Builtr Labs Builds Buzz

Builtr co-founders Colby Jordan, left, and Steve Bracy. Photo by Christine Carignan.

Natural disasters, rising sea levels and increased urbanization are all putting pressure of the built environment at a time when technology to create better buildings and infrastructure is quickly evolving. The problem, as Jesse Devitte saw it, was that startups leading the innovation weren't connecting with the larger companies able to develop and invest in them. So he funded Builtr.io, a website to bring together the architecture, engineering and construction industries (collectively called AEC) and to aggregate and distribute related news.

Launched in July 2015, the Concord-based company aggregates content, produces unique content (about 10 percent of posts) and publishes a daily e-newsletter with thousands of AEC subscribers. It provides marketing services for startups in AEC sectors for  a fee. Builtr Labs also offers sponsored content on the site and in the e-newsletter.

The company expects to be profitable in the next few months. It was founded and funded by Borealis Ventures in Hanover and Portsmouth. Devitte, managing director and co-founder of Borealis, previously founded and funded Newforma, a software company in Manchester targeting the AEC industry. He provided seed money of less than a $1 million to get Builtr.io up and running.

“Being a product manager, I was working with a lot of architects and a lot of engineers on a regular basis, and hearing their own frustration with the lack of shared information and the lack of ease of information,” says Builtr co-founder Colby Jordan, who was approached by Devitte to start the company with Steve Bracy. Bracy and Jordan both previously worked at Newforma. “All this innovation is happening, and nobody was covering it. The AEC industry in general has been a laggard in technology.”

Bracy says Builtr.io has thousands of online readers and spotlights innovative startups from across the globe that could benefit the AEC industry. That includes circuitry material that can be stretched like chewing gum and an app that allows a user to point a phone at a building and see what it would look like redesigned. Builtr sees an untapped market, reporting the AEC industry encompasses $5.2 trillion in global infrastructure spending with support of $490 million in venture spending.

“The world of the built environment is on the cusp of innovation. We think technology adoption is significant for companies in the built environment because the pressures of sea level rise [and increasing urbanization] are real,” says Devitte.

Putting the Pieces Together
Builtr brings together what Bracy and Jordan says is the previously fragmented sectors of the AEC industry, including venture funders and technology firms.

Builtr provides a place for industry members, regardless of which sector they are from, to keep up with real-time innovation and advancements within the field of AEC.

Bracy, who has a background in sales and marketing, says startups were not getting much coverage, making it hard for them to connect with larger companies interested in new technology. Bracy says startups are Builtr’s sweet spot. “I was dealing with the traditional media [covering] the AEC space, and with due respect to them, they were not optimized to mobile, and they weren’t covering the startup companies,” Bracy says, explaining Builtr has more visuals to engage readers and does not run simple product reviews. “We wanted these startups to get the same coverage as the big guys.”

Among those stories is Lock-Block Ltd. in Canada, which developed a truck with a huge roller on back that snaps LEGO-like bricks together to form a tunnel in less than 24 hours.

Bracy says such start-up companies, which have raised millions, are all potential acquisitions for larger firms.

“These big companies can only innovate so much,” adds Jordan. “They have to bring in innovation from the outside. If we can identify startups or connect these companies, it will
help everyone.”

Kiley Graham is part of the Young Reporters Project, a partnership between Business NH Magazine and University of NH Manchester. Associate Editor Erika Cohen contributed to this story.