Bricks & Bytes

"Have we seen the productivity benefit from that? I think it's reasonable to say that no, no, we haven't."That is Ryan Maibach, President and CEO of Barton Malow, on the software stackhis own teams are carrying.Roughly 40 different tools for a project manager. Around 35 for a superintendent.He is not describing a company that failed to adopt technology. He is describing one that adopted a lot of it and is now counting the cost.His point on this week's episode was not that the tools are bad. Several of themwork. It is that digging foundations, placing concrete and erecting steel have not fundamentally changed, while the process wrapped around those activities has grown exponentially more complex. He is seeing burnout, and he is not seeing the productivity.Then he took it somewhere harder.If a construction manager exists partly to help a client overcome informationasymmetry, and AI hands that client the same knowledge directly, what is the service actually worth?Full episode out now. Link below.#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters00:00 Intro01:45 Quickfire: builder or technologist04:41 What Barton Malow actually builds07:28 Where the industry goes in the next ten years09:53 Sponsors12:54 Labour, cost and the technology question13:22 Why the downturn worries him more than the labour shortage16:37 Data centers, and the pushback from inside his own team19:09 Steering a company when nobody knows what happens next22:10 What construction executives should prioritise right now24:42 The AI strategy paradox30:07 Second brains, and what happens to the general contractor33:58 40 tools per PM and no productivity to show for it36:50 LIFTbuild: building a tower from the top down41:39 What they got wrong trying to change the industry45:45 Hyperscalers as clients48:42 How he actually runs his week52:43 What he screens for when hiring56:38 Bias, and the leader he learned the most fromOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

This week's briefing explores three of the biggest stories shaping construction.First, we examine the first signs that the data centre boom may be beginning to moderate. Planning activity dipped in June, several high profile projects have been cancelled or withdrawn, and local opposition is increasingly influencing what gets built. We look at what the latest data really says, and whether this is simply a pause or the start of a broader shift.Next, we unpack Arcadis' latest International Construction Costs report, why UK construction has become one of the most expensive markets in the world, and how the balance of power may be shifting from clients to contractors.Finally, we revisit the AI pricing battle as new models, open weight releases and changing enterprise economics reshape the market. We also discuss Microsoft's warning on AI, data ownership and what construction businesses should be thinking about before committing to long term AI strategies.Plus, we cover Monumental's $32M funding round, TerraFirma's $100M Series A, and the business lessons from NFL quarterback Jake Browning's demolition company.

"I've been cut four times."That is an active NFL quarterback talking. Jake Browning backs up Baker Mayfield at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He also co-owns Sutter Street Demolition, an interior demolition subcontractor in LA.He started with one $30,000 trash hauling truck. No flashy launch. Just a low stakes way to build relationships with GCs before bidding a single demo job.On this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we asked him:→ Why he stays away from structural demo (for now)→ How low overhead wins bids without change order games→ Why he'd rather face a third and long blitz than a late paying GCFull episode on YouTube and Spotify. #bricksandbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #construction #constructiontech #aecChapters00:00 Intro00:36 NFL Construction Trivia03:25 NFL Players Who Own Construction Companies06:12 The Biggest NFL Stadiums Ever Built09:05 SoFi Stadium Construction Cost: $2.6B to $5.5B11:57 Jake Browning Joins the Show13:17 Playing QB for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers15:11 Why an NFL Player Started a Demolition Company17:34 Starting a Business With One $30,000 Truck22:11 How Athletes Should Invest Their Money27:21 NFL Lessons for Running a Business30:12 Finding Your Competitive Advantage37:14 How to Bid Demolition Jobs42:19 Leadership Lessons From the NFL42:48 Why Athletes Struggle to Monetize Their Brand44:14 How to Win Work With General Contractors45:28 Why Being Normal Wins in Construction47:17 The Best NFL Stadiums to Play In49:19 The Scariest Player in the NFL51:32 Inside Sutter Street Demolition55:26 Growing a Demolition Business the Right Way

"If you were saying, I'm adding AI to the product or we're now agentic, we now have an agentic AI component, it's not really news."Katie Zeppieri said the quiet part out loud.We invited the Founder and CEO of The MicDrop Agency onto Bricks & Bytes to demystify PR for construction tech. Her agency worked with Document Crunch from its early days through to the Trimble acquisition, so she has seen exactly what earns coverage and what gets deleted from a journalist's inbox.A few things that stuck with us:Events are still the number one marketing channel in construction, but only if you do the work before you land at the venue.Muck Rack's research found that the overwhelming majority of AI citations come from earned media. If journalists are not writing about you, ChatGPT is not talking about you either.If you have ever sent out a "we now integrate with X" press release, this episode is for you. Full conversation on YouTube and Spotify now.#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #constructiontech #construction #aec #aiChapters00:00 Intro01:17 How PR Works in Construction Technology03:50 PR Strategy Explained: The Communications Triangle06:44 What Makes a Story Newsworthy?09:34 Common PR Mistakes Startups Make10:22 Sponsors13:23 Why Most PR Announcements Get Ignored15:44 How to Build Relationships With Journalists18:38 How Startups Get Featured in Major Publications21:28 How Speaking at Industry Events Builds Your Brand24:29 In-Person vs Virtual Events: Which Works Best?27:36 How Media Relations Builds Long-Term Credibility28:55 Construction Tech PR Case Study: Document Crunch30:59 How to Announce a Startup Acquisition36:11 PR Strategy for Seed-Stage Startups40:26 Founder-Led Marketing and Personal Branding45:23 Public Speaking Tips for Startup Founders48:00 The Future of PR and Marketing54:16 What PR Will Look Like in 2028Our Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

Prototypes and demoware.That was Monumental two years ago, at their $25m Series A.Yesterday they announced a $32m Series B led by Khosla Ventures. In between, their robots laid the entire brickwork on 100 houses, plus canal walls and commercial buildings, as a subcontractor carrying full liability for the work.The day after the announcement, co-founder Salar al Khafaji sat down with us.In his words:"The Series A was basically still like an R&D round... we had some prototypes, we had some like demoware basically.""The Series B was raised off actual success."And the line that will start arguments:"Everyone is obsessed with speed. Speed doesn't really matter."A bricklaying robot company telling you speed doesn't matter. His reasoning is worth the listen on its own.Also in this one:> Why SAM and Hadrian X were too early, and what changed> Day zero to day one of a robot crew arriving on site> The economics vs a traditional bricklaying gang> UK going commercial, US pilots starting this year> Why the entire facade is next. Not in a decade, within a couple of years.

