Clodo

What do they actually do

Clodo today is a live, voice‑first assistant for real‑estate agents. Agents speak to capture lead notes, and Clodo enriches contacts, suggests who to follow up with, drafts messages, and can find/send property matches via MLS/IDX connections. Public materials indicate early commercial use with “dozens” of agents (the YC listing mentions “over 60”) rather than a broad rollout yet (Clodo site, YC profile).

The team has since pivoted its focus toward building AI agents for large‑scale construction, positioning the product to automate busy work and support project teams at general contractors. This construction offering is in development; the YC listing now describes Clodo as “AI For Large Scale Construction,” signaling the intended direction while the live product still reflects the real‑estate assistant origins (YC profile).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Project manager at a general contractor (GC): Manages RFIs, submittals, and schedules across trades; spends hours chasing updates and documenting decisions. Needs faster routing of questions and fewer tasks slipping between office and field. (YC profile)
• Site superintendent / foreman: Captures photos/notes/punch‑list items on site but must retype or call details into the office, losing time and context. Needs hands‑free capture that turns observations into assigned work quickly. (Clodo site)
• Estimator / procurement lead: Tracks quotes, long‑lead items, and change orders across email/spreadsheets, causing missed deliveries and cost creep. Needs clearer tracking of outstanding orders and schedule/cost impact. (YC profile)
• Quality control / field engineer: Information is buried in plans, submittals, and daily reports; producing inspection evidence is slow and error‑prone. Needs fast, searchable access and a reliable audit trail. (YC profile)
• Operations / program manager at a large GC: Oversees many projects with inconsistent processes and poor cross‑project visibility, leading to rework and disputes. Needs standardized workflows and measurable admin‑time reductions to justify enterprise tools. (YC profile)

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run targeted pilots with mid‑size GCs: ingest project documents, enable hands‑free field capture, and generate routable RFIs/punch‑lists; measure before/after time saved and collect testimonials for proof points. (YC profile, Clodo site)
• First 50: Build 1–2 deep integrations (e.g., Procore/PlanGrid) and use pilot results in outbound to PM/ops teams; layer in trade‑specific email sequences, LinkedIn targeting, and a referral incentive to spread across peer GCs.
• First 100: Hire a small sales team focused on regional GCs, certify implementation partners, and sell a packaged “pilot → ROI report → rollout” offer with standardized legal/pricing and success metrics to speed deployments.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Global construction output is roughly $11.4T in 2024, but that is not software‑addressable; the actionable category is construction software, estimated around $9–11B in 2024–25 and growing ~9–11% annually (Deloitte, Fortune Business Insights, Mordor Intelligence).

Bottom-up calculation:

Focusing on large GCs, a near‑term obtainable market could be 5,000 enterprise GC organizations worldwide × ~$100k average ARR for an AI agent package ≈ $500M annual opportunity; targeting only the top ~1,000 at ~$300k ARR ≈ $300M. These figures sit within the ~$10B construction software SAM and are consistent with enterprise spend levels seen in the category (e.g., Procore’s $1.15B revenue and large‑account mix) (Procore financials).

Assumptions:

• Market focus is large/mid‑large GCs in North America and Europe first, expanding globally.
• Average ARR per customer ranges from ~$100k (pilot + limited rollout) to ~$300k (broader enterprise usage).
• There are several thousand GCs globally with multi‑project scale and budgets suitable for enterprise AI tooling; figures are directional, grounded by industry firm counts and incumbent benchmarks.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Procore: Leading construction management platform used by GCs for project management, financials, and field collaboration; increasingly adds AI features and is the system of record many GCs rely on.
• Autodesk Construction Cloud (incl. PlanGrid/Build/Docs): End‑to‑end construction collaboration and document management tightly integrated with design/BIM; broad footprint and growing AI capabilities across docs and workflows.
• Raken: Field reporting and daily logs for superintendents and crews; strong adoption in site documentation and photo capture, overlapping with hands‑free field capture use cases.
• OpenSpace: Automated site capture and visual progress tracking; often used by GCs for documentation, QC, and coordination—adjacent to document/AI agents via site data and evidence trails.
• Document Crunch: AI‑assisted contract and document review focused on risk and compliance in construction; overlaps with document parsing and audit‑trail needs for GCs.