquisition is far harder, and far more expensive, if you're trying to take market share from other businesses. The smart move is to go where no one has gone yet.
  • moneywoes 3y ago
    Hmm can you elaborate on creating a new market? Isn’t conventional wisdom creating a business for an existing item line on a budget statement?
• eb0la 3y ago
  Biggest cost drivers for construction are land prices, permits and taxes, materials, and interests. You cannot make permits, taxes, and land prices to go down. Interest can be "tamed" if you build quick and sell quick. And most material prices are driven by transport. Before you jump into the sector remember a great technology for construction was drywall (Pladur, Knauf, etc): it lowered time (and costs) to build inner walls. Anything electronic, like automated window blinds... etc is not interesting for the sector: prices are high, cost to deploy are also high. It won't get mass adoption unless customers want to pay 2x-10x more for a house.
  • onpointed 3y ago
    Permits and taxes can be addressed through politics and civic engagement.
    • kaibee 3y ago
      This isn't a business strategy because any reduction in taxes or ease in permitting also benefits your competition. Unless you mean that a company should lobby to increase difficulty/taxes so that they're the sole survivor.
    • bombcar 3y ago
      They're also extremely local, so it can be quite hard to scale. The standard SV "ignore the laws until too big to fail" Uber/Airbnb is just not going to fly. You've never seen enforcement until you've seen the building inspectors crawl up someone's back unpermitted retaining wall (going so far as to take the sheriffs to order a backhoe to knock things down).
  • bonestamp2 3y ago
    > Biggest cost drivers for construction are land prices, permits and taxes, materials, and interests. Don't forget labor. Any tools that can significantly reduce labor will at least get someone to listen to the pitch.
• aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  Perhaps because there are so much regulations that also differ a lot from place to place. This makes economy of scales a lot harder, and stiffles innovating fast.
  • pixl97 3y ago
    Perhaps there is so much regulation because builders built deadly shitboxes that killed their occupants at the first moments notice. This said density regulations tend to be the problematic ones.
    • aleph_minus_one 3y ago
      > Perhaps there is so much regulation because builders built deadly shitboxes that killed their occupants at the first moments notice. The problem is not just the regulations, but that these regulations differ a lot from place to place. This makes an economy of scale nigh impossible.
  • evnc 3y ago
    It seems like there's opportunity then in helping make regulations more legible/understandable, highlighting local differences, assisting with permitting and compliance, etc.? Seems like an area where LLMs could help out
• jmanjmanjman 3y ago
  Checkout tangobuilder.com
• JamesLeonis 3y ago
  > It is a highly profitable business and yet there are no startups involved in constructing building It is very capital and labor intensive, and the margins aren't all that great [0]. It involves an asset class that has a slow-moving market. It also is very labor intensive with lots of local competition all over. Finally, financial instruments for investing in real estate construction already exist without venture funds. Software is a completely different beast. You mention CAD and other secondary software, but finance is also a place where software is used extensively. The latter is so prevalent I was able to use a smaller language (Clojure) at two banking companies, one a startup and one established. The margins of software and the size of the markets for it attract VC money. I do think there are places outside software for startups here, but it will be startups that are further up the value chain from the actual builders. [0]: 17% now, 8% in 2021 - https://www.angi.com/articles/construction-overhead-profit.htm https://www.angi.com/articles/construction-overhead-profit.h...
• ragebol 3y ago
  What about: - Dusty Robotics? They make a robot that prints wall, piping etc layouts on floors. - Canvas, who make a robot for drywalling I'm pretty sure there have to be more, but probably not many doing construction themselves since that doesn't scale well for a typical startup. But tools and software surrounding construction, there's companies for that.
• kk58 3y ago
  Check out nplan.com use AI for planning
  • TheAnointed 3y ago
    *nplan.io
• jamesgasek 3y ago
  I'm working with a startup in Bethlehem, PA to create a crane-operator assistance device using extremely accurate GPS and computer vision to guide operators when lifting structural beams. If anyone is interested please feel free to reach out! https://structuralsteeltech.com https://structuralsteeltech.com
  • zacharyaustin11 3y ago
    how accurate?
    • gtfoutttt 3y ago
      Assuming GP is talking RTK GNSS[0] it can be down to cm accurate with good techniques. GNSS can technically get down to mm accuracy but that typically requires static sites with lots of data. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_kinematic_positioning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_kinematic_position...
      • jamesgasek 3y ago
        sub-centimeter with RTK enabled. The device has an onboard cellular modem to receive atmospheric corrections
• 2-718-281-828 3y ago
  I can't really add much substance to that subject but from what I read construction is a highly corrupt and bureaucratically intransparent industry based on coterie, bribes and deal-making. Markets and networks an outsider won't be accepted into easily and insiders are not interested in disrupting it because they are busy making deals and money.
