Three years ago, Kanav experienced a house remodel for the first time. Least tech used, collaboration issues seen on the ground. Final output: 50% over budget, 70% over schedule. Having successfully built a health tech SaaS and AI business helping 80+ health systems and 15 Mn+ patients reducing cost and improving quality of care, he was shocked to see tech adoption in the AEC industry. A construction veteran, Tanmaya Kala (TK), with 17 years working and managing billions in projects for top firms like McCarthy and DPR, also Kanav’s friend, always wanted to make construction as reliable and predictable as manufacturing. We united over this problem of witnessing stagnant productivity despite surging demand, and fused software, AI, and deep industry insight to launch MeltPlan, poised to revolutionize pre-construction, where productivity is won or lost.
The Problem
The construction industry is at an inflection point. Demand for new buildings is growing fast, yet there’s a massive labor shortfall on the horizon. Productivity in construction has actually been declining, even as the world’s needs expand. We have no other option: we must make this industry radically more productive to meet the future head-on.
Where We Begin
A building is born twice: first in the digital world, then in the physical world. This digital birth is called pre-construction: the journey from an owner’s idea to a permit-ready set of plans. But this journey is broken.
Multiple stakeholders. Endless iterations. Every handoff is manual. Every decision carries risk. And every day lost is a lost opportunity for everyone involved.
We believe that pre-construction is where the battle for productivity must be won. It’s where ideas take shape, where mistakes are cheapest, and where collaboration can truly transform the future.
Our mission is to make the construction industry multifold productive, starting with pre-construction.
Here’s how:
Faster Iterations
No owner has perfect clarity. No architect has perfect plans. No GC has perfect budgets or schedules. Iterations are inevitable. We’re here to make sure every iteration is faster, smarter, and more accurate.
Issue Detection
Building requires 30+ trades and thousands of elements. Problems slip through the cracks. We’re here to surface them early—when fixing them is still easy.
Collaboration by Design
Most technology in this space is built for just one role—owners, architects, GCs. But real productivity only happens when everyone collaborates. It’s hard. It’s messy. It’s essential. And it’s exactly what we’re building.
Why now?
Are we cloud-based and AI-first? Of course. We were surprised to see companies tout this as a differentiator—like it’s still 2010. For us, these are table stakes. We’re not here to brag about AI; we’re here to make teams smarter and faster.
What’s in the name?
MeltPlan has a play of two vectors:
Melting pot for all stakeholders in the build environment to come together and plan better.
We can only unlock productivity when we let everyone plan smarter and better and also collaboratively.
Material. Equipment. Labor. Time. (M.E.L.T.)
While GCs care about material, equipment, and labor in every estimate and bid, Owners also care about time as delays have opportunity cost lost. We plan to optimize all four dimensions: material, equipment, labor, and time.
Our Vision: Your Future
Imagine this:
- A TurboTax-like tool that helps owners shape confident financial feasibility studies and hand requirements directly to architects. Know the cost of your idea before you commit!
- A simulator for architects to optimize space and unlock creativity.
- Automated code checking on plans, down to your city’s latest regulations.
- Takeoff tools that empower GCs to estimate in days, not weeks. Provide rapid and accurate feedback on programmatic and design changes during preconstruction for optimal plan.
- Collaborative scope-splitting and buyout intelligence for trade partners. Eliminate scope gaps that turn into costly change orders during construction
- Real-time clash detection and model-based scheduling
A single source of truth, shared by owners, architects, GCs, and trade partners alike.
It Sounds Like a Dream. But We’re Building It
This might sound like something out of Iron Man’s movie. But we’re building it: block by block, tool by tool, always focused on delivering quantum leaps in value.
We are beginning by tackling code research and takeoffs, by making code research and takeoffs effortless we intend to empower architects to focus on creativity and estimators to maximize client value.
Our Promise
We’ll be your Jarvis, so you can be the Iron Man of the construction world.