"I can make you something that looks like it's really expensive, but it took me four hours."Dustin Burns, SVP of Technology at McCownGordon Construction, on the software demo you just sat through.He built a cost history web app. Their real cost data, region benchmarking, conceptual estimates. One HTML file. Four hours.His verdict: "And it is vaporware."The point isn't that it was bad. It's that from the outside, you can't tell anymore.So he looks for the ones building their own models, not the ones wrapping someone else's API.Full episode with Dustin Burns is live now. Link below!#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters00:00  Teaser00:50 The Stress Beard (And Why He Shaves Every Morning)03:03  Should Construction Companies Build Their Own Software?05:29  What AI Actually Looks Like Inside a $1B Contractor08:32  AI Sprawl: Governing Tools Your Team Builds Without You10:50  Reality Capture, Laser Scanning and Drones on the Jobsite14:10  Construction Robotics: Building a Robot for Under $5K16:21  Sponsors19:21  AI Estimating: When Your Client Prices the Job Without You22:39  The Silver Tsunami and Construction's Knowledge Transfer Problem27:29  Voice AI in the Field: Less Typing, More Talking30:25  Why a Safety Checklist Has No Value to a Superintendent32:03  Emerging Construction Technology Worth Watching34:30  How to Actually Sell Construction Software to a GC36:19  Getting Pitched 10 AI Tools a Week37:39  How to Spot an AI Wrapper (And Why Most Demos Are Vaporware)40:05  Construction 2037: What the Jobsite Looks Like in 11 Years45:16  Humans and Robots on the Same Jobsite48:03  AI Governance Insurance: The Next SDI?49:55  Automated Progress Tracking: The Problem Nobody Has SolvedOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

This week's briefing covers three things every construction leader should understand before they sign off on anything this year.David Gal from Samsara makes the argument that three quarters of construction hasn't even started the thing that comes before AI. Not behind on AI. Behind on the step underneath it. He lays out a four stage journey, and most firms are at stage zero, still on the clipboard, still ringing round to find out where the excavator is. One firm he works with lost twenty million dollars of equipment in a single year without knowing it. The cost of not digitising is not zero. You just cannot see the bill yet.Then KPMG surveyed over two thousand senior executives across twenty countries. Nearly a third said they had no idea where their growing AI costs were coming from. MIT looked at corporate AI projects and found ninety five percent of them fail, not on the technology, but on the groundwork nobody did. The AI worked. The organisation around it did not.And the data centre boom, the thing keeping order books healthy while housing sits flat, is starting to slip. Not because the money has dried up. The four biggest tech companies are spending north of six hundred and fifty billion dollars this year alone. It is slipping because the wait for transformers and switchgear has stretched from two years to five. You can have the land, the funding and the chips and still not be able to build.The same problem is underneath all three. And construction, the industry everyone calls backward, already knows what it is.Drop your answer in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

"Real AI is way more about how you do change management than picking the right technology."That is Dr. Sarah Buchner, founder and CEO of Trunk Tools, on this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes.A year on from her $40M Series B, she joined the roundtable to explain why the hardest part of construction AI is not the model. It is getting people to trust it.✅ Why Trunk Tools will not sell you agents unless you let them train your team first✅ The shift from point solution to a "system of action" that sits on top of Procore and Autodesk✅ Why a new AI takeoff startup seems to launch every week, and why most break on the last 20%✅ Her blunt line on vibe coded tools: "Don't come on the market with something that Claude can already do."Plus: a structural engineer breaks down the Midtown column buckling, and SubBase's Eric Helitzer on why a fintech led his $7M Series A.

You can vibe code software in a weekend. You can't vibe code a decade of safety data.That was the throughline with Ben Leach and Andrew Barron of HammerTech. In an AI era obsessed with what's actually defensible, their answer wasn't features. It was data.Ben built the company out of his own frustration on site:"what's the point of sitting in there making sure that all your compliance is up to scratch if people are getting hurt out in the field"In today's episode of Bricks & Bytes, we got into the real competitor (paper and spreadsheets, not rival software), why data centres are raising the safety bar for everyone, and what a solved job site looks like in ten years.Full episode out now. Link below#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters00:00 Intro01:16 Introduction to HammerTech and Safety Technology08:59 The State of Safety in Construction15:25 The Transition from Manual to Digital Safety Processes24:20 The Future of Reality Capture and Data in Construction33:34 Customer Onboarding and Implementation Process42:20 Navigating the Competitive Landscape48:13 Future of Safety Technology in Construction

"How much money did we spend last year on small equipment?" That's the one question David Gal, VP of Product & Engineering for ConnectedEquipment at Samsara, says stops most construction leaders cold. Most of them can't answer it. And that blind spot is exactly why so many still can't use AI. On today's episode, David walks us through the data maturity curve everycontractor climbs, whether they realise it or not: Phase 0 : clipboards, spreadsheets, and hundreds of thousands of assets nobodycan locatePhase 1 : digitise the fleet, drop accidents, cut fuelPhase 2 : insights, utilisation, proactive maintenancePhase 3 : agents making the phone calls for you His warning: you can't buy your way into Phase 3. Skip the groundwork and the AIhas nothing to stand on. We also get into stolen fleets, autonomous job sites, and why one pane of glassbeats another point solution. Watch the full episode on Youtube and Spotify.#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction#constructiontech #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:35 The Data Backbone Construction Never Built02:57 Why Construction Operations Are So Hard to Digitize05:18 The Phases of Digitizing a Construction Business08:10 What Staying Analog Actually Costs You09:51 Sponsor12:52 The Real Cost of Analog (cont.)14:09 Getting From Phase Zero to Your First Digital Win17:01 What the Data Reveals Once You Digitize20:00 Putting AI to Work in Daily Operations27:32 How AI Is Reshaping Fleet Management30:15 Where Virtual Assistants Actually Add Value34:10 Getting Your Team to Adopt New Tech36:22 What Autonomy Really Means for Construction43:10 Where Contractors Should Start Tomorrow

This month's recap covers what June 2026 actually meant for the industry, and it was not what anyone had pencilled in.The cheaper borrowing that stalled schemes were relying on did not arrive. The European Central Bank raised rates. The Fed held. The Bank of England held. And a spike in oil above 125 dollars a barrel, triggered by fears over the Strait of Hormuz, made central banks nervous about cutting at all. On the materials side, US tariffs on steel, aluminium and copper are sitting at 50 percent, with non-residential material costs rising at their fastest pace since 2022. One estimate puts 17,500 dollars of added cost onto a single new American home.Both doors closed in the same month.Then the split that was supposed to be temporary. Data centres are now a bigger construction category than offices. But the thing holding that work back is not money, it is power, and grid connections are running five to seven years behind the builds. The boom is real. The gate is megawatts.Plus a full recap of the three June briefings you may have missed, on safety tech, the AI price war, what happens when AI hands your client the knowledge you used to charge for, and why the first piece of reconstruction technology in Ukraine is not a crane.And some trivia. What Gustave Eiffel built inside the Statue of Liberty, and what a Boston World Cup pitch crew found ten inches underground that nobody had touched in twenty years.The LinkedIn comment thread for this episode is where the conversation is happening. Come and tell us where you land.

$95M raises, Palantir's sovereignty play, and a debate that nearly boiled over. This one had everything.This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we sat down with Alain Waha (CTO, Buro Happold), Marc Minor (CEO, Higharc) and Jeevan Kalanithi (CEO, OpenSpace), alongside Owen, Patric, Martin and Dustin, for one of our most heated roundtables yetOn the table:→ Palantir's new sovereign AI push with Nvidia, and whether "no contradiction between sovereignty and alpha" is real insight or pure marketing→ Why Dustin thinks forward-deployed engineers "need to go away"→ Higharc's fresh $95M Series C and the case for replacing AutoCAD in homebuilding→ Whether the GC is really just an insurance company in disguise→ Where OpenSpace is taking spatial AI eight months after acquiring DisperseFull episode on YouTube and Spotify.#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:40 Alain Waha's Global ConTech Tour: India, US, Canada, UK03:44 Why the West Underestimates India in Construction06:36 India vs China: The $7 Trillion Construction Boom09:25 Palantir vs Anthropic: The AI Sovereignty War12:42 How Alex Karp Markets Palantir (And Why It Works)23:47 Why Nobody Understands "Ontology": Palantir Buzzwords Decoded24:51 Do You Really Need Forward Deployed Engineers?27:55 Why Construction Is Really an Insurance Industry29:14 Palantir in Construction: Cavtera, McCarthy and the Data Play31:37 Higharc's $95M Series C to Replace AutoCAD (Marc Minor)33:32 How Higharc Serves Home Builders at Scale37:02 Higharc's Business Model and Home Building Challenges40:00 Homes as Data: Inside the Higharc x USLBM Deal46:02 World Cup Banter: US Football and Officiating46:41 Is Football the World's Greatest Sport? The Debate49:08 OpenSpace Spatial AI: Agents That See the Jobsite (Jeevan Kalanithi)55:16 Data Centres and the AI Delusion Killing Startups01:07:04 What 10 Years as CEO Taught Jeevan Kalanithi