• klooney 3y ago
  Sure there are: https://factoryos.com https://factoryos.com
• ezedv 3y ago
  While the real estate construction sector may seem less attractive for startups due to its capital-intensive nature and complex regulations, there are actually innovative companies emerging in areas like modular construction, green building technologies, and construction management software. These startups are driving positive change and reshaping the industry.
• jacquesm 3y ago
  There are quite a few of them. They just aren't part of the HN eco-system, but tend to originate in contracting companies and their associates (suppliers, family members). I'm aware of several of these and there is some interesting innovation happening in this space. Do keep in mind that anything you do in this space still has to conform to building codes so your ability to innovate is limited and 'move fast and break stuff' isn't really an option (fortunately so).
  • TheLoafOfBread 3y ago
    > 'move fast and break stuff' isn't really an option (fortunately so). Imagine the disruption if every second skyscraper would be leaning Millennium Tower of San Francisco.
• breakingrules 3y ago
  [dead]
• theGnuMe 3y ago
  I mean there are huge home builders in the USA like DE Horton. Then there are local builders who are basically smaller "startups". If you mean a "tech startup", where exactly do you think software would bring an economy of scale? To build you largely need local expertise, land, planning permission/permits, infrastructure etc... these are time intensive things.
• brudgers 3y ago
  The reasons: Real-estate is capital intensive. The aggregate real-estate value in a small city is billions of dollars. Real-estate timelines are long. Think thirty year mortgages. Scarcity of desirable locations. Manhattan Kansas apartments are not fungible with big apple Manhattan apartments. At scale real-estate is primarily used as a vehicle for wealth retention not wealth growth. If you have a few billion dollars, your problem isn’t scraping up a nickel for a hamburger. It’s finding someplace to store all that money (it won’t fit in your mattress). So the real-estate market is bivalent. The low end ranges from people just trying to get by to people trying to make money. The high end is real wealth with no incentive to sell in ordinary circumstances…what to do with a few billion in cash? is a real problem. And again, a few billion can move a local market, but not a regional one.
  • post-it 3y ago
    > Real-estate timelines are long. Think thirty year mortgages. I'm not sure this one applies. The bank holds the thirty-year debt, the builder gets the money immediately.
    • some_furry 3y ago
      Not always immediate. Sometimes it's milestone-dependent, which can take months/years.
    • brudgers 3y ago
      The builder builds on land that abides the real estate market conditions I describe. The builder typically is paid via bank loan. The loan is originated only under the bank’s expectation the resulting improvements are mortgageable.
• guender 3y ago
  [dead]
• hun-nemethpeter 3y ago
  There is an Australian company called Fast Brick Robotics ( https://www.fbr.com.au/ https://www.fbr.com.au/ ). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNTMxSUsFrM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNTMxSUsFrM The third home built using Hadrian X® robotic bricklaying technology in Wellard has reached lock-up stage and is now up for sale. This four-bedroom, two-bathroom home was built in conjunction with Inspired Homes, a multi-award-winning turnkey home builder in Perth, and features a stylish open plan living area, modern kitchen centrepiece, comfortable home theatre, relaxing bathrooms, outdoor alfresco area and a double car garage.
  • wepple 3y ago
    This is cool, but immediately makes me wonder if blocks are the optimal material for this type of installation. Naturally that’s where you’d start because it’s what is commonly used But pretty quickly you could pivot to better “blocks” that interlock or align automatically and need less (or no) mortar. Then you’d be really flying along
    • zacharyaustin11 3y ago
      I believe they figured out a way to dry stack the blocks but they are still testing I believe. CLT seems like best building material for going past three stories
• RobLach 3y ago
  Plenty of startups; just a more traditional ecosystem. https://www.chicagobuildexpo.com/ https://www.chicagobuildexpo.com/ Any "tech will revolutionize this" ones die before anyone notices. Successful ones make a small piece of the puzzle have less friction and their value is multiplied by the massive scale that building operates at.
• jonfw 3y ago
  The fundamental problems in construction are around acquiring and developing land, organizing labor and doing quality control Those aren't software problems
• wlll 3y ago
  Procore is (well, was, they floated already) one.
• eyphka 3y ago
  Plangrid (yc) comes to mind, which was acquired for 875 million by auto desk.
• StephenSmith 3y ago
  We make cameras for home builders that help them manage their construction sites. Our primary selling point is our AI detection of subcontractors - so we focus more on software than our hardware. https://bedrockwireless.com https://bedrockwireless.com
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• seydor 3y ago
  because construction methods are not what's stopping new housing maybe?
