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 Intro

01:10 VC Horror Stories Founders Never Share

07:05 The Weirdest VC Behaviour We've Seen

13:01 Why AI Costs Are Eating Your Margins

19:15 Will AI Companies Ever IPO?

25:49 How to Find Early Product-Market Fit

33:24 Expanding Internationally: What Actually Works

40:09 Where Construction Tech Innovation Happens

45:48 The Growth Playbook for the Next 5 Years

56:56 The Hardest Lessons of Entrepreneurship

58:11 Why Timing Beats Everything in Business

58:19 How Perception Shapes Professional Success

59:10 Why Being Eccentric Is a Branding Advantage

01:02:07 Where Tech Meets Construction

01:04:09 AI That Actually Manages Construction Projects

01:10:10 Why Pre-Construction Is Where the Money Is

01:16:16 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

🎧 Watch now on YouTube and Spotify.

#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #ai #vc

"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

🎧 Watch now on Spotify and YouTube

#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc

Our Sponsors:

BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.co

Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co

Archdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

Chapters

00:00 Teaser

00:18 What Is Palantir & Why Construction?

02:36 Palantir Foundry Explained

05:16 Who You Need to Implement It

08:35 Do You Actually Need Palantir?

11:01 Real Use Cases in Construction

13:19 How to Implement Foundry & Integrate Data

22:00 Sponsor

25:01 Getting Your Data Into Foundry

28:40 How Long Does Implementation Take?

30:31 Solving Software Integration Challenges

33:06 Can Foundry Replace Your ERP?

36:22 The Future of ERP vs Palantir (SAP, Oracle)

39:31 Palantir for Non-Technical Teams

42:58 Case Study: How Kavanaugh Uses Foundry

46:02 How Much Does Palantir Cost?

48:03 Who Foundry Is Actually For

49:41 Use Cases for On-Site Workers

56:12 Solving Common Operational Headaches

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 it
• Why nobody in construction checks what competitors are doing (and what Polestar did instead)
• 56% of construction injuries are musculoskeletal. No other industry still accepts this
• Hinkley Point C: how a precision rebar factory turned a month of work into a single shift
• The 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 physical
• From a Paris stage: investor Patric (Foundamental) on why tech aimed at 2% of construction's cost base was always going to disappoint
• The two questions that expose a weak tech vendor in five minutes
• A 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 projects

Full episode is live now on YouTube and Spotify.

#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc

Our Sponsors:

BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.co

Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co

Archdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:30 Introduction and Technical Challenges

03:21 Live Streaming and Event Experiences

06:13 Autodesk's Acquisition of MaintainX

11:50 Data Ownership and Predictability in Construction

16:23 Knowledge Arbitrage in Engineering and Robotics

20:00 Exploring Knowledge Arbitrage in Robotics

22:06 The Role of Systems Integration in Construction Robotics

22:54 Challenges in Robotics for Construction Trades

24:16 Collaborative Robots: The Future of Construction

25:59 The Disconnect Between Innovation and AI in Construction

27:30 Testing Software vs. Materials in Construction

27:45 The Reluctance to Experiment in Construction Tech

29:52 Capital Efficiency and Technology Adoption in Construction

32:49 The Venture Capital Landscape and Its Challenges

36:33 The Future of Venture Capital in Technology

44:46 Innovative Event Planning in Construction Technology

47:26 Branding and Customer Perception in Construction

48:11 Disruption in Construction: Insights from Automotive Industry

51:09 Bouygues' Innovation Lab: A New Era for Construction

51:53 Introducing Richard: Veyor's Journey and Innovations

56:59 Streamlining Material Management in Construction

01:01:58 Challenges in Construction Scheduling and Delivery

01:05:36 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 Tech

In 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 time

Available now on Spotify and YouTube.

#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #ai #vc

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:39 Introduction to E3's Model and AI in M&A

07:41 Identifying Ideal Acquisition Targets

10:34 The Role of Technology in Modern Construction

13:45 The Entrepreneur in Residence Model

16:35 The Impact of AI on Construction Efficiency

19:52 Building Relationships with AI Startups

22:29 The Future of AI in Construction

31:59 Leveraging AI for Contract Management

32:42 The Evolution of VDC and BIM in Construction

34:14 Enhancing Processes with Robotics and AI

35:38 Attracting Talent through Technology

36:38 AI Amplifying Human Expertise

38:35 Transitioning Businesses and Succession Planning

40:12 Navigating Business Ownership Transitions

42:42 The Necessity of Adapting to Change

46:41 Lessons Learned from Technological Implementation

48:18 The Future of AI in Construction

53:44 The Importance of Unified AI Solutions

55:31 Integrating AI with Emerging Technologies

58:27 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 graduates

Watch now on Spotify and YouTube 🎧

#bricksandbytes #bricksbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #aec #construction #constructiontech #ai #vc

"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 posts

Watch the full episode now on YouTube and Spotify.

#bricksandbytes #constructiontech #entrepreneurship #founders #aec

Our Sponsors:

BreadCrumb- 50,000+ projects globally. All running safer, faster, with Breadcrumb. - breadcrumb.co

Aphex is the multiplayer planning platform where construction teams plan together, stay aligned, and deliver projects faster – check out aphex.co

Archdesk - “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies - Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:28 Introduction and Journey to Honest Buildings

04:49 The Evolution of Honest Buildings

11:10 Navigating the Pivot: Lessons Learned

13:41 Sales Cycle Challenges in Construction Tech

13:42 Sponsors

16:44 Sales Cycle Challenges in Construction Tech

28:45 Reflections on Key Mistakes and Difficult Times

30:57 Acquisition by Procore: The Journey Ahead

34:02 Closing the Gap in Construction Management

35:38 The Importance of Negotiation in Acquisitions

39:34 Navigating Post-Acquisition Roles

42:00 The Entrepreneurial Residence Experience

46:39 Founders Forum: Building Community

48:45 Understanding Acquisition Motivations

53:20 Reflections on the Integration Process

56:13 The Journey of Entrepreneurship

1:02:33 Life After Acquisition: The Next Chapter