Kojo founder Maria Davidson discusses historical productivity stagnation in the construction sector with Joe Lonsdale.
Insight
Davidson: 'Build it and they will come' is false for startups
“One of the adages of Silicon Valley that I hear really often is build it and they'll come, right? It's this belief that if the product is good enough, people will find it on their own, they'll download it, they'll pay it, and the company will be successful. An…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Davidson: Over $300 billion in US construction spend is managed on paper
“I mean, it's one of, pen and paper is probably the most common form in which more than three hundred billion dollars are managed. And you know, that's pen and paper in Excel. That's the main model that we see.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Davidson: Average construction foreman spends eight hours weekly tracking materials
“Right now, your average foreman is spending eight hours a week just calling up the office trying to figure out when is stuff arriving? Has something been ordered? Can they actually place a change order? All of that really eats into the amount of time that they…”
Insight
Davidson: Moving cultures prepares founders to rapidly adapt to unfamiliar systems
“When you have to move around so much, you constantly have to expose yourself to new cultures, and it's actually a very similar pattern to what I see in entrepreneurship, which is you constantly have to confront a new problem, which is you don't understand why …”
Insight
Davidson: Early-twenties founders do not need a decade of prior experience
“You don't need 10 years of work experience to want to solve a problem, and that if you're someone who's intellectually curious and willing to work really hard, you can, in your early twenties, start making a huge difference to solving these problems and actual…”
Insight
Davidson: Permission-seeking cultures like Goldman Sachs destroy employees' sense of ownership
“Goldman, there was this real sense of needing to ask for permission. Right. And that I think ultimately leads to you feeling a lot less ownership over your work.”