• jdlyga 3y ago
  The startup boom was taking advantage of vulnerable companies that had simple operations, but were severely lacking behind in technology. For example, Uber when taxis were still largely cash only and had no apps. Construction is highly technical, complex work.
• isaacharper 3y ago
  Tangible is one that is focusing on reducing the carbon impact of the construction industry by making information more widely available https://tangiblematerials.com/ https://tangiblematerials.com/
  • moneywoes 3y ago
    Are there any regulations associated with material impact?
• maxlamb 3y ago
  There's Icon, building "3-D printed" houses: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-3d-printed-houses-austin-texas/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-3d-printed-houses-au...
• nerdkid93 3y ago
  There are some startups, but they seem to be very limited in their growth potential given the very cyclical nature of construction. I believe this hampers their access to VC and debt funding, so they don't make as big of a splash. My city has a local construction startup that is trying to drop the cost of housing units by fabricating panels and rooms offsite and assembling at the construction site: https://www.modulehousing.com/ https://www.modulehousing.com/
• nkotov 3y ago
  There is a company from S20 called Atmos (https://buildatmos.com https://buildatmos.com) that does custom home building as a service. I think in general though construction tech is hard because the margins aren't as crazy and it's extremely labor intensive. I briefly looked into working for a hardwood flooring software business and I realized that most flooring companies cap out at around $10m revenue and most are family owned/operated with no desire to change things around because "that's how it always was done".
• bombcar 3y ago
  Buildzoom is always advertising on HN for more people, so they're at least not dead yet.
• nsmog767 3y ago
  Not sexy, but these guys do project management for builders: https://buildertrend.com/ https://buildertrend.com/
• ilamont 3y ago
  I talked to someone who created a startup in this space, specifically a two sided network for a type of construction material. She said it's all hyperlocal (no one is ordering from a supplier 3 hours away), most orders and planning are done on the fly and over the phone, and there are lots of local quirks that frustrate attempts to provide a one-size-fits-all solution. Another example: I recently learned from someone who specializes in foundations in a rural area that he only has two options for ordering large volumes of concrete: a quarry 5 miles away, or a quarry 15 miles away. Any further, and there is a risk of the concrete drying out before it arrives at the site. He prefers the nearest quarry, even though it's smaller, because the owner hasn't yet moved to computer-controlled mixing and errs on the side of caution when creating a new batch, which leads to a better grade of concrete than its supposed rating. ETA: concrete, not cement per @gtfoutttt
  • bbradley406 3y ago
    There are concrete trucks that hold the various ingredients in different containers and can start the mix on demand. Unfortunately they're (obviously) more expensive to purchase and operate, but they are super neat and could pave the way towards 3d printing options going forward.
  • debacle 3y ago
    Before COVID, but especially during/after, there is also loyalty to consider. You need 18 yards of concrete by 8am. You go to the depot, and there's not enough concrete to go around. If you've stuck around and dealt with the ups and downs with the same guy, you're getting your concrete. If you're the kind of guy that shops around, you're not getting concrete. These relationships are highly personal.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  • gtfoutttt 3y ago
    FYI. If you're talking about the stuff in the big round trucks that final product is concrete. Cement is an ingredient in concrete, a chemical binder. Normally for "sidewalk concrete" that binder is an ingredient called "Portland cement", and the final product is "Portland cement concrete" or P.C.C. Probably the stuff your friend is working with. For road paving, often referred to as black-top, the binder is Asphalt, and that is called "Asphaltic Concrete," or A.C. And of course these terms might be local as well, this is what we call them in Southern California. But the fact that the smaller company doesn't computer control and errs on the side of caution is a great illustration of the difficulty of working in this space. And that 10 miles can make a difference. I believe it! For large road projects in the boonies they typically have to build concrete mixing plants on site! The look like a collection of huge round tank-style trailers tilted upright and assembled all together. Edit - spelling.
• rbucks 3y ago
  Construction is perhaps the world's second oldest profession, so it's easily overlooked. It doesn't help that the TAM is so large it defies computation. Small and large VCs are paying more attention. - https://1984.vc/ https://1984.vc/ - https://www.beatventures.com/ https://www.beatventures.com/ - https://www.metaprop.vc/ https://www.metaprop.vc/ - https://www.buildtech.vc/ https://www.buildtech.vc/ This conference crosses over into real estate but it's all pretty much the same network of entrepreneurs: https://blueprintvegas.com/ https://blueprintvegas.com/ Point is, this is not a vacuum. It's just not getting a lot of attention due to the points above. I believe (and am biased, see profile) that climate and housing crises combined will bring a lot more attention to contech/proptech/climatetech in the coming months and years.
