Building industry trade app company Tect App Inc. seeks to make the industry more efficient by connecting all the various teams involved in a trusted communication network during the earliest parts of design.
The building industry is highly segmented, said Tect CEO Bob Habian, whose startup is based in Sacramento. Architects and contractors are often at odds with each other on projects. And a bigger gap exists between architects and manufacturers.
“It is surprising to find such rampant inefficiencies in such an important industry,” said Habian, an architect for 29 years.
Those inefficiencies account for about 50 cents on every dollar spent on a project being wasted, he said. “It’s always been like this. I am no longer shocked by it.”
The Tect app, which is now in a closed beta test, can connect the industry by allowing for open communications and also veiled communications, where the actual project is anonymous. That’s important because many team members on a project are under nondisclosure agreements about their specific projects, whether that be a hospital, hotel or office building. The veiled communication aspect of Tect is patented, Habian said.
Project teams in the building industry are transient, usually only working together on a single project, and then going off to other projects.
The Tect app seeks to bring those transient teams together before the project starts.
Founded in 2019, Tect has raised $2 million to get to where it is today, Habian said. It's now raising a $3 million funding round, of which $1 million has already been committed.
Tect plans to launch its app officially at the American Institute of Architects Conference on Architecture in San Francisco in June.
One of the biggest disconnects is that architects and engineers aren’t connected to manufacturers who make the products and components that the contractor on a project will eventually have to use, Habian said.
“The designers are not equipped with the wisdom of the manufacturers,” he said.
There are some 5,000 products used in the construction of a hospital building ⏤ and that’s before equipment and furnishing is even considered, Habian said.
Tect seeks to connect the teams with manufacturers’ experts and engineers during the design phase. Architects and engineers don’t want to deal with manufactures’ sale reps, Habian said.
“The earliest decisions on a project are the most important,” he said. “We want to flip the script and give architects and engineers access to the experts to help make informed decisions.”
The company has a small team, some based in Sacramento and some remote, and it also works with a team of contractors. Habian declined to say how large the team is.
An earlier version of this story misstated how long Bob Habian has been an architect.
