Built by Builders, a network of eight construction technology companies, launched Dec. 11 to let contractors know all of the founders of the member companies have experience in construction.
Built by Builders' founding members are ConCntric, a preconstruction management and collaboration platform; Document Crunch, a contract and document review platform; Clearstory, a change order management platform; Togal.AI, an artificial intelligence-based estimation platform; ProjectMark, a construction customer relationship management platform; SALUS, a safety management platform; Kaster, a trade subcontractor management platform; and PLOT, a worksite procurement and delivery platform. The group wants to let contractor customers know they understand construction challenges and how to address them via experience-driven products.
The individual contech startup founders who all come from a construction background are; Josh Levy, co-founder and CEO of Document Crunch who previously worked for JE Dunn and Wood as a construction attorney; Cameron Page, founder and CEO of Clearstory, previously a project manager at Devcon Construction; Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Togal.AI and previously an executive at Coastal Construction and Renco; Tom Deane, co-founder and CEO of ProjectMark, who worked in project management roles at AECOM, Holwick Constructors and MGAC; Gabe Guetta, co-founder and CEO of SALUS, previously director of operations at Tros Construction; Chris Callen, founder and CEO of PLOT, formerly with Builders Plus Construction; Joseph Leiva, co-founder and CEO of Kaster and formerly a project manager and project engineer at L&L Construction; and Steve Dell'Orto, the founder and CEO of ConCntric, formerly a regional executive officer at Clark Construction among other construction positions. Dell'Orto is is the founder of the Built by Builders network and invited the other seven companies to be inaugural members.
"It really stems from a lot of the conversations I was having with our customers, and the realization that with my background as a construction industry executive and really having hands-on experience at a deep level with all of the things that we were addressing, that fact gave [our customers] comfort that somebody has walked in their shoes, and maybe even mastered the issues that they're dealing with," Dell'Orto said. "Building that experience into a tool that they can use made a big difference, as opposed to maybe buying software from somebody outside of the industry that was just purely a technologist."
Dell'Orto said the group hopes Built by Builders will grow in 2025 and add more contech member companies who started their careers in the construction industry will join it.
"This is really about elevating the industry, and anything that we can do to play a role outside of our individual companies, (and) as a collaborative, anything we can do to help raise the bar, of course, the more the merrier," Dell'Orto said. "But we need to stay true to the fact that the members all are companies being founded and led by builders who have spent substantial amount of time in the industry, and they are subject matter experts."
The group is planning to launch a website, and the first in its series of webinars has already been announced on ConCntric's site.
