[pg]

Actually PlanGrid has been remarkably successful at signing up construction firms. I don't think I've ever seen a startup sign up "enterprise" customers so fast during YC. It's almost as if the construction companies were already waiting for them.

[brudgers]

Construction benefits from better information being delivered more quickly, and the pace of information exchange has increased dramatically over the past few decades as couriered letters gave way to faxes to emails to cell phones with cameras.

On the other hand, screens have not replaced large sheets of paper to the extent one would expect (note that TechCrunch still references scanning hard copies; something done in the trailer where monitors have become ubiquitous).

Why? Construction management is, at its heart an exercise in coordination. Performing that coordination efficiently requires looking at the big picture, and literally looking at a big picture 8 square feet at a time cannot be replicated on a screen.

What a slate does offer is the ability to access the backup - takeoffs, photos, subcontracts, correspondence, etc. while looking at the issue in the field. But a project engineer who only relies on an iPad to look at the plans before calling the design team is probably in for a Mira Los planos asschewing.

I will not be surprised to see the app be successful, but it will probably not revolutionize construction in the way AutoCAD changed design. AutoCAD was close to the metal of the design industry, but an iPad app is much more of an abstraction when it comes to actual construction activities such as digging a hole or throwing paint on wall.

Good luck.

[r00fus]

> Why? Construction management is, at its heart an exercise in coordination. Performing that coordination efficiently requires looking at the big picture, and literally looking at a big picture 8 square feet at a time cannot be replicated on a screen.

Perhaps a tablet + projector would. Last night, I was at a friend's kid's birthday party, and they took a nice big wall, a projector,appletv and airplay mirroring the content of the iPad to watch movies and play games. The most interesting part was where the host was showing something to the kids, and the kids would take turns to correct him (and show him how they would do the task) as they passed the iPad around. It was absolutely sublime to watch.

Currently it's a tad clunky for setup (requires 3 devices) but if you merge the three devices into two (or even one) it could be relatively tasty... add in webex-style teleconferencing for flavor.

[brudgers]

Just running the numbers and assuming 100dpi output for convenience, that's a 12 megapixel projector, before one addresses finding a suitable projection screen on the jobsite and ruggedize the electronics.