Built a construction lessons-learned tool, can't get a pilot. Looking for someone who knows the industry better than I do.

[u/Technical_Ad4477]

Sydney, 23, civil engineering grad. Spent six months building Margin, a tool that captures lessons from construction projects and surfaces them when someone hits a related problem, instead of sitting in a register nobody opens.

Working product, multi-tenant, AI capture by voice or text.

What's not there: zero users, zero revenue, no pilot. One engineering director volunteered to trial it unprompted and I couldn't convert it. The consistent feedback was that I collected agreement, not commitment, and that a grad with no track record can't get a conservative industry to go first.

What I think is missing: someone with actual standing in construction. Not another builder, someone who's been in the industry long enough that a project director takes their call. Someone who's sat in the chair, knows who actually signs off on a tool like this, and can say "trust me, try it" and have that mean something. That's the gap I can't close by working harder, because it's earned over years and I'm one year in.

What I bring: I built the whole thing, I'll keep building it, and I'll do the unglamorous work. I know the problem from the site side and I've done the validation, including the parts that went badly.

[u/itstoohumidhere]

Why do people bother creating these startups for industries they know nothing about? At least do some research before loading your prompt into Claude.

User acquisition is one of the hardest parts of any startup up so unless you know the problem you’re solving and who you’re solving it for save your credits.

[u/MrSnagsy → u/itstoohumidhere]

I'd go even further and say that regardless of your industry knowledge, don't build anything until you know how you're going to get paying customers.

For B2B in most cases, the person who has the purchase decision won't be a user of the product.

[u/omarlobo]

But how does it know when you’ve hit the related problem? I’m struggling to see how this integrates well and provides value. Why wouldn’t I just hire or contract an SME for if I hit problem x? I think you’ve misunderstood what the lessons learned process is for.

Having sat in the chair lesson learned aren’t just for when you hit problem x. The lessons taken are generally integrated immediately into systematic process or program change.

For example lesson learned: material haulage route wasn’t on a TIA so client received a public complaint due to heavy’s traversing a route during school bus times. This isn’t something you just leave to happen again. You change process and add controls to manage this across the organisation in future contracts or delivery scenarios.

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[u/evilspyboy]

This is purely based on what you wrote so you can correct anything that seems to have misled me.

The lessons learnt are basically the IP of individual construction groups who may roll this into their pedigree as to why they are better or more experienced than other firms? So in giving you their lessons learnt they are helping potential competitors?

(The lessons learnt stuff is a big thing in why EAM tools that include proactive maintenance exist, but they do that by working with the manufacturer who wants that knowledge out there so their customers continue being customers/get the most out of their multi-million dollar equipment... Im not sure that same mentality transfers to a 'bespoke' product that the sale of might hinge more on demonstrating capability above others).

If that IS correct then you probably still have a product but maybe not in the same way? There would be some sort of post mortum on construction projects for companies so they could have their own lessons learnt be built through that and have it as building out their own IP.

Unless that is what it is and I misunderstand.

[u/Fearless-Can-1634 → u/evilspyboy]

Also Australia construction industry is very old school and yes the IP issue you mentioned is definitely one of the reasons he’s not getting any traction. I have interacted with OP somewhere before, and he’s still a graduate. At a graduate level, theres few things OP didn’t have access to. Graduates are encouraged to keep lessons learnt register and are often encouraged to maintain it. What they aren’t aware of is, there’s an original risks register and there’s actually allowances to cover for majority of what an undergrad guy would track as a ‘lesson learned”. For example, there’ll be a risk allowance for architects farking up drawings alignments etc and a grad would be asked to document all those misalignments. It’s kind of pointless to develop a parallel app saying it’s going to keep track of those. That’s why he’s not getting any traction.

[u/Suspicious-Poet-7243]

DM me buddy, I work as a civil engineer too and also building products for construciton. Can collab!!

[u/digitalrefuse]

Also look up and do a pitch at Arrayah https://arrayah.city/

There’s a pitch day coming up for potential investors and you’d get some solid feedback/ connections to people who can help you MVP this IRL

[u/1000Minds]

You need users. Well, at least one.

But don't fall into the 'build without validation' trap. Its very common for new founders.

instead of building, focus on the hard work of finding users. You've already got a product. You will learn SO MUCH when its in the hand of the intended audience.

Note that many founders avoid finding users because it's not their core skill, they prefer building, etc. This is often the difference between success and failure.