🤖This week on BitBuilders - tl;dr:

• Canvas is revolutionizing construction with robots that can finish drywall in half the time
• Key insight: Focus on your customer's biggest pain point and design specifically for it
• Hardware startups need to optimize for lead times to stay capital efficient
• Construction isn't slow to adopt - it's just a more complex environment that needs better tools
• Data-driven approach allows continuous improvement in construction efficiency

Success criteria is pain. What's your customer's biggest pain and what's the spec that will meet it? Be really just 100% focused on that as early as you can learn that to design for it.

🎧 Listen to this BitBuilders episode

The Journey from Boston Dynamics to Construction

When you think about robotics innovation, construction sites might not be the first place that comes to mind. But for Kevin Albert, co-founder and CEO of Canvas, that's exactly where the opportunity lies. Having spent his early career at Boston Dynamics working on robotic dogs, Kevin saw firsthand how machines could venture beyond the controlled environments of manufacturing facilities.

The path to Canvas is a fascinating story of following the technology where it leads you. It started with Kevin's work at Boston Dynamics, where the focus was on getting robots to handle unstructured environments. This experience proved invaluable - as Kevin puts it, "Machines like robotics can go out in other places. You're not stuck in a manufacturing facility anymore."

From Aircraft to Buildings: The Genesis of Canvas

The spark for Canvas came from a seemingly unrelated project at Otherlab in San Francisco - developing robots for aircraft finishing. The team discovered a fundamental challenge: while automotive painting could rely on stationary robots in fixed positions, aircraft were too large. The robots needed to move, which introduced complex calibration and tolerance issues.

This insight led to a broader realization: the same challenge existed in bridge refinishing, tanks, and buildings. Any large-scale precision work in unstructured environments faced similar hurdles. The team ran an internal competition, splitting into three groups - Team Box, Team Hot Mud, and Team Spray and Pray - to find the best approach to drywall finishing. Surprisingly, Team Spray and Pray's approach won, setting the direction for Canvas's technology.

The Labor Crisis in Construction: Beyond the Headlines

We've all heard about the construction labor shortage, but the numbers Kevin shared paint a stark picture. The industry is retiring two workers for every new entrant, creating what he calls a "crisis moment." By 2030, the working-age-to-retired ratio will shift from 80-20 to 70-30, threatening to severely impact building capacity.

But Kevin challenges the common narrative that construction is slow to adopt new technology. "I don't think the industry is actually slow to adopt," he argues. "The people actually want new, better tools. The nature of the industry is just so dynamic and complex." Unlike manufacturing, where you have a fixed environment, construction sites are unique and unpredictable. Every "manufacturing floor" is different, and you often don't know what it looks like until the day you arrive.

The Problem with Traditional Construction Tools

The gap between construction tools and modern technology is striking. As Kevin notes, "Even our cell phones seem massively more advanced than the tools we use in construction." This technological gap, combined with the physical demands of the work (one in four finishing workers ends their career with a musculoskeletal disorder), creates both a challenge and an opportunity for innovation.

Building a Hardware Startup: Lessons from Canvas's Journey

Through Canvas's evolution from research lab to commercial product, Kevin shared several crucial insights for hardware startups:

Focus on Pain Points: "Over-index on the most painful thing for your customer and figure out what that is," Kevin advises. Even if your initial product isn't perfect, solving a significant enough pain point means customers will work with you through the early challenges. Hotel owners, for instance, highlighted their need to refinish walls every five years due to wear and tear, making drywall finishing a major pain point.

Lead Time is Everything: For hardware startups, lead time can make or break capital efficiency. Canvas initially faced nine-month lead times, which made it difficult to iterate and respond to customer needs. They've since reduced this to three months by pre-stocking long-lead items (10-20% of their bill of materials) and making strategic design choices.

The Evolution of Business Models

Canvas's business model journey offers valuable lessons for hardware startups. They began as a subcontractor, doing the work themselves to prove the technology. However, this created friction with existing subcontractors who saw them as competition rather than a tool provider. They transitioned to annual robot leases, finding this model better aligned with their goal of empowering existing contractors.

Kevin notes an interesting trend in the market: "There seems to be a waning on RaaS (Robotics-as-a-Service) happening right now." With rising interest rates, investors are scrutinizing capital efficiency more closely, leading to discussions about hybrid models that can bring in upfront cash while maintaining recurring revenue.

One of Canvas's most innovative aspects is its data collection and analysis. Their robots provide minute-by-minute breakdowns of utilization, capturing information that's traditionally been impossible to track in construction. This data helps optimize workflows, predict maintenance needs, and improve customer support.

The team can see exactly when machines are idle, being driven, or actively working. This visibility allows them to proactively identify issues and suggest workflow improvements. For instance, they might notice a consistent two-hour idle period and discover it coincides with safety meetings, leading to better scheduling recommendations.

Building the Right Team

Kevin emphasizes the importance of focused development teams. Canvas limits itself to two major priorities at a time, avoiding the common startup pitfall of context-switching and incomplete projects. This focus extends to their hiring approach, where they look for curiosity above all else. As Kevin puts it, "We look for people who are going to ask the question why and dig deeper."

The Future of Construction Automation

Canvas has now deployed robots that have finished nearly a million square feet of drywall. Their third-generation system can handle walls up to 12 feet high, with plans to extend to 30-40 feet. But perhaps more importantly, they're building a platform that could revolutionize interior construction work beyond just drywall finishing.

The vision isn't to replace workers but to augment them. "A core part of our thesis is that this is one of the tools in their tool belt," Kevin explains. The goal is to have workers operating multiple machines while applying their expertise where it's most valuable.

The Education Opportunity

Kevin sees a significant opportunity in construction education and training. Unions and apprenticeship programs offer a strong foundation, providing paid education for career development. Canvas's technology adds a new dimension to this training, with data from machines streaming to tech support teams who can provide continuous education and feedback.

Looking Forward: The Platform Approach

Canvas isn't just building a drywall finishing robot - they're creating what Kevin calls "the heavy equipment for interior spaces." Their platform approach could extend to painting, fireproofing, and other material application tasks. This broader vision suggests a future where construction sites have a suite of specialized robotic tools, each optimized for specific tasks but built on common technological foundations.

Key Learnings:

• Hardware startups need to solve acute pain points that make even imperfect early products valuable to customers
• Capital efficiency in robotics requires ruthless optimization of lead times and smart inventory management
• The future of construction automation is collaborative, with robots augmenting rather than replacing skilled workers
• Data collection and analysis can transform traditionally opaque construction processes
• The right business model evolves with market conditions and customer needs

#construction #robotics #automation #startups #buildingtech #innovation #proptech #constructiontech #painting