While not precisely "real estate construction" the NSF has funded many construction-related companies through its SBIR program, many of which are pretty cool: h

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.