"Even the most digitized job sites still have a binder and a filing cabinet in the trailer." — Juliana Richard Butler, ProcoreWe sat down with Procore's Director of Product for Quality, Safety, and Media as part of our ongoing series on the state of construction safety technology. Her take cuts through a lot of the AI hype: paper isn't going anywhere soon, and the real unlock is reducing friction, not adding more forms.✅ NFC-enabled Studson helmets can surface certifications with a single tap, no wallet required✅ Procore's newly acquired Datagrid AI is built to support human intuition on the jobsite, not replace it✅ Healthcare's forced interoperability offers lessons for construction, but construction's openness to new tools is the advantage healthcare doesn't have✅ The best safety tech buyers plan 2-3 years out, not around a single RFPWatch now on Youtube and Spotify. Our free Construction Safety Report. Download your copy here: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters00:00 Intro00:30 How to fix safety on construction sites01:13 What construction can learn from healthcare safety04:43 How mobile apps are changing construction safety07:39 Is construction safety actually digitised yet?10:23 What safety software really does on site14:18 Why workers don't adopt safety technology19:15 The real reason safety tech doesn't get used24:20 Where Procore fits in construction safety29:16 How AI will change construction safety29:17 Will AI replace safety managers?31:41 Using technology to prevent site accidents35:08 How to build a safety culture on site38:55 Why psychological safety matters in construction39:50 How customers shape safety technology45:28 Compliance vs productivity in safety tech50:37 How to choose the right safety technology

"We don't see the real costs of AI."That's Jean-Marc Frangos, ex-BT in Silicon Valley, now running AI at Shimizu, one of Japan's "Big 5" contractors, founded in 1804.We sat down with him to unpack how a 220 year old builder actually rolls out AI across a 20,000 person workforce. The playbook, not the hype:✅ Start with your data, not the model✅ 5,000+ staff on one AI platform in ~7 months✅ When the subsidies end, undisciplined teams get hit "like a ton of bricks"

This week's briefing covers three conversations every construction leader should sit with.Ryan Maibach runs Barton Malow, a five billion dollar builder with over a hundred years of history. He is turning work away in the best market his firm has ever seen, and that is not the surprising part. The surprising part is what worries him most. A large chunk of what builders get paid for is knowing things the client does not. If AI hands that knowledge to the client directly, what exactly are you selling?Rob Painter runs Trimble and arrives at the same warning from the other side. Construction got faster task by task and never fixed the system those tasks sit inside. His read on AI is identical, and his advice to any CEO trying to navigate it is blunt. You cannot delegate understanding the thing that is about to reshape your business.And then Ukraine. Not the war as you have seen it on the news, but what is being built underneath it. A country that moved from software to world leading drone technology out of necessity is now positioning construction tech as the next step. The rebuild has not started yet, because you cannot rebuild what you have not counted, and something new gets destroyed even as you are counting it.Three conversations. One question running through all of them.Join the argument in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

Ukraine's reconstruction has been estimated at $588 billion by the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5), although our guest argues the true figure is likely higher.In this episode of Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we speak with Oleg Demydenko, Chair of Ukraine's National ConTech Cluster, about the technologies, engineering approaches and digital systems emerging during Ukraine's reconstruction.We also discuss:* Why Ukraine's reconstruction is currently estimated at $588 billion (World Bank RDNA5)* How new infrastructure is being designed with modular, distributed and replaceable systems* Why Oleg says, "We have no time to sell it. We've already developed a new one."* NVIDIA's AI factory in Ukraine* Why Patric Hellermann believes humanoid robots are an overhyped investment category* Agility Robotics going public via a SPAC after deploying around 100 humanoid robotsIf you're interested in construction, construction technology, AI, robotics, infrastructure and venture capital, this episode explores the ideas, technologies and investment themes discussed by our panel.#construction #constructiontechnology #contech #ukraine #ai #robotics #infrastructure #venturecapitalOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:58 What We're Building for the ConTech Community02:01 Wispr Flow Voice AI: Owen's Honest Take03:29 Agility Robotics SPAC: Should Robots Go Public?05:50 How Much Is a Humanoid Robot Actually Worth?09:29 Humanoid Robotics: The Problems Nobody Talks About13:32 Can Humanoid Robots Be Used in War?16:01 Rebuilding Ukraine: The $588 Billion Plan23:32 How the War Is Changing Construction Technology27:36 Modular Steel That Protects Ukraine's Power Grid30:14 Designing Buildings to Survive Attacks32:46 Why Modular Construction Is the Future36:25 How Much of Ukraine Is Actually Destroyed?40:17 Ukrainian Founders: Stop Changing Your Name43:57 Is the Ukraine War Reaching a Turning Point?

"WhatsApp's the most successful construction technology tool ever built."Half a joke, but only half. That's what Prakash Senghani, Co-Founder and CEO of Navatech, told us on the latest Bricks & Bytes.His point: the workers who most need safety tech are the ones it never reaches. So instead of forcing them onto another clunky app, Navatech put its AI inside the tool they already use, in their own language, by voice, or from a photo.A few things that stuck with us:Most "digital transformation" in safety is just paper on a screenYou can't prove a negative, which makes safety ROI brutally hard to showThe scariest competitor isn't Procore or Autodesk, it's customers building their own tools with AIFull episode out now.

"I don't see this as a technology problem. I see it as a human problem."That's Rob Painter, CEO of Trimble, on what's really holding back AI in constructionIn this episode he made the case that:✅ Task productivity is largely solved, system productivity is the real unlock✅ AI is overhyped and underhyped at the same time, the difference is industry context✅ The barrier to AI value is organizational, not technical: "It's not AI for the sake of AI"✅ Across 100+ acquisitions, the thesis still fails if the culture and the people don't workFull conversation on build vs buy vs partner, the Document Crunch deal, and how he runs Trimble. Link in comments.#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcTrimble Inc: linkedin.com/company/trimbleTrimble Construction: linkedin.com/company/trimbleconstructionTrimble Civil Construction: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trimble-heavy-civil-constructionDocu Crunch: linkedin.com/company/document-crunch/Chapters00:00 Teaser01:01 Quickfire: Getting to Know the Trimble CEO03:15 Why Is Construction Productivity So Low?06:05 How Venture Capital Works in Construction Tech09:05 What Construction CEOs Actually Want From Tech12:11 What CEOs Really Say Behind Closed Doors13:59 Build vs Buy: Acquire or Build In-House?18:38 What 120 Acquisitions Taught Trimble20:07 Trimble's AI Strategy Explained25:54 Is AI Actually Worth It in Construction?27:59 How AI Drives Productivity and New Revenue30:18 AI in Construction: Hype vs Reality32:49 How Hardware and Software Connect on the Jobsite37:51 How to Actually Innovate in Construction Tech39:16 Rob Painter's Leadership Philosophy41:37 Staying Connected While Running a Huge Company44:23 What a CEO Learns From Other Leaders47:47 Finding Balance in Nature

SpaceX just paid $60 billion for Cursor. On this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, Patric wasn't buying the logic:"Why in the world would you buy an independent gas station chain and think that makes you more competitive with your bigger oil producing rival?"His take: Cursor is a reseller of tokens. Owning it doesn't make you a better model company — just a bigger, more exposed gas station.We also dug into Autodesk's $3.6B MaintainX deal, why Palantir won't win construction, and the $8 trillion data center buildout.Full episode out now.