• markus_zhang 3y ago
  Construction is heavily influenced by politicians and sometimes...mafias. I wouldn't bother get into it without knowing some Sicilians. My friend owns a small window & door company and he told me so, at least in Quebec.
• ergonaught 3y ago
  1) There are. 2) They aren't so visible (here) because the VCs don't have a bikeshed moment where they think they know how to do things in that market and thus aren't tossing money at it. There are far more unicorn possibilities in other (bikesheddable) markets, so that's where the startup funding flows. 3) Inertia. You're dealing with entire industries and governments and etc that are entrenched, more or less conservative/bureaucratic/regulated, whole lot of nepotism and similar effects, where you really can't just make it up as you go and PR your way through it. Disruptors are killed or acquired/disappeared pretty quickly.
• nonameiguess 3y ago
  I live in one of the more rapidly growing American metros, in what I would consider a construction boom. I'm not sure what you're characterizing as a startup, but if you simply mean a new business without a lot of history attempting to enter the market and compete, as far as I can tell, there are a lot of these. My own home was built by a small builder, single-owner, who had been in business less than a decade. Three separate adjacent lots were purchased and at least started to be developed by first-time homebuilders. In two cases, they failed and sold the project before even completing it, but someone out there was at least trying to be a homebuilding startup. You may be thinking of new businesses attempting to grow fast and capture market share using equity investors to subsidize low initial prices charged to consumers. I'm not sure that makes sense as a business model in the residential construction sector. Your revenue just comes from selling houses. Pricing is a fairly strict matter of supply and demand you have little to no control over. There is no alternative revenue model. People buy the house and tend to stay there a while. They're not going to buy a subscription service, or accept a discount in return for you collecting data from their home and selling ads or something. Companies that want to do that are selling smart home devices, not the homes themselves. As others have mentioned, there isn't a ton you can do to push costs down. The unskilled labor is already cheap. The skilled labor is scarce and unionized. Material costs are set by global commodities markets. Timelines are heavily determined by external factors. It's easiest to build in the middle of nowhere, but then there is lower demand for the houses. Denser places where more people want to live tend to have most lots already developed, so now you're looking at convincing people to sell, possibly trying to get existing properties condemned, possibly rezoning, lot division, possibly needing new utilities hookups but instead of doing it in some brand-new exurb where nothing exists, you need to dig and shut down roads and sidewalks in places where people already live and work. You need permits, easements. You're disrupting things and people who don't want their lives disrupted slow you down. The skilled tradesmen who represent the major bottleneck in your workforce largely don't want to do this kind of work because it takes longer and payment is less reliable. So even in a place with relatively lax zoning where no one explicitly tries to stop you from building, you still may not be able to do it in any timely manner because you're competing for a tiny pool of laborers who can do the electrical and plumbing work and they can only be in one place at a time.
• ryanSrich 3y ago
  Atmos was a YC startup that was building homes a few years ago. Not sure if they’re still around. I considered using them to build a house in Boulder, but they never expanded beyond NC.
• tolkienfanatic 3y ago
  https://join.build/ https://join.build/
• efields 3y ago
  Ask anyone who manages property: every building is its own unique snowflake of issues.
• sroussey 3y ago
  Mighty: https://www.mightybuildings.com/ https://www.mightybuildings.com/
• sroussey 3y ago
  Cover Technology https://buildcover.com/ https://buildcover.com/
• rco8786 3y ago
  > Why are there no startups in the real estate construction sector? Fundamentally reject the premise of this question. BuildZoom (YC), Capmo, ProperGate, Arqlite, Buildcon, Mechasys, Branch Technology, Plant Prefab, Ergeon, Cove.Tool, KEWAZO, Rebartek, etc, etc, etc The Googleable term you're looking for is "contech".
  • basch 3y ago
    They also exit and roll up by being swallowed by Autodesk, Oracle, Trimble, instead of Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. Construction is one of those industries that has trouble believing anything not designed for construction will work for them. It’s basically a completely parallel reality to what a lot of people here are familiar with. Procore and Plangrid are the darlings, with Procore being the big independent one left. It’s also important to understand that construction is very much an accounting service. It’s endless bookkeeping, keeping track of material and labor. Nearly every company now is either 1) rooted in an industry specific accounting system 2) tied to estimating, and or models 3) some ultra specific tiny shoehorn to alleviate some specific manual process. There’s also a lot more hardware involved than people might realize like laser scanners for generating point clouds.
  • paulddraper 3y ago
    I think the OP is referring to startups that are construction companies. > although the secondary works related to construction like B2B market place for construction materials or layout designing softwares startups are there but no startup is primary associated with real estate construction And the same answer is like for a lot of industries: "startups" (per Paul Graham) are defined as companies designed for high growth. And certain industries difficult to achieve high growth; by definition you won't see many successful startups in them.
