The Exchanges

Q And in, in your journey to build this far, right? Uh, so what have been the biggest challenges till now?

A So, um, there have been quite a few, right? But, uh, bigger, uh, we have our own execution challenges within the company, which is a growing pain point with, for any company. Um, I would say that we did not have to do a lot of convincing when it came to AI, because I would say OpenAI did a great job there. People understand the value. I would say right now, the bigger challenges are how do we You know, scaling fast, being able to serve all these different, um, swim lanes of that I was talking about the customers and bringing them on our platform. Um, the adoption and change management is a thing in construction. I mean, let's be honest, let's face it, right? People are very well equipped to be able to, uh, build a home or a building. That's what they do day in, day out. And that's where us as, you know, a software providers have to come in and understand And make that part easy. Nobody, like, you know, we, a lot of fat fingering happens on site, right? They, they're not used to picking their phone and looking at those, they don't want to do that. So how about deploying voice agents, which is what we are doing, right? So people on site just pick up their phone, talk about their status and leave, right? As simple. So as long as we are focused in making their life easy, where a minimal touch point and we pick up all the data, I think they're happy about it. But yeah, of course we …

AI assessment note: “adoption and change management is a thing in construction.”

Q And, you know, enterprise resource planning has existed for the longest period of time in construction. So, uh, why are not customers happy with the old solutions like NetSuite and Oracle in this industry, or even with Procore?

A Yeah, so I think, um, I would say ERPs are very prevalent in manufacturing, lesser here, right? Uh, again, as I said, like a lot of people don't even know what that is. Procore is not really an, an enterprise solution. They're really very popular and very uniquely positioned to solve for general contractors from a project management, a little bit of financial side, and that's what the role and, you know, I will of course, um, have Graham speak a little bit about general contracting, but it's mostly about PMing. Um, so I will leave a Procore a little bit aside, but as far as NetSuite and, you know, Dynamics and SAPs and Pro and Epicore, SysPro, all of which we have replaced, Odoo also, by the way, uh, the latest to join the bandwagon, like all of these were not built for construction. Let's be honest. They came from a different industry. They are trying to be able to, you know, I mean, rightly so, they would like to, you know, capture all the industries, but when you're not uniquely built for this particular industry, you really don't understand the pain points. That will. And that's where we are different because we were built, built by and built for. So construction first is what we are claiming and we are. And that's where our customers value it again, because, uh, we speak their language. And so when you're not able to uniquely able to understand what the pain points are, yo…

AI assessment note: “all of these were not built for construction. Let's be honest.”

Q And you went to, to YC, right? So how did YC shape up your thought process?

A Yeah. YC was huge. I would, I, I cannot, like, it's a, it's like a life event that has happened to us as founders. There's so much to learn, and especially for me, because I'm a first time founder, right? Um, KS knew a lot about YC. I have to say that, uh, a lot before he came in, but for me, it was all new and being able to meet some, um, I think that there's something about the whole community of YC. There's something about being around some very, very Intelligent people, um, thinking, um, very differently than what you would not usually come across, and then getting access to, uh, some of our partners and YC are phenomenal. They've already lived this journey, done their IPOs, um, and also grounded us a lot in many sense, being able to talk, have some very normal conversations while outside, uh, you know, uh, there are people being able to hear journeys of Brian Chesky's and, Uh, and, and Sam Altman firsthand, it was, you know, life-changing, I would say, uh, has shaped a lot thinking about building what people want and our zero to one journey, they have a huge impact on all, all of us as founders.

AI assessment note: “has shaped a lot thinking about building what people want and our zero to one”

Q And any founder that is going to start in a hard industry like construction, they can be manufacturing. It can be shipping, for example, any tough, tough vertical. What would your advice, right? How would, how to navigate such a tough industry?

A I, um, in general, if from my journey, again, I don't know it all. Trust me. We are all, we all have our own story and I have my own story, but if I had to share, I would always say that build for something that you know about. Um, I would always have built for something that I knew about because our customers appreciate your unique insights. Of course, they appreciate, they probably appreciate your product, but you have to first instill confidence and belief, uh, that you It's normal. It's like human. You're again selling to human. So if you understand your industry, I'm sure you'll find a pain point and solve for that first. I would say once you solve for something that you understand deeply and say, you know, you're very passionate about healthcare, right? Um, and you want to go solve for it. Take the time, um, to understand the industry before jumping on, um, you know, and just trying to build something because, um, don't make it more academic, like, because you heard about it from five people. I think doing your due diligence with customers will give you so much more insights. I'm not saying anything that is different, that differently heard. I'm telling you from personal experience, all for something that you truly understand. Do your, uh, your due diligence and, you know, don't shy away from actually doing the work, right? It doesn't hurt actually going to the factory fl…

AI assessment note: “I would always say that build for something that you know about.”

Q So, how did you get the insight of being the FDs for your initial customers or even the customers today?

A So, because I was doing some, um, you know, I would say, um, say as a, you know, uh, on the side, some, I don't like using the word consultant, but consultative, uh, kind of work that, uh, helped me a lot. Right. And, um, I was actually running the project on the floor, like, Hey, did this material get order? How did you do it? What are you doing on that smart sheets? Sometimes even building the pivot tables and things like that, because they were not ready for the software. And then slowly transitioning from that. Imagine me sitting down and doing that Excel, and now you can do it on your own, all the data being fed and, you know, uh, The, the answers coming to you instead of waiting for someone to answer your phone call. I think that changed somewhere the, the idea of the customers and they could see through, I would say that, yes, it's possible. Yes. I don't have to sit down and hire someone to just do, you know, data crunching for me. So that early journey has been super valuable.

AI assessment note: “because I was doing some, um, you know... consultative, uh, kind of work”

Q And so, you know, uh, construction is one of the biggest industries in the world. Uh, and never the software was built for construction industry, right? Like Netsuit and Dynamics, um, which are the most popular software industry. They were never built for construction. So why haven't any, uh, you know, software built and scaled for this industry?

A Yeah. And, you know, um, I have to start with saying that, uh, there are a lot of software, a lot of point solutions, but we are mostly talking about, you know, end to end enterprise solutions. And I think I've said this before a lot of times, but it's, it just feels very important for everyone to understand that every construction project is a financial project at the end of the day. Right? So, uh, what, An owner, a builder cares about, uh, is end of the day. And did I make money on that project or not? Right. And that picture somehow, um, is, is far from, uh, it's, it's, it does, it's not as simple to achieve when you have, when you're sitting with five different point solutions and trying to, you know, get that picture alive, you always, of course, then, uh, you'll proceed to excel to do all of that. So Point solutions. And I think they have done really good in terms of, you know, being upbeat with what the latest has been throughout the years, but an enterprise solution really would require some domain expertise here. And I think that's what it's lacking. Um, NetSuite wasn't built for construction, um, uh, nor is there focus here, right? There are some, um, uh, like, you know, Procore was built for primarily PMing GC purposes. So again, uh, Section and construction is huge, right? We are talking about many swim lanes. We're talking about developers, GCs, designers, archetyp…

AI assessment note: “an enterprise solution really would require some domain expertise here. And I think that's what”