The most overhyped term in construction tech right now? "AI-native startup."That's the take from Geoff Lewis, SVP of Product Management at Procoreand co-founder of Honest Buildings (acquired by Procore), who joinedus on Bricks & Bytes to talk about how an incumbent fights back in theAI era.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why Procore says it has already neutralised the speed advantage of AI-native startups✅ The submittal-checking agent that collapsed weeks of review into hours✅ Geoff's five-year bet on autonomous agents running RFIs end to end✅ Inside Procore's new capital planning and portfolio suite built for owners

"Every GC is one poorly managed incident away from wiping out the entireprofit for the project." That line from Simon Elliott, CEO of Breadcrumb, set the tone for one ofthe sharpest conversations we've had on construction safety tech. We sat down with Simon to dig into why most safety tools miss the point,and why the real unlock isn't compliance, it's productivity. Tune in to find out about:✅ Why "safety third" is the uncomfortable reality on many US job sites✅ The hidden cost of the superintendent turning up at 3am just to clear paperwork✅ What actually changes on site from day one to six months after going digital✅ Why trusted field data is becoming the foundation for AI in construction ▶️ Watch on YouTube and Spotify. Our free Construction Safety Report. Download your copy here: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/ #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc00:00 Teaser01:05 Introduction to Safety Technology in Construction06:07 The Importance of Safety and Compliance10:50 Technology's Role in Enhancing Safety16:06 From Compliance to Productivity21:02 Implementing Breadcrumb: A Case Study30:58 The Future of Safety Technology32:05 Integrating Technology in Construction38:14 The Importance of Data in Safety Technology42:04 Target Customers and Market Dynamics51:01 Navigating the Competitive Landscape56:57 The Future of Safety Technology in Construction

Spotify DescriptionThis week's briefing covers three shifts every construction leader should be watching.Workplace incidents in construction eat four to six percent of project cost. The average contractor makes two to three percent margin. That single comparison changes how you should think about safety technology, and this week the Bricks and Bytes State of Construction Safety Tech report goes live to prove it.Owen breaks down what touches your P&L: why your safety records are turning into a financial asset insurers will price off, why your next major client may force this tech on you before any regulator does, and which part of the hype to ignore for now.Then: the AI price war. Anthropic just released the most expensive model on the market the same week the Wall Street Journal reported OpenAI is weighing drastic price cuts. What that contradiction means for your software bills, and the two moves to make before your next renewal.And a trip to Paris, inside Vinci, a 300,000 person company built from 4,000 separate businesses, to answer one question: how does anything new actually survive at that scale?The answer connects straight back to why safety platforms live or die.Free Safety report below:https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/construction-safety/Join the argument in the comments of this week's LinkedIn post.

A VC fell asleep for 30+ minutes during a founder's pitch. The round stillclosed.This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, we traded the VC horror stories founders never forget, debated whether the hottest AI startups are just "reselling tokens," and brought on three founders fresh off funding rounds: Guy Saxelby (Earlytrade, $25M total raised), Adrian Rhaese (EnvioTech, €1M pre-seed) and Ben Waters (LightTable, $22M Series A).Tune in to find out about:✅ Why Patrick calls Lovable, Cursor and Vercel "resellers of tokens" and what that means for their valuations✅ How Earlytrade automates construction payments, with 10% of revenue already running with zero humans✅ The streetlight startup saving cities 80% on energy while mapping how a whole city moves✅ Dustin's no-mercy pushback on what it actually takes to be a "platform for pre-construction"Listen now on Spotify and YouTube. #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction#constructiontech #ai #vcChapters00:00 Intro01:10 VC Horror Stories Founders Never Share07:05 The Weirdest VC Behaviour We've Seen13:01 Why AI Costs Are Eating Your Margins19:15 Will AI Companies Ever IPO?25:49 How to Find Early Product-Market Fit33:24 Expanding Internationally: What Actually Works40:09 Where Construction Tech Innovation Happens45:48 The Growth Playbook for the Next 5 Years56:56 The Hardest Lessons of Entrepreneurship58:11 Why Timing Beats Everything in Business58:19 How Perception Shapes Professional Success59:10 Why Being Eccentric Is a Branding Advantage01:02:07 Where Tech Meets Construction01:04:09 AI That Actually Manages Construction Projects01:10:10 Why Pre-Construction Is Where the Money Is01:16:16 Mastering the Critical Path

"We have 2,000 agents going through your document, checking every single item in detail."This week we sat down with Brandon Smith and Raymond Zhao, co-founders of Structured AI, fresh off a $4.2M seed round they closed in just five days.Tune in to find out about:✅ How Brandon went from training an AI fighter jet at 17 to building construction AI after a single Reddit message✅ Why agentic AI finally cracks drawing review when traditional machine learning never could✅ The deterministic, no-confidence-score system with a full audit trail your team can sign off on✅ Where this goes next - an AI coworker that fixes errors straight back into your Revit model

"I currently haven't found a use case in which I haven't been able to build."That was Brett Adams on what Palantir Foundry can do in construction.This week on Bricks & Bytes we sat down with Dan Julien (Chief Revenue Officer) and Brett Adams (Forward Deployed Engineer and Head of Construction) of ForgeSight, the i4C born team implementing Palantir Foundry across the AEC industry, to cut through the rumours about what Palantir is actually doing in construction.Tune in to find out about:✅ Whether Palantir Foundry can really replace your ERP✅ What "forward deployed engineering" actually means on a job site✅ Whether Procore, Autodesk and Trimble survive a Palantir world✅ How a contractor rebuilt its entire operation on Foundry in roughly a year

Seven men carrying one 140kg steel bar, on the biggest infrastructure project in Britain. The founder of Laing O'Rourke saw it and concluded that in fifty years, nothing had changed.This week's Executive Briefing is about the man he hired to fix it. Chetan Kotur designed cars at Volvo, launched Polestar globally, then spent three and a half years looking at construction with outsider's eyes. At our private fireside in London this week, he shared his diagnosis on the record for the first time.In this briefing:The industry that innovates daily or dies, versus the industry that fears innovation might kill itWhy nobody in construction checks what competitors are doing (and what Polestar did instead)56% of construction injuries are musculoskeletal. No other industry still accepts thisHinkley Point C: how a precision rebar factory turned a month of work into a single shiftThe pattern across Europe: Laing O'Rourke's lab, Bouygues' Scale One, Vinci's hired field, and why testing grounds are multiplying as construction's innovation wave goes physicalFrom a Paris stage: investor Patric (Foundamental) on why tech aimed at 2% of construction's cost base was always going to disappointThe two questions that expose a weak tech vendor in five minutesA first look at our State of Construction Safety Tech report, landing next week: incidents consume 4 to 6% of project cost in an industry running 2 to 3% margins