• qwertyuiop_ 3y ago
  Pulte Homes took the concept of “Ford Assembly” back in 2004. The most common problem was the large components would not fit on the site on foundation which was slightly out of whack. In stick frame you normally work around the imperfections on-site. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/2004/12/11/home-from-the-factory/1a4f7c50-21be-49d7-b818-fdcefee06e44/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/2004/12/11...
• stcroixx 3y ago
  Much harder to hide scams and break laws in the physical world where quality actually matters.
• noobface 3y ago
  Procore?
• noobface 3y ago
  This post is affirmation that the single most reliable method to getting engagement on the internet is to be confidently wrong.
• sonicshadow 3y ago
  I reject the question - there are plenty of small family businesses in home-building, for example. They just don't happen to have a big fancy silicon valley name with a VC backing them. They do pretty well for themselves in their community, and don't have a huge desire to scale infinitely.
• quickthrowman 3y ago
  > Why are there no startups in the real estate construction sector? It is a highly profitable business Because your assumption about it being a highly profitable business is incorrect. It’s highly competitive, and net margins for large construction firms are in the single digit percent range. What insights do you think a computer programmer has about construction that a field of professionals hasn’t already considered?
• kjkjadksj 3y ago
  Does anyone know why the “sears catalog” model of homebuilding no longer works today?
  • zacharyaustin11 3y ago
    matt risinger features precut lumber packages. it still exists for custom builds but generally tract homes are built as simply as possible. It does feel like buying a plan online should come with a material package but no one offers this to my knowledge. Home Depot and lowes did catalogues where you would buy the components from them out of a book there isn't much accountability for waste in construction and wood has been cheap compared to other costs
• zabzonk 3y ago
  Why is this not "Ask HN"?
• civeng 3y ago
  I am squarely in the business and there are successful and failed startups everywhere. It is dynamic, challenging but there is defintely no shortage of people succeeding. Perhaps the startups just dont have the buzz or respect? Many successful ones are already mentioned, like Procore for example. There are many more focusing in the data collection and modeling space including BIM. For example, there are still tremendous opportunities solving little problems with data collection and selling to Trimble. Or automating tasks in software and selling to Autodesk. Or add CAD like tools to a PDF reader and sell that for a hundred million (BlueBeam). The list is pretty endless, no shortage there. I believe the shortage is perhaps the humble humans that understand construction thoroughly AND understand technology to a level that would allows a bridge between the two to be constructed. My favorite failed unicorn startup in this space that I believe demonstrates the difficulty of construction is Katerra. I personally dealt with them as a vendor and immediately knew they would fail even before Softbank gave them a billion dollars. The hubris was off the charts. A bunch of tech people that tried to hire people in the business but just couldn't understand the scale of difficulties or challenges. I must admit they generated a fair amount of schadenfreude in me.
  • quickthrower2 3y ago
    > immediately knew they would fail even before Softbank gave them a billion dollars. That made me chuckle :-)
  • kbrownlees 3y ago
    I am in horizontal construction (in Australia) and it is pretty much the same story. The key is having a person who can relate to both the corporate & project people, and has the understanding to translate that into a useful product. Quite rare it seems.
  • mustacheemperor 3y ago
    Interesting note on Katerra, if you visit DPR’s headquarters in Sacramento, there is a vision statement on the wall from around 99 stating their intent to become to construction what HP had been to computers - winning by driving the cutting edge with smart innovation. Not so different from the Katerra pitch, except that DPR is run by seasoned construction professionals who want to leverage lessons from tech - not technocrats who think the building industry needs to be told what to do.
