Reuters
Workers are seen on scaffolding at a construction site in Nantong
- Founder-market fit, or the edge that a founder's personal and professional experience brings to a startup, is one of the most important principles of venture capital investment.
- Highly-hyped construction tech has been able to attract founders from inside and outside of the industry.
- We spoke to five founders from four construction tech companies about their varied backgrounds, and how their professional experience has been an advantage, and at times a disadvantage, as they build technology for the construction industry.
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Founder-market fit is one of the foundational principles of venture capital investment. It's sometimes described as the "edge" that a particular founder has in a market. The fit can come from working directly in a field and knowing its intricacies, or it can be a result of a unique perspective brought by someone from another industry.
Construction tech, the highly-hyped combination of one of the world's biggest industries and the cutting-edge of the tech world, is no different than any other vertical, in that founder-market fit is an extremely important factor. However, in construction, the combination of regulation, convention, and the physical complexity of the work adds another challenge for someone who is unfamiliar.
Construction tech founders come from lots of industries, but many of those who come from outside the industry still have some connection to construction. We spoke to five founders from four construction tech startups about how their legal, gaming, financial, and construction backgrounds have helped them build companies, and what advantages and disadvantages it brought them.