Karmen

What do they actually do

Karmen builds an AI assistant for construction teams that turns project documents and communications into schedules and suggested updates. Today, users upload specs, drawings, and prior schedules; Karmen parses them to produce a baseline with WBS, logic links, and durations that can be exported to Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project. It integrates with email and project tools (they call out Procore) and is currently offered via demos and pilots to general contractors and owners [Karmen site; YC profile](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).

Once connected, Karmen monitors inboxes and project systems to capture invoices, RFIs, and change notices, matches them to the right project, and surfaces what needs attention. When it detects a change event, it proposes schedule edits (including fragnets and CPM impact analysis) and drafts time‑impact narratives with citations back to the source documents for PM review before pushing updates into P6/MS Project Karmen site.

They are early-stage (small team, pilots) and emphasize enterprise readiness and integrations. The site lists SOC 2 Type II, and the roadmap focuses on faster schedule creation from plan sets, smoother review‑and‑approve loops for schedule maintenance, and deeper integrations with scheduling, PM, and ERP systems [Karmen site; YC profile](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Construction project manager at a general contractor: Buried in emails, RFIs, invoices, and change notices; deciding what affects the schedule and then updating the master schedule and drafting time‑impact writeups is manual and time‑consuming [Karmen; YC](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).
• Scheduler / planning engineer (Primavera P6 or MS Project): Building baselines from large plan sets and linking tasks is slow and repetitive; every scope change requires tedious CPM rework and clean exports/imports Karmen.
• Owner or owner’s representative overseeing multiple projects: Needs consistent, defensible time‑impact narratives and approved schedule changes; assembling cited evidence across emails and systems is slow Karmen.
• Project controls / claims analyst: Compiling documents, citations, and CPM analyses for change orders or disputes is manual, requiring searches across inboxes and PM tools to build timely, well‑sourced claims Karmen.
• Finance/AP or procurement staff at a contractor: Subcontractor invoices and change notices arrive by email/text and are often mismatched to projects, delaying payments and causing reconciliation rework [Karmen; YC](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).

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

• First 10: Run founder‑led pilots with one GC and role‑specific users (PMs, schedulers, owners, claims/AP) to ingest an active job, generate an editable baseline, test P6/Procore integrations, and deliver draft time‑impact narratives; trade a discounted pilot for a reference commitment [Karmen; YC](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).
• First 50: Expand inside initial GCs via division cross‑sells and referrals; add targeted outreach to schedulers/owners/claims, host technical webinars, and co‑sell through Procore/Primavera partners with case studies that show time saved and schedule quality gains [Karmen; YC](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).
• First 100: Scale through marketplace listings and partner/reseller programs, regional AEs, and a self‑serve demo; reduce procurement friction with SOC 2 materials and fixed‑price integrations, and offer managed onboarding and tiered pricing to convert more pilots [Karmen; YC](https://www.karmenai.com/; https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/karmen).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Karmen sits in construction software, not total construction spend. The global construction software market was about $9.9–11B in 2024, with project‑management/scheduling around $3.4B; North America’s relevant slice is roughly $1.3–1.6B Fortune Business Insights.

Bottom-up calculation:

Applying North America’s construction‑software spend (~$4.19B in 2025) and the project‑management/scheduling share (~34–35%) yields about $1.4B SAM; a seat‑based upper bound is informed by ~550k U.S. construction managers who influence scheduling/tooling decisions [Fortune Business Insights; BLS](https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/construction-software-market-110155; https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/construction-managers.htm).

Assumptions:

• Project‑management/scheduling maintains roughly a one‑third share of construction‑software spend in North America.
• Karmen’s near‑term revenue comes from the scheduling/project‑controls slice rather than all construction software.
• Only a subset of construction managers/schedulers are buyers, but they influence tool selection and seats.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• ALICE Technologies: AI‑driven schedule generation and optimization for complex projects; notable for simulation/resequencing capabilities that overlap with baseline creation and optimization.
• nPlan: Schedule Studio generates/edits logic‑linked schedules, exports to P6, and emphasizes predictive risk and schedule integrity, overlapping with baseline creation and quality checks.
• Procore: Broad construction PM platform managing RFIs, submittals, and approvals; increasingly adds scheduling features and is a key system of record where Karmen integrates/competes for workflow.
• Autodesk Construction Cloud (Autodesk Build): Document/BIM and project management suite used for drawings, submittals, and issues; strong on document control and model workflows that intersect with schedule context.
• Buildots: Site‑capture AI that verifies progress against plan and surfaces delays; overlaps on detecting schedule impacts but centers on visual progress and verification rather than inbox‑driven changes.