• mschuster91 3y ago
  As someone who actually worked in construction (excavation in my case): - it is immensely capital intensive at scale. Your average excavator runs in the mid 5 digits, cranes and other specialized equipment way more. If you want to start a nationwide company, no one is stopping you, but be ready to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars before you made a single cent of income. - Staffing is just as bad... you can't outsource the grunt work to the cheapest contractor overseas, you need actually certified people on site and most young people don't want to work in that area anymore as it is really hard, literally back breaking work. - it is, and that for good reason, extremely regulated by government. No one dies if Facebook is down for an hour because someone fucked up a deployment. Mistakes in construction can cost lives or cause serious bodily harm or damages to nature (e.g. a sewer leaking into a groundwater table). - almost none of it is automatable or in any way "disruptible" by a startup. Sure you can improve a bit by investing in automation or better digital tooling, but the ROI is in the single digits. - most of the industry is decentralized small contractors. You can't go viral with construction, you can't build monopolies to extract rents later on. - regulations are completely different everywhere on all levels, meaning you can't do a "build a standard whitelabel solution and sell it for cheap" job. - most of the industry is extremely local and "knowing" people is how you get business. At the same time, purchasing is extremely local as well. If you want to construct a new home, you ask other home builders on recommendations for contractors. - ETA: Yes of course there are giant companies in the construction world, but these companies don't do any small scale shit, these companies don't even return calls unless you're talking dozens of millions of euros of volume. But you can't really "disrupt" these either because of the sheer amount of everything you need just to get off the ground. - ETA2: Another issue is a lot of the trades are run by older people with a ... seriously lacking understanding of modern IT. You'd be surprised how many essentially run off of Outlook, Excel and a CAD program. You'll have a very hard time pitching something to a crowd that has specialized in a specific thing and all but ossified there. - Testing opportunities are scarce. Construction is an insanely risky business, delays causing significant followup costs and penalties, so you'll have it even harder to pitch something unevaluated to someone.
  • ksec 3y ago
    >As someone who actually worked in construction (excavation in my case): I dont think we could tackle construction as a whole. But if "Tech" ( Not just Software ) could help with all the smaller things. Like somehow make excavation 10-20x faster and cheaper.
• aportnoy 3y ago
  I recently interviewed with a fantastic startup in that space called TestFit (testfit.io).
  • zacharyaustin11 3y ago
    this is a big deal, getting a project to pencil with GC construction costs for the owner/developer and ideation for the architect is a big win
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• mytailorisrich 3y ago
  The construction industry is innovative, but on the other hand it is also one of the oldest industries on the planet, dating back literally thousands of years. So innovation usually stems from new materials or tools hitting the market, but that does not happen every day.
• greenie_beans 3y ago
  why is it common that people in tech think they can change an industry with SaaS?
• elamje 3y ago
  Procore is a public company doing this. Vendor and BOM management on top of a bunch of other stuff
• paxys 3y ago
  If by startups you mean new businesses then there are plenty of them created all the time in the construction industry. Think local independent contracting firms relying on financing options like SBA loans and regular bank loans. Some succeed and some fail, just like everywhere else. Going by the tech definition of startup though, sectors like construction simply don't have the kind of economics that VCs want to put their money behind. Barriers like: - lots of regulation - lots or manpower requirements - low margin - established hierarchies, relationships, and general ways of doing business that are hard to disrupt - need to have hyperlocal presence - need to deal with people rather than technology - scaling has a high variable cost all make it unattractive for the "three dudes with a laptop looking to disrupt" types, since it is very unlikely that they are going to be able to have hyper growth and a large exit a few years down the line.
• sparkelio 3y ago
  Large scale construction is mainly about one thing: winning projects that you can deliver cheaper than what you won the bid for. If you can help construction companies winning the right projects, you’ll be very useful. So many construction companies has died simply because of winning projects they couldn’t deliver.
• sroussey 3y ago
  Blockable https://www.Blokable.com https://www.Blokable.com
• fmajid 3y ago
  There are a number of startups working on 3D-printing homes, which I'd vlassify as a genuine innovation as opposed to the usual "disruption" grifts.
• sashank_1509 3y ago
  AIM (Autonomous Intelligent Machines) is trying to automate construction vehicles, so is BILT robotics to name some. Definitely not as much as you would expect though
• analogtom 3y ago
  Why, because you actually have to build something, not code that millions of people can download an app. Here in Austin TX, there is a company, ICON that is trying to mass 3D print homes. It is not going so good. They are slower than framing, drywall & mason crews. Also final finish is ugly in my opinion.
• symonda 3y ago
  I think there are quite a few startups in this sector, see for instance: https://www.symonda.com/search?query=buildings+construction https://www.symonda.com/search?query=buildings+construction
• thrashh 3y ago
  Don’t forget that civil engineering and construction are literally the oldest fields. Millions of people have had their minds on this for millennia.