A venture capitalist walks into a bar."I'll have what everyone else is having."Patrick told that joke about his own profession on this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, and it set up the sharpest exchange of the episode: venture stopped backing hard problems and started buying momentum.We're joined by Alain Waha, CTO of Buro Happold, and Richard Fifita, CEO of Veyor, fresh off a $7.5M Series A, alongside Dustin DeVan.What we get into:→ Autodesk's $3.6 billion all cash acquisition of MaintainX, and why Dustin, who watched this strategy take shape from inside Autodesk, says it all leads back to the digital twin→ "Knowledge arbitrage": Alain's framework for what stays defensible when knowledge becomes computable→ Why construction robotics needs systems integrators more than it needs humanoids→ How Veyor went from backed up concrete trucks to managing deliveries at JFK, SFO and major data center projectsFull episode is live now on YouTube and Spotify.#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:30 Introduction and Technical Challenges03:21 Live Streaming and Event Experiences06:13 Autodesk's Acquisition of MaintainX11:50 Data Ownership and Predictability in Construction16:23 Knowledge Arbitrage in Engineering and Robotics20:00 Exploring Knowledge Arbitrage in Robotics22:06 The Role of Systems Integration in Construction Robotics22:54 Challenges in Robotics for Construction Trades24:16 Collaborative Robots: The Future of Construction25:59 The Disconnect Between Innovation and AI in Construction27:30 Testing Software vs. Materials in Construction27:45 The Reluctance to Experiment in Construction Tech29:52 Capital Efficiency and Technology Adoption in Construction32:49 The Venture Capital Landscape and Its Challenges36:33 The Future of Venture Capital in Technology44:46 Innovative Event Planning in Construction Technology47:26 Branding and Customer Perception in Construction48:11 Disruption in Construction: Insights from Automotive Industry51:09 Bouygues' Innovation Lab: A New Era for Construction51:53 Introducing Richard: Veyor's Journey and Innovations56:59 Streamlining Material Management in Construction01:01:58 Challenges in Construction Scheduling and Delivery01:05:36 The Aussie Tech Scene in Austin, Texas

"AI won't help you if you're still using clunky software with a six-month learning curve." – Anita Venkiteswaran, E3 TechIn today's episode of Bricks and Bytes, we sat down with Anita, the driving force behind E3 Tech's AI-powered M&A strategy in construction, alongside two of her platform companies: Rob Metz (Sylvan) and Chris Weaver (Egan).Tune in to hear about:✓ Why 25,000+ specialty contractors represent a massive M&A opportunity✓ How AI is finally solving construction's 40-year productivity decline✓ What jobsite credibility really means for founders building construction tech✓ Why unified AI systems beat fragmented "point solutions" every timeAvailable now on Spotify and YouTube.#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #ai #vcChapters00:00 Intro01:39 Introduction to E3's Model and AI in M&A07:41 Identifying Ideal Acquisition Targets10:34 The Role of Technology in Modern Construction13:45 The Entrepreneur in Residence Model16:35 The Impact of AI on Construction Efficiency19:52 Building Relationships with AI Startups22:29 The Future of AI in Construction31:59 Leveraging AI for Contract Management32:42 The Evolution of VDC and BIM in Construction34:14 Enhancing Processes with Robotics and AI35:38 Attracting Talent through Technology36:38 AI Amplifying Human Expertise38:35 Transitioning Businesses and Succession Planning40:12 Navigating Business Ownership Transitions42:42 The Necessity of Adapting to Change46:41 Lessons Learned from Technological Implementation48:18 The Future of AI in Construction53:44 The Importance of Unified AI Solutions55:31 Integrating AI with Emerging Technologies58:27 Opportunities for Collaboration in the Industry

"$75M in 13 months. a16z just led their Series A."We sat down with Niklas Lindgren, Co-Founder & CEO of Endra, fresh off their $50M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, taking total funding to $75M in 13 months.Endra is building the purpose-built workspace for MEP engineering, already partnering with AtkinsRéalis, Buro Happold, WSP, Hoare Lea, Ramboll and AFRY.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why a16z led at Series A instead of waiting for later traction✅ The Stripe vs PayPal analogy behind Endra's category play (and why they're not replacing Revit)✅ The honest answer to the billable-hours paradox✅ What this means for the next generation of MEP graduatesWatch now on Spotify and YouTube

"You could get 60 reviews of a pizza in six seconds, but finding a new contractor takes 12 months and spreadsheets."That's how Riggs Kubiak described the construction industry in 2011 when he started Honest Buildings as a marketplace to connect owners with contractors.It didn't work.The pivot? A project management platform that became so valuable, Procore acquired it.We sat down with Riggs to talk about what killed the original idea, what saved the company, and why the phase of entrepreneurship nobody prepares for is what comes after the acquisition. His new book "Earned" launches June 2nd. Buy it here.The real conversation:✓ Why dominating a small category beats chasing everyone's problems✓ The execution hell of building two-sided marketplaces✓ What nobody tells you about life post-exit✓ The founder moments that don't make it into LinkedIn postsWatch the full episode now on YouTube and Spotify.#bricksandbytes #constructiontech #entrepreneurship #founders #aecOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro01:28 Introduction and Journey to Honest Buildings04:49 The Evolution of Honest Buildings11:10 Navigating the Pivot: Lessons Learned13:41 Sales Cycle Challenges in Construction Tech13:42 Sponsors16:44 Sales Cycle Challenges in Construction Tech28:45 Reflections on Key Mistakes and Difficult Times30:57 Acquisition by Procore: The Journey Ahead34:02 Closing the Gap in Construction Management35:38 The Importance of Negotiation in Acquisitions39:34 Navigating Post-Acquisition Roles42:00 The Entrepreneurial Residence Experience46:39 Founders Forum: Building Community48:45 Understanding Acquisition Motivations53:20 Reflections on the Integration Process56:13 The Journey of Entrepreneurship1:02:33 Life After Acquisition: The Next Chapter

Missed an episode of the Executive Briefing last month? This is your ten-minute catch-up.Four stories from the last four weeks, what each one means for your business, and which are worth going back to in full.Inside:The new kind of buyer circling construction, and why they want your firm, not your techThe market split the banks have started to price inThe contractor who killed his ERP, his dispatch system and his time cards, and rebuilt on one platformWhy AI got 280 times cheaper while everyone's bills went upNo longer form this week (I have been busy in France!! - more on that soon). Just the month that mattered, in plain English, for people who run construction businesses.Which of the four hit hardest? Tell us in the comments on the LinkedIn post.

