Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Kumari: Word-of-mouth remains the dominant growth driver in construction software

Sneha Kumari · Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI · Apr 9, 2026 · at 38:27

Sneha Kumari, co-founder of Merlin AI, discusses why customer referrals and competitor tracking drive enterprise software sales in construction.

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“And then as we highlighted, word of mouth is phenomenally a very big perpetrator of your value in construction, even today. So if you are my competitor, I'll go to your website, I'll see who you're talking to, and I'll go use that if that has, if I'm seeing you grow faster. So we still have customer referrals playing a very big part of our growth.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Sneha Kumari

Opinion
Kumari: Procore is not a true enterprise solution for construction
“Procore is not really 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 have Gra…”
Sneha Kumari Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 18:22 Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI
Opinion
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Sneha Kumari Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 46:21 Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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Sneha Kumari Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 8:32 Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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Sneha Kumari Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 11:34 Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI
Disclosure
Kumari: Merlin AI operates as an end-to-end construction operating system
“Ultimately what we want to call ourselves is we are an end-to-end enterprise operating system for you know, for any, you know, company that exists today. But because ERP is a more known term than calling an enterprise software, it just made sense that we put i…”
Sneha Kumari Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 16:19 Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI
Disclosure
Kumari: Merlin AI has replaced NetSuite, Dynamics, SAP, Epicor, Syspro, and Odoo
“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 the latest to join the bandwagon, like all of these were not built for construction.”
Sneha Kumari Apr 9, 2026 ▶ 18:39 Why Construction still Runs on Spreadsheets (And How AI Fixes It) | Sneha & Graham, Merlin AI
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