Shadow Ventures invests in startups solving difficult problems in Construction and Real Estate. The company focuses on technology startups that aim to shape the future of the built world, which is described as a $300 trillion asset class.

Shadow Ventures

At Shadow Ventures our focus is on investing in startups in tech-nascent markets where strategic capital is scarce. Our process and closed ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, designers, and developers are driven by both experience and technology to radically change how startups start and investors finish. 

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Masonry

Quick ask for repost. See below. 

One of the hardest things to do for any company is branding,however re-branding is even tougher. I have a ton of scars to show from it. So what’s my point. My portfolio company ConstructN just rebranded to Track3D 
https://track3d.ai/

So do me a/them a favor. Repost  this post to help get the word out. Why help? Because many of you know, if you asked me for help I would. Thanks!

I think a lot of startups launch with a good idea of what the customer is willing to pay. I think the blind spot is not if they will pay, but when they will pay. Unpredictable and elongated sales cycles will kill your startup. When doing customer discovery, developing a line questioning that uncovers how decisions are made is so important in the AEC and CRE space. Mostly because the decisions are made across various operating entities.

Would love to partner with anyone that has a big idea to co-create in stealth.

Today I was asked about how architects are using AI to improve their delivery and profitability. My general observation is that there is more interest from developers and builders to use AI Architecture Design tools to execute preliminary designs themselves before hiring an architect. Partly saving them fees but mostly saving them
time. Their feeling is that the iterative process to get a design done is way too slow with architects going away for weeks at a time for a “latest” version. Speed matters more than cost. Especially in an elevated rate environment. 
Either developers are using tools themselves or contractors are helping them. 

It reminds me a bit of my mentor George Heery had developed a methodology called the Bridging System. A design team would develop requirements for a different design team to create CDs. The idea being that the initial design
team was better at extracting requirements than production. 
It struggled because owners thought they were paying twice for the same service. 

Will AI may be the requirements design team or will AI be the production team?
Maybe both.

I am seeing a pattern with startup founders. They go from founder sales to raising a few bucks to build a GTM team. Then it doesn’t work, they are low on cash and have to regress to founder sales. Instead of viewing this experience as a learning to double down on founder led sales with a lot more info on “what worked and what didn’t” when they failed to scale, they are acting like they can’t go backwards and still talk about needing to raise money for a team. 
A founder that failed to scale, is not going to raise money to rebuild a team under a new GTM strategy. Its back to basics and the founder sales grind!  
If you are unwilling to then you should just shut down the company.

Pricing strategy can be such an art form. Literally selling $50 in paint for $50M. 
I absolutely love the rabbit hole that developing pricing strategies takes me down. 
You know the whole-
Water from your tap is free. 
Water at the grocery store is $1
Water at a convenience store is $3
Water at an airport is $10
Water at the Olympics $15
Water in the middle of the desert to a person who has been without for days…priceless.

SHAD

VC:SHADOW

Shadow Ventures