"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 company

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

#aec #construction #constructiontech #bricksandbytes #bricksbucksandbytes #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

00:35 Introduction and Overview of Topics

02:15 US Construction Spending Trends

09:52 California Wealth Tax Proposal

26:29 Advancing Pre-Construction Insights

34:38 Building Cost Infrastructure and Pricing Engines

40:30 The Role of Design in Construction Projects

45:39 The Importance of Feasibility in Design

50:46 The Impact of AI on Construction Estimation

53:25 Navigating the Takeoff Tool Landscape

57:02 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 resources

• Cavanagh Construction and Palantir partnership case study
• Procore Technologies acquires Datagrid for agentic AI capabilities
• US April CPI release
• Construction 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 📩 Subscribe to the Bricks & Bytes Newsletter: https://bricks-bytes.beehiiv.com/🌐 Visit our website: http://bricks-bytes.com/📲 Follow us: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bricks-bytes/ Twitter: https://x.com/bricksbytespod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bricksbytes/Enjoying the insights? Hit that Subscribe button to stay ahead in construction tech, AI, and the future of how we build.

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 pricing

Watch 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 week

• Yves Padrines, CEO Nemetschek + Usman Shuja, CEO Bluebeam: the HCSS acquisition
• Chase Gilbert, CEO + Chris DeVito, Built Technologies: the AI documentation bottleneck
• Mallory Brodie, CEO Bridgit: the workforce benchmark report
• Brett Adams + Dan Julien, Forgesight: Palantir Foundry in construction (Coming soon)

Key resources

• CPA Spring 2026 Forecast
• RICS UK Construction Monitor, Q1 2026
• Q1 2026 earnings releases: Caterpillar, Trimble, Bentley, Procore
• Turner Construction SafeT Coach announcement
• BLS 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 — power

Listen on Spotify and YouTube.

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

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

01:38 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 make

Watch the full episode on YouTube and Spotify!

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

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:22 Introduction and Context of Change

02:28 The Role of AI in Construction

05:15 World Models and Physical AI

07:44 Cybersecurity Concerns in AI

09:54 Investment Trends in the Built World

12:43 The Demand for Data Centers

15:50 Robotics and Automation in Construction

18:55 Knowledge Transfer and Capital

23:56 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 company

Watch 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 Teaser

00:58 Introduction to the AEC Octagon and Fight Night

02:42 Debating AI: Industry-Specific vs. Foundational Models

05:13 Evaluating AI Tools for Architecture and Construction

08:23 The Future Role of Architects in the AEC Industry

11:27 Architects as Civic Arbiters of the Built Environment

14:15 The Impact of AI on Construction and Design

16:33 Sponsors

19:34 The Evolution of Architect Roles and Responsibilities

22:01 The Future of Architecture in an AI-Driven World

34:30 Evaluating Code Quality and Architectural Efficiency

35:33 The Role of Venture Capital in Business Growth

39:10 Navigating the Risks of Venture Funding

43:30 AI's Impact on the AEC Industry

48:42 Bootstrapping vs. Venture Funding: A Personal Perspective

50:27 Predictions for the Future of Construction

57:29 AI's Role in Accelerating Business Success