"80% of the decks landing on her desk had AI on slide one."This week on Bricks & Bytes we sat down with Jennifer Davis, who recently joined Suffolk Technologies after five years as Managing Director of Techstars Boston, where she reviewed thousands of applications and ran 65+ companies through the program.She brought the kind of pattern recognition you only get from saying no a few thousand times.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why the bar has risen across pre-seed, seed, and Series A — and what VCs now want to see before they write a check✅ The co-founder mistake that kills more startups than bad ideas (and why 50/50 equity splits are a red flag)✅ Why "not all money is created equally" — and how founder-unfriendly terms signed early can derail an exit years later✅ What Jennifer is looking for as she takes the reins on Suffolk's Boost accelerator, and the founder profile she'd most want to back in 2027Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube

This week in construction: the official verdict on HS2 landed, and it's worse than most people realise. Cost to complete is now £87.7-102.7bn. First services delayed to 2036. Britain is paying 15-20x the European rate per kilometre for high-speed rail.But the more interesting stories happened underneath it.Owen breaks down what every construction executive needs to know about three things colliding this week.One. The AI cost paradox. Per-token prices have dropped 280x in two years. So why are enterprise AI bills exploding? OpenAI just doubled its flagship rate card. Anthropic raised prices without touching the rate card at all. The pricing page is no longer telling you what your bill will look like. And Jean-Marc Shimizu, who runs open innovation at one of Japan's top five contractors, says the subsidy era is ending.Two. The construction robotics story almost nobody outside venture capital is reading. After sixty years as the last unautomated sector, the robots are finally shipping. Bedrock raised $270m in February. Crewline took $7m as a four-person team with a $26m order book waiting. Rebar tying robots are running at 4-6x human speed. Solar piling, reality capture, and a new category of self-verifying installation robots are all generating real revenue. Plus the corrective on humanoids that most executives haven't heard yet.Three. HS2 and what it actually means. Three reviews, twelve months, same five conclusions. And the uncomfortable question every leader needs to sit with: is your business built like HS2, or like the alternative?If you run a construction business, this is the briefing that will reshape how you read the next twelve months.Plus details on the in-person fireside conversation with Chetan Kotur, the ex-Polestar designer now leading the team rebuilding Laing O'Rourke from the inside. London, 3rd June, evening of Digital Construction Week. Senior exec spaces already filling.Show notes, references, and the link to sign up for the full newsletter and our Physical AI 2026 research are below:------1. Event: Re-Engineering The Main Contractor · Luma2. Physical AI and Robotics Report: https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/physical-ai-robotics-2026/3. Newsletter: https://bricks-bytes.beehiiv.com/

"Mandating how many AI tokens your engineers burn isn't a productivity metric. It has nothing to do with outcomes."That's Dustin Devan, CEO of Ediphi and it's one of the sharpest takes on the AI spend debate we've had on the showThis week on Bricks, Bucks and Bytes we're joined by Cameron Page of ClearStory, processing $3.5B in change orders every month, and Sophia Millar of Sonnaball Instruments, catching weld defects in real time before they ever reach inspection.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why enterprise AI bills keep rising even as token costs fall✅ How ClearStory is replacing email-and-spreadsheet change order chaos for 7,500 companies✅ Why 1.3 million categorised change orders might be construction's most underrated dataset✅ How acoustic weld detection is transforming prefab quality control

"If you're not tinkering with AI today, it's going to be a problem for you in the future." This week on Bricks & Bytes we sat down with David Niewiadomski from Zero RFI — KP Reddy's new venture backed by General Catalyst that's rolling up owner reps, advisory, and building data firms under one roof. Tune in to find out:✅ Why standalone construction tech software is dying as a business model✅ What General Catalyst saw in Zero RFI and why services beat SaaS for industry impact✅ Why owners should never pay a subscription to access their own building data✅ Why owner rep firms under 50 people are the sweet spot for acquisition Watch now on Spotify and Youtube.

"Pre-construction has become less efficient than construction itself."That is the claim Dustin Devan made on this week's Bricks, Bucks & Bytes after returning from Advancing Pre-Con. Martin, Patric Hellermann and Dustin also dug into the proposed California wealth tax, Bentley's Q1 earnings, and why VCs keep funding the 51st AI takeoff company.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why 80% of project cost is locked in before design is even 30% done✅ How the California wealth tax proposal would actually value private companies✅ Patric's case for indexing into "directionally right" early-stage bets✅ Why takeoff is a feature, not a companyListen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:35 Introduction and Overview of Topics02:15 US Construction Spending Trends09:52 California Wealth Tax Proposal26:29 Advancing Pre-Construction Insights34:38 Building Cost Infrastructure and Pricing Engines40:30 The Role of Design in Construction Projects45:39 The Importance of Feasibility in Design50:46 The Impact of AI on Construction Estimation53:25 Navigating the Takeoff Tool Landscape57:02 Innovations in Construction Robotics 

A 350-person Canadian contractor just did what most of the industry would call insane. They put their entire business inside the same software platform that powers the CIA. They've killed their paper time cards, their dispatch system, their safety software — and now they're killing their ERP.This week, Owen unpacks the Cavanagh playbook with their head of digital strategy and asks the harder question: is this the future of construction software, or just an expensive bet on the wrong vendor? Plus: Procore just spent $11M acquiring an AI company in January. Are we watching the start of a platform war that ends with one operating system per contractor?Then: the 2026 recovery story just died. US inflation hit 3.8%. Construction input prices rose at a 12.6% annualised rate. Every fixed-price bid in the market is a bet on Middle East de-escalation. And data centres aren't saving construction — they're hiding how weak the rest of the market really is.Key resourcesCavanagh Construction and Palantir partnership case study Procore Technologies acquires Datagrid for agentic AI capabilities US April CPI releaseConstruction input price data, Q1 2026 Hill County, Texas data centre moratorium Gallup poll on data centre vs nuclear reactor opposition IEA report on AI data centre power demand growth US construction spending and nonresidential contraction data

"Companies are bought, not sold."That single line from Yves Frinault reframed the entire conversation on our first-ever Exited Founder Acquisition Roundtable.We sat down with four construction tech founders who collectively sold their companies for hundreds of millions:✅ Yves Frinault (Fieldwire → Hilti) ✅ Dustin DeVan (BuildingConnected → Autodesk, $275M cash + $40M stock) ✅ Mo Akbari Hochberg (HoloBuilder → FARO, ~$36M) ✅ Zach Scheel (Rhumbix → Autodesk, fresh off the deal)Tune in to find out:✅ Why Hilti told Fieldwire "we'll never acquire you" four years before acquiring them ✅ The one negotiation tactic Dustin says every founder should use against corp dev teams ✅ Why an acquisition is a "one-way door" once you walk in, and how to know you're ready ✅ The QSBS detail that decides how much of the exit you actually keepFull episode on Spotify and YouTube now.#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #ai #vct Our Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:46 Introduction to the Acquisition Round Table03:25 Founders' Experiences and Lessons Learned 06:31 Understanding the Role Post-Acquisition 09:40 The Importance of Timing in Acquisitions 09:56 Sponsors 12:57 Fundamentals for Being an Attractive Acquisition Target 31:06 The Exit Journey: Building Value Before Acquisition 33:14 Business Fundamentals: Attracting Strategic Acquirers 36:04 Diligence and Documentation: Preparing for Acquisition 38:56 Revenue and Customer Love: Key Acquisition Drivers 41:13 Understanding ARR: Acquisition Thresholds and Market Dynamics 48:53 Negotiation Strategies: Preparing for the Table 54:46 Lessons from Exits: Growth as a Founder 01:00:45 Defining Success Beyond Numbers 01:02:42 Mindfulness in Leadership During Transitions 01:04:22 The Importance of a Strong Executive Team 01:05:20 The Shift in Perspective Post-Acquisition 01:06:11 Reflections on Founding and Structuring Companies 01:08:37 Creating Value Over Tax Strategy 01:11:21 The Reality of Startup Success Rates 01:11:54 Choosing the Right Company to Join 01:14:48 The Value of Collaboration and Shared Experiences

