What does the construction industry have in common with the hunting and fishing industries? They are all among the least digitized industries in Germany. The Munich-based startup PAVE is setting out to change that and take the construction industry a digital step forward.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product!
PAVE uses artificial intelligence and modern web technology to manage construction projects more sustainably and efficiently. We offer a software tool for construction documentation, task management, and defect management. Specifically, our customers can access a digital construction plan via smartphone and tablet. Defects, tickets, remaining work, etc., can be located on the plan and described using editable photos, text (speech-to-text dictation function), and more.
The recorded points are immediately synchronized across all devices and can be exported with just a few clicks or forwarded directly to subcontractors/employees. In the web view, all recorded tickets can be further filtered and processed, for example, to add additional contract documents or service specifications to an item. All functions can also be used offline. To generate knowledge from the collected digital data, we use algorithms from the field of artificial intelligence to evaluate the quality of partners, predict defect costs, and more.
PAVE was founded at the beginning of the year by Dr.-Ing. Patrick Christ (29, Ph.D. in data processing and artificial intelligence), Florian Biller (26, Master's in business administration), Florian Ettlinger (24, Master's in physics) and Sebastian Schlecht (25, Master's in electrical engineering and information technology).
Main competitor: WhatsApp
2. But that's been around for a long time!
The construction industry is the least digitized industry in Germany, after the hunting and fishing sectors. Only 6% of our target customers currently use digital tools in construction. However, the industry has now recognized the benefits of construction software, and companies are actively seeking alternatives to paper, pen, and fax machines.
Compared to our competitors, we focus on ease of use and availability across all devices. For precisely these reasons, many potential customers only occasionally use existing construction software offerings. These are often designed exclusively for desktops and are not user-friendly. We currently see our main competition not in these specific software solutions, but primarily in WhatsApp. Combining the intuitiveness of WhatsApp with expertise from the construction industry is one of our major competitive advantages.
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
In addition to operational challenges, we see the biggest task as being to convey to the construction industry the need to standardize and systematically analyze processes in order to improve them.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
After the first few months, we're very optimistic about our future development. Following a few beta testers at the end of last year, we've now acquired a double-digit number of customers, including architectural/engineering firms, construction companies, tradespeople, property managers, and others. With the newly available offline function, we're confident we'll be able to reach even more customers much faster in the future.
Key topics: customer acquisition and product development
5. What does Munich mean to you?
All four founders studied at the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) in Munich and met there. The CDTM therefore has a very special personal and professional significance for us. We owe much of our personal knowledge, our supporters, and even our first office to the CDTM.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
After the launch at the beginning of the year, the first paying customers and a steadily increasing number of demo requests, we are very confident that PAVE to be on the right track. Acquiring new customers and further product development are our key priorities.
7. Isar or English Garden?
Depending on where the next PAVE construction site is.
