In our latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Melvin