EXCLUSIVE: ProcurePro just closed an $11M round and we got the founder on the mic first."Control your risks, control your margins."That's the line Alastair Blenkin, CEO of ProcurePro, kept coming back to on the latest Bricks & Bytes — and it's the bet behind their fresh raise.Procurement is the most underinvested workflow in construction tech. By the time you're on site, you're just managing the risk you already locked in at buyout. ProcurePro has spent five years building the platform to fix that — and now has $130B+ of construction spend and one of the largest pricing data sets in the world flowing through it.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why procurement, not site management, is the real commercial lever on a project✅ How ProcurePro went from a COVID pivot to Series B in five years✅ What investors actually wanted to see between Series A and B✅ AI bid leveling, live copilots, and flipping the model on subcontractor pricingWatch now on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. #aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #ai #vc

The UK's official construction forecast for 2026 was just slashed from plus 1.7 per cent growth to a 2.5 per cent decline. Same week, Caterpillar reported 63 billion dollars worth of equipment already on order, up 79 per cent in twelve months. In this week's Executive Weekly Briefing, Owen walks through what the macro really says about your business, what the latest results from Caterpillar, Trimble, Bentley and Procore actually mean once you strip the jargon out, and the question every contractor needs to answer this week: where are you sitting on the line between the half of the industry that is shrinking and the half that is booming?Plus five fast takes from this week on Bricks and Bytes, including why banks are adopting AI faster than construction, what Nemetschek's 2.4 billion dollar HCSS deal really signals, and Palantir's quiet push into the construction industry.And for Construction Safety Week, the three numbers every executive needs to hear, the news that Turner Construction has just made its AI safety tool free to the entire industry, and a tease of the Bricks and Bytes Safety Tech Report dropping shortly.Episodes referenced this weekYves Padrines, CEO Nemetschek + Usman Shuja, CEO Bluebeam: the HCSS acquisitionChase Gilbert, CEO + Chris DeVito, Built Technologies: the AI documentation bottleneckMallory Brodie, CEO Bridgit: the workforce benchmark reportBrett Adams + Dan Julien, Forgesight: Palantir Foundry in construction (Coming soon)Key resourcesCPA Spring 2026 ForecastRICS UK Construction Monitor, Q1 2026Q1 2026 earnings releases: Caterpillar, Trimble, Bentley, ProcoreTurner Construction SafeT Coach announcementBLS 2024 construction fatality data

"41% of the construction workforce is retiring in 5 years. Half the people on the biggest jobsites have less than a year of experience. Nobody has a plan."That stat from Mallorie Brodie at Bridgit is the one we keep coming back to.This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, We sat down with Mallorie to unpack the 2026 Construction Workforce Benchmark Report, then brought on Chase Gilbert and Chris DeVito from Built Technologies to talk agentic AI, payments, and what's actually slowing projects down right now.Tune in to find out about:✅ The "rookie ratio" — and why it's already at 50% on the biggest jobs✅ Why banks are buying AI faster than GCs✅ How Built is collapsing draw cycles from days to minutes✅ The new bottleneck no one's talking about — powerListen on Spotify and YouTube.#aec #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #construction #bricksbucksandbytes #constructiontech #vc #aiOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro01:38 Introduction and Overview 07:08 Interview with Mallory Brodie 24:39 Insights on Workforce Planning and Industry Trends 26:16 Introduction to Roles in Construction Management 27:40 Navigating the AI Era in Construction 29:58 AI Adoption in Banking vs. Construction 32:51 Impact of AI on General Contractors 36:15 Building Trust with Financial Institutions 40:58 Current Market Conditions in Construction 47:15 Transforming Construction Processes with Technology 55:04 The Future of Construction Financing 

"Even if AI doesn't work, it's allowing us to reinvent construction."That's Alain Waha on why the data center build-out is the most important thing happening in our industry right now, even if you don't care about AI.Tune in to find out about:✅ What the Document Crunch, Speckle and A16Z deals actually signal✅ Why physical AI and world models matter for AEC, and when they don't✅ How composable robotics quietly solved the hardware problem✅ Why knowledge capital is the only durable bet your firm can makeWatch the full episode on YouTube and Spotify!#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcChapters00:00 Intro00:22 Introduction and Context of Change02:28 The Role of AI in Construction05:15 World Models and Physical AI07:44 Cybersecurity Concerns in AI09:54 Investment Trends in the Built World12:43 The Demand for Data Centers15:50 Robotics and Automation in Construction18:55 Knowledge Transfer and Capital23:56 Future Predictions and Closing Thoughts

"Owners want buildings, not software."That one line from Andrew Zukoski (CEO, JOIN) reframes the entire AEC tech market.In B&B Fight Night 3, Andrew goes head to head with Clifton Harness (CEO, TestFit) on AI, architects, venture capital, and what the next five years look like.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why only 3 AEC companies have IPO'd in 15 years and what that means for founders raising VC✅ Whether builders or architects come out on top in an AI-driven AEC industry✅ The real test for separating AEC AI products from rappers✅ Why the next big AEC IPO might be a services firm, not a SaaS companyWatch now on YouTube and Spotify!#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk -  “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Teaser00:58 Introduction to the AEC Octagon and Fight Night02:42 Debating AI: Industry-Specific vs. Foundational Models05:13 Evaluating AI Tools for Architecture and Construction08:23 The Future Role of Architects in the AEC Industry11:27 Architects as Civic Arbiters of the Built Environment14:15 The Impact of AI on Construction and Design16:33 Sponsors19:34 The Evolution of Architect Roles and Responsibilities22:01 The Future of Architecture in an AI-Driven World34:30 Evaluating Code Quality and Architectural Efficiency35:33 The Role of Venture Capital in Business Growth39:10 Navigating the Risks of Venture Funding43:30 AI's Impact on the AEC Industry48:42 Bootstrapping vs. Venture Funding: A Personal Perspective50:27 Predictions for the Future of Construction57:29 AI's Role in Accelerating Business Success

"HCSS fills the missing middle where plans become production."That's how Usman described the $2.4B Nemetschek + HCSS deal on this week's Bricks & Bytes.We sat down with Yves (CEO, Nemetschek Group) and Usman (Build Segment) to unpack the strategy behind one of the biggest construction tech deals of the year.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why Nemetschek structured this as a partnership with Thoma Bravo (28% rolled stake) instead of a clean buyout✅ How HCSS slots in alongside Bluebeam, GoCanvas, SiteDocs and Nevaris✅ The real prize — 40 years of proprietary heavy civil lifecycle data and what it means for vertical AI✅ Usman's blunt advice to founders right now (hint: not "PowerPoint or vibe-coded apps")

Two AI-backed private equity firms just confirmed the same thesis in the same week. They're not buying construction software. They're buying the firms that use it.This week: I sit down with the team behind Zero RFI (General Catalyst-backed) and a partner at E3 Tech (the Andreessen Horowitz JV) to unpack the rollup playbook coming for owner's reps and trade contractors. I cover the UK tier one that just put a humanoid robot on a live construction site for the price of a small van, and what the methodology behind that deployment actually teaches you. Plus a recap of April and a look at what's coming next week, including our episode with the CEO of Nemetschek on the HCSS deal.Three things you can action this week. No fluff.Links and resources mentioned in this episode:Bricks & Bytes Supply Chain & Procurement Report - https://bricks-bytes.com/downloads/procurement-report/Zacua Ventures Construction Robotics Report 2026 - https://zacuaventures.com/construction-robotics-report-2026/AEC Magazine on agentic BIM data wall - https://aecmag.com/ai/agentic-bims-missing-infrastructure/https://aecmag.com/ai/agentic-bims-missing-infrastructure/All3 / Mantis $25M raise - https://bricks-bytes.com/funding-ma/all3-25m-seed-construction-robotics/NABTU + Microsoft AI training partnership - https://news.microsoft.com/source/2026/04/21/nabtu-and-microsoft-expand-nationwide-initiative-to-strengthen-ai-training-and-career-pathways-across-the-skilled-trades/Daily Blueprint editions covered (27-30 April 2026) - https://bricks-bytes.com/daily-blueprint/Our newsletter - https://bricks-bytes.beehiiv.com/LinkedIn post for this episode (for comments/engagement) - [link coming

