Case Study
TrueBuilt: From plans to bids in one place
ROLE
Founding product designer
TEAM
Me, CEO, CTO, [X] engineers
TIMELINE
[Start] to [End]
COMPANY
TrueBuilt, seed stage construction tech
The problem
General contractors measured plans in one tool, priced materials and labor in another, and sent bid packages to subs in a third. None of it talked, so every handoff meant retyping numbers, and that busywork capped how many jobs a team could bid on.
Key decisions
01
Make the measurement the start of the estimate
Estimators told me takeoff and estimating felt like two different jobs. So every shape you draw on a plan becomes a component that carries its own materials and labor. Trace a wall and the studs, track, and crew hours come with it, with Estimation one click away in the same toolbar.
02
Formulas as fill in the blanks, not code
On office visits, the real estimating engine was usually an Excel sheet someone had tuned for years. People wanted that flexibility without learning a formula editor. I turned formulas into named variables like wall height, stud spacing, and waste that sit right above the items they drive, and grouped items into assemblies so a wall type gets built once and reused on every job.
03
Keep the plan front and center on any screen
In those same offices, people were estimating on everything from laptops to big monitors. Component details get dense fast, so I designed the side panel at three breakpoints: stacked on small screens, two columns at medium, a full grid at large. The drawing never gets buried.
Results
Shipped takeoff with live multiplayer cursors, catalog linked components, assemblies, and responsive panels to GC customers
The core is still live: plan takeoff, custom assemblies, team level item databases, and real time collaboration are all in TrueBuilt’s product today
Bid packages became the growth engine. The first customer invited 200 subs to bid on a single project, which investors called out when TrueBuilt raised its $4M seed
I moved on before long term usage data, but [early signal or customer quote]
← Previous case study
Next case study →