1001 Startup Ideas - Construction Inspection and Reporting software

Competitor Analysis

Considering the sheer size of the industry, there are several small and big players in the segment. There is an Ontario-based company Bridgit that has made a similar cloud-based software that lets general contractors, engineering consultants, architects, and subcontractors collaborate to manage all project work in real time. One of the players is Fieldlens, a New York based startup developing a mobile field management and communication tool for the construction industry.

Pain Point & Target Audience

The target audience for the startup would be small and medium scale companies in commercial and residential constructions.

Construction engineers and supervisors spend hours with pen-papers and sticky notes to write down their inspection pointers and then again spend the same amount of time in documenting them digitally to generate system-wide tickets for work allocation and reporting. We want to make the complete process more structured and streamlined with the tool to save some critical time from their busy schedule.

Also, the small construction companies often lack varied domain expertise to tackle all the issues in-house. The application will guide them through the issues with the knowledge bank, and for specific troubleshooting and advice, connect them with the respective industry expert.

Value Proposition

The tool will streamline the complete process of inspection and contractor management for site engineers and supervisors. Using the tool, the site supervisor will be able to take inspection photos and notes on-the-go and then generate & allocate tickets for the contractors to work on the issue found. The tool will also generate daily and weekly inspection reports with the details on the closure and ongoing tasks.

Business Model

The startup will primarily work on B2B SaaS business model with Real Estate Construction companies. As the project cycle for construction projects are longer, the startup can have annual subscription plans based on a number of users. The startup can also curate a list of independent consultants specialized in construction field, and showcase them on the platform. The users can further take services from the consultants for an additional fee.

The access to specialized consultants may prove very lucrative feature for small construction companies, which have limited specialists in their team. With the combination of these, the startup will bring ease and expertise both onto the same platform.

Way to market

The startup should first develop the seamless application of the product for both mobile and web. Once that is done, the startup should start approaching small and medium scale construction companies. Initially, the startup should mainly focus on getting smaller size construction projects, so that the tool can be tested in the controlled environment and further improved where needed. There is nothing that stops the startup to launch global, so startup should start reaching companies across the globe through their connections and network.

Milestones

The startup should complete the product development and refinement for the launch in first three months. Following which the startup should target to acquire atleast 12 construction companies, with around 20 plus projects in the first year.

This will help the startup to produce and showcase the successful validation point, and start approaching other construction companies with large scale projects.

Investment Needed For Prototype

For building and testing the prototype, pitch for raising $100k from Angel and Seed Investors. The startup can also look to join Real Estate or SaaS-based accelerators like Ycombinator, MetaProp or Inhab accelerator. Inhab Accelerator, a leading Real estate tech accelerator ( www.inhab.xyz ) helps you refine and scale up your business with some of the leading Real Estate players across Asia.

Team Capability

You would need to have back-end architecture designer and application developer in your team. You also need another co-founder from Real Estate construction or design background to guide the product development and lead the initial business development and partner onboarding.

Investors / Expert Take

For years, the construction industry was seen as a ‘late adopter' regarding technology. But recently with the advancement and adoption of handheld devices, every professional feel the need to be updated in the real-time and Real estate is not an exception. In one of the surveys, 79% fo construction managers accepted that construction management software has helped them reduce the time it takes to complete a project. This shows that huge demand that industry will have with these strong validation points, as the tool directly impacts the cost and timeline of the project which are the most critical aspects of any project. In case you are looking at scaling or launching this venture, you can apply for our virtual acceleration program Excelrate on the Yostartups.com website; it will help you in streamlining and structuring your startup idea. We have limited scholarships and discount packs for deserving startups, depending on the strength of your application, you may qualify for a discount.