• TheGRS 3y ago
  You would need to solve problems that involve real people building or inspecting things. The work is variable enough that a person is the most flexible tool to handle most parts of construction. Labor is the most expensive part to deal with. The materials are pretty small margins otherwise. There have been numerous improvements in construction methods and materials, even in recent years. One that sticks out to me is vinyl plank flooring. Vinyl used to be a good material but a pain to install. There was a change to make the material into planks that clip together instead of a large rollout sheet. Now this is one of the fastest, cheapest, and dare I say best materials for your floor, and it just took a different approach to the manufacturing and delivery to change it. Any new or old home I see features vinyl planking prominently because it takes only a weekend to install. But no one like "owns" vinyl plank flooring. One company probably developed the idea mimicking how wood planking works, and every other vinyl company copied them. Even new companies entered the market because it sold well. So the opportunities are out there, but if you change something in the materials or method of installation space you generally are only innovating something the rest of the industry with later ape. There's not as much opportunity to become the new Facebook of some new material or easy-to-install method you've developed. Now if you could somehow replace one of the big time or cost sinks to construction at scale I think you'd have something: inspections, specialists, and the wait for these two to interact. Inspections are generally there for a good reason and are government-run, so it would be a tough nut to crack, and it would take a maverick to do it, but it does seem like there is opportunity there. Scheduling between specialist roles like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC also seems like a big one. I've noticed the bigger HVAC companies in my area get business because they can promise quick results, and they do that by having those specialists on the same staff and scheduling them all out appropriately. Contractors take forever because they need to sub-contract and coordinate people. If you have everyone under one umbrella you can manage the timetable better. But none of these things scream "start-up tech business" to me.
• epolanski 3y ago
  There are plenty of startups in real estate here in Europe. Can't think of a single one that does well though.
• sdirjtlik 3y ago
  There are some extremely interesting startups in the real estate construction sector. There are companies manufacturing tiny homes. There are companies automating individual expensive tasks like floor layout. However, any or most of the on-site tasks in real estate construction fall under the category of "things that are difficult to automate". And we are making some progress in standardized and modular homes, but many, many homes are still unique. Americans like their cult of individuality, and that seems to find one of its greatest expressions in home purchasing. On top of that, in many markets, construction isn't the most expensive part of a home purchase so it's not the part we focus on optimizing. I live in the Bay Area where permitting can cost more and take longer than construction.
• deesep 3y ago
  Cleancrete is made by a Swiss based startup called Oxara[0] It's a cement-free building material that hardens in 24 to 48 hours. The product is mostly made of 70% recycled construction waste. [0] https://oxara.earth/ https://oxara.earth/
• jrm4 3y ago
  This is such a good question, because I use "construction" as an example of an industry that's more or less the opposite of "software" today. Because time has made people actually good at it. Construction is overwhelmingly safe and solid and reliable. It has well thought out processes and failsafes. Perhaps most importantly, it has real liability. If the building causes harm, someone's getting in trouble. None of the above is meaningfully true for software.
• sparrc 3y ago
  In Seattle there's a company called "Sustainable Living Innovations (SLI)" that a few years ago started this modular apartment building that was supposedly going to fly right up because their modules are so efficient: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/company-breaks-ground-worlds-most-sustainable-apartment-building-seattle-belltown-environment/281-f7fa67f0-5712-4710-a8ae-f37cc4e993b5 https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/company-bre... That was two years ago, and I can clearly see the building is still not done. It's gone up at a snail's pace compared to "traditional" construction nearby. Might be that the company is having financing and/or supply-chain issues.
• MostlyStable 3y ago
  You might be interested in this article "A Brief History of Construction Startips" [0], as well as the entire substack. [0]https://www.construction-physics.com/p/a-brief-history-of-construction-startups https://www.construction-physics.com/p/a-brief-history-of-co...
• Solvency 3y ago
  There are. Higharc.com.
• renewiltord 3y ago
  Capital intensive, labour intensive, long lead times, heterogenous high regulation. That keeps out serious players from office or residential real-estate. However, there are many self-storage startups that are doing quite well. Any two of those factors above can be dealt with, but all four in concert is problematic. The reasons why are: - Capital intensive: on its own, this is VC-funded business heaven. However, combine with labour intensive and you can't get good margins; long lead times and you can't iterate; heterogenous high regulation environment and you can't get economy of scale. - Labour intensive: on its own, this is fine, but the labour here will cut into margins because it is not R&D-markable and it is controlled (unions). Combine with long lead times and your payback period is insufficient to maintain cash flow without massive funding; combine with heterogenous high regulation and you can't hire labour consistently across places - Long lead times: This is okay for businesses where you have cheap acquisition and the demand variability is low; but real estate markets are fixed, it costs a lot for you to ship your product. Combine with heterogeneous high regulation and you cannot rely on being able to take your product to the new place if local demand has changed. - Heterogeneous high regulation: Homes are heavily regulated. Some of these are for safety, and others are because of the idiosyncrasies of local markets (SF's "windows must be made of wood"), so you have no fungibility of product. You need cheap customer acquisition, low counterparty risk, and low demand variation for this to work. Uber was capital-intensive, and labour intensive, but I think the lead times were short. They could spin up and spin down markets quite fast, and though some markets had regulation heterogeneity, most were unprepared for Uber and the regulation was not strongly enforced. WeWork solved the problem with offices by acquiring existing buildings. This is a strategy that is commonly used in high-regulation environments: one of my friends acquired a FedRAMP-compliant company and another acquired a compounding pharmacy to advance their startups. You can bypass the regulation by acquiring someone who has achieved compliance. But compliance in RE is a per-product outcome! Gusto/Rippling et al. solved the labour intensiveness of things through automation. This is great in non-tangible domains. You don't have a physical product. Automation is easier to build for that than something that requires robotics. Long lead times are the real killers, though. You need a real technological or regulatory advantage to break that open. Tesla had a bunch of those: pioneer of mass-market EVs, regulatory EV credit timing. SpaceX also did: government contracts. Honestly, dealing with long lead times (and the resulting customer payback period) is probably the hardest thing in the world, and his rare skill at doing that is why Elon Musk is so wealthy. Honestly, you can build a debt-funded self-storage company and it takes grit and good location choice. There's no formula to it, and you will likely do better making L7 at Amazon, but it's a thing you could do. But otherwise, I'd stay away from real-estate unless you have the sheer bullheadedness it takes to deal with a high-reg environment.
