Another $450M Down the Drain — RIP Builder.ai.

Author

Owen Drury
June 02, 2025

Builder.ai collapses, venture debt traps, and construction’s brewing tech skepticism.

In this Bricks, Bucks & Bytes episode:

🚨 Builder.ai files for bankruptcy after raising $450M — AI-washing or just bad business?

🏗️ Zombie SaaS companies still haunt construction tech.

🧠 AI: Revolution or regression? Why it's making people dumber and what it means for AEC.


But that’s not all:

Dustin DeVan explains why 90% of AI startups could be headed for zero.

Patric Hellermann dives into how venture debt can quietly kill companies.

Martin Piekarz shares why AI-powered emails are killing the art of engineering proposals.


🎧 Listen now for:

  • Why "annual recurring revenue" is mostly a lie

  • How AI could actually hurt your social skills (and your business)

  • What happens when software startups fail — and the ripple effect on contractors

  • The untold truth about venture debt and why it can destroy companies faster than VC

  • Are AI startups today just 1999 dot-coms in disguise?


🗣 Bonus: Some personal highlights

  • Patric reveals his secret to conference fashion — and it's not what you'd expect.

  • Martin survives Belarusian border control (barely).

  • Dustin runs a marathon (nearly), negotiates venture debt, and dissects SaaS economics — all before lunch.

  • Owen vs. AI hype — who wins?