"AI is about to create the biggest divide humanity has ever seen."That's the warning Chinn, founder of dConstruct, dropped on Bricks & Bytes.He sold his startup to Autodesk. Built Singapore's Smart Nation. Now he's putting AI robots on construction sites that see every flaw in millimetres.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why perfect site data is bankrupting construction projects✅ The new AI currency that will split the industry in two✅ Why 90% of construction robots are a lie✅ The data move every construction leader has 10 years to makeWatch now on Spotify and YouTube

Nemetschek just dropped $2.4B on a software company nobody's heard of. This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, Owen, Patric and Martin dug into the biggest AEC deal of the year, plus two robotics founders changing how we build. Tune in to find out about: ✅ Why HCSS is the smartest AEC acquisition of 2026✅ Why Kawazu ditched construction for oil and gas✅ Mesh Robotics on solving rebar, the ugliest problem in construction✅ Martin Fisher's rule: 80% data, 20% AI #aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksbucksandbytes #bricksandbytes #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro00:56 Celebrating Milestones and Future Aspirations03:25 Insights from the Martin Fisher Event06:33 The HCSS Acquisition by Nemetschek12:09 Strategic Implications of Acquisitions in Construction Tech30:04 The Genius of Brad Jacobs30:40 Meditation and Success31:49 Exploring AI Tools and Credits35:44 The Future of Urban Mobility: Glideways45:01 Innovations in Nuclear Power50:14 Understanding Labor and Scaffold Costs52:36 The Evolution of Robotics in Construction54:29 Data-Driven Insights in Material Flow56:44 The Role of Transparency in Construction57:58 Scaling Robotics Solutions in Construction1:01:09 The Intersection of Robotics and Rebar1:05:31 Bridging the Gap from Lab to Market1:11:46 The Future of Assembly in Robotics

Most of you are spending the wrong 80% of your AI budget right now. And the man who said it has been at Stanford for 40 years.This week: we unpack Professor Martin Fischer's uncomfortable 80/20 reallocation and why building digital feedback loops has to come before the AI layer. We sit down with Suffolk Construction's CTO Jit Kee Chin and Speckle founder Dimitri Stefanescu on what happens when the most data-mature general contractor in the US decides the next bet isn't another point solution. We break down why Andreessen Horowitz — the firm behind Facebook, Airbnb and GitHub — has just publicly planted a flag in construction. And we cover our third Fight Night, where TestFit's Clifton Harness and Join's Andrew Zukoski disagree on whether AI compresses or fragments the industry.Three things you can action this week. No fluff.Links and resources mentioned in this episode:Martin Fischer & Bricks & Bytes - COMING SOONSuffolk Technologies' investment in Speckle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcPDoOwU_pk&t=78sAndreessen Horowitz's public construction thesis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzaqa52ccng&tBricks & Bytes Fight Night 3 — Clifton Harness vs Andrew Zukoski (full episode) - COMING SOON Bricks & Bytes Fight Night — Mike vs Luigi on AI estimating - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9eVyABO2AQBricks & Bytes Fight Night — KP vs Dustin on the future of construction software - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If0jJnX7tZYTilbury Douglas becomes first UK contractor to deploy a humanoid on site - https://www.tilburydouglas.co.uk/tilbury-douglas-becomes-first-contractor-to-launch-a-humanoid-robot-on-construction-site/Breadcrumb — digital safety, orientations and permits synced into Procore - https://breadcrumb.coOur newsletter — Beehiiv subscription page - https://bricks-bytes.beehiiv.com/LinkedIn post for this episode (for comments/engagement) https://www.linkedin.com/posts/owen-drury_a-wild-week-at-bricks-bytes-highlights-ugcPost-7454535708599332864-N61m?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABXSR7cBUIyREyKntJC_BA6bnfeuPWgNUtA

"Architects might start feeling useless."That's Dimitrie Stefanescu, founder of Speckle, on this week's Bricks & Bytes — on why GCs moving upstream into design is triggering an existential crisis across AEC.Joined by Jit Kee Chin, CTO of Suffolk Construction and co-founder of Suffolk Technologies, who just led Suffolk's investment into Speckle.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why 3D data is the missing infrastructure layer for AI in construction✅ The real reason design-build is eating traditional architecture✅ The most insane thing a customer has built on top of Speckle (yes, you'll want to hear this one)✅ What actually triggered a $B GC to bet on an open-source startupWatch now on YouTube and Spotify!#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #ai #vc

Every building you've ever been in was designed by software built in 1997.That's the headline a16z used to put the bat signal out to AEC founders — and Joe Schmidt got dragged for it on LinkedIn.But he's not a tourist. His grandfather invented the concrete pump.In today's episode of Bricks & Bytes, we had Joe Schmidt from Andreessen Horowitz and got into the three attack vectors for disrupting Revit, why the services layer is the hidden prize… and many more!Tune in to find out about:✅ The 3 ways startups are attacking Autodesk's "workflow monopoly" — and which one Joe would bet on today✅ Why replacing Revit in 5 years is unlikely (and why you don't need to)✅ The real "why now" for AEC AI — it's not just LLMs✅ Joe's advice to contractors and designers: adopt fast or get left behind

Allbirds just pivoted to AI and the stock jumped from $2 to $21 overnight.This week on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes, Mo (founder of Build Crew, backed by Vinod Khosla) joined us to break down what's actually happening in construction tech right now — and Nitin from Planera dropped in to launch their AI scheduling assistant, Manny.Tune in to find out about:✅ Why Allbirds' AI pivot looks like a 1999-style dotcom scam✅ Mo's unfiltered take on why knowledge graphs are the most overhyped term in AEC right now✅ Why Palantir's real construction customer isn't who you think it is✅ How Planera's Manny is codifying decades of scheduling expertise before the industry loses itWatch now on Spotify and YouTube. Link in the comments!#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #ai #vcOur Sponsors:BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.coAphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.coArchdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.comChapters00:00 Intro01:00 Introduction to Mo's Transformation03:57 The Allbirds Pivot: From Sneakers to AI07:00 Technological Breakthroughs in Architectural Design09:50 AI in Construction: The Role of Domain Expertise12:51 BuildCrew: Mo's New Venture and Its Vision15:35 Knowledge Graphs: The Future of Construction Documentation25:11 Integrating Knowledge Graphs in Construction27:39 The Role of Technologists in Construction29:18 Palantir's Impact on Construction Technology31:09 The Future of ERP Systems34:45 Challenging Industry Norms with Optimism38:25 Nemechek's Acquisition of HCSS42:39 Planera's AI Scheduling Assistant53:27 Current Trends in Construction and AI