• castellanic 3y ago
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• DeathArrow 3y ago
  According to Oxford English Dictionary, a start-up is "a company that is just beginning to operate". Do you have doubts that there are lots of newly founded bussineses in the construction sector?
• OliverJones 3y ago
  What could a YC-style startup do for construction? A lot of stuff is already done. There's total standardization of parts sizes, and has been for decades. If you order a 2x4" wall stud from your local lumber yard, it will be the same size as the ones you order tomorrow. (It won't be 2x4, but that's another story.) Doors, windows, stairways, plasterboard, switchboexes, plumbing parts, basically everything in stock at a Lowes, are all designed to standard sizes, made in factories, and delivered to the site. The CAD software has all those standards built in. Payroll and scheduling for workers? Done. Ordering? Done. I imagine any startup app opportunities will be in something you'd only learn about by going out to jobs sites and swinging a hammer for a year or two. If someone came in with such an idea, it might be wise to say "let's go on a tour of the jobsites you've been on in the last year" just as a way of validating real experience.
• solardev 3y ago
  I'd settle for a prefab DIY tiny house. They do exist but cost many tens of thousands still, or sometime low hundreds of thousands :( And takes months to build. Wish I could just build one in a few days, IKEA style.
• cm2012 3y ago
  There's plenty, ProCore is a huge public company
• Tiktaalik 3y ago
  It is probably because whatever few technical challenges may exist in the real estate sector that software could aid are utterly dominated by the intractable problems posed by politics and regulation. We understand very well how to build housing, and we have understood how to build housing for a very, very long time, but for political reasons, because communities have been taken over by political interests that outright opposed to new housing we choose not to. You could come up with some novel construction technique that makes building homes more efficient, but it wouldn't matter if the city doesn't approve new homes to be built.
• dragonwriter 3y ago
  > Why are there no startups in the real estate construction sector? The existencd of startups in a space isn’t the default. There needs to a be reason (a novel model of some kind, for instance) for them to exist.
• dragonwriter 3y ago
  > Why are there no startups in the real estate construction sector? The existence of startups in a space isn’t the default. There needs to a be reason (a novel model of some kind, for instance) for them to exist.
• fractalnetworks 3y ago
  We have a subsidiary in stealth mode specializing on low cost ICF construction. Stay tuned!
• fblp 3y ago
  https://www.owow.com/ https://www.owow.com/ is a startup in this space with active and completed projects in the Bay Area
• inciampati 3y ago
  Yes there are! Aro Homes is a prime mover: https://www.aro.homes/ https://www.aro.homes/
• YossarianFrPrez 3y ago
  While not precisely "real estate construction" the NSF has funded many construction-related companies through its SBIR program, many of which are pretty cool: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/topics/advanced-materials/ https://seedfund.nsf.gov/topics/advanced-materials/ SBIR-style startups involve discovering new things. Success in real estate construction (strictly speaking) doesn't seemingly rely on having deep and novel insights about the world.
• rjmahadev 3y ago
  Great discussion, I agree with most of the points being made. That being said, I've spent the last 15 years building $1B+ businesses that digitally transform construction & manufacturing and my co-founder built a $1B+ GC-fabricator. We see a huge opportunity for software to transform prefab & construction especially around affordable housing. Besides putting our money where our mouth is through our company www.raap.builders we also have agreements with some major logos/partners. Although we are still working on early pilots, we are looking to expand our founding team to bring in engineer & business development talent that has construction tech experience/interest. Feel free to DM me rj@raap.builders if you'd like to chat.
• black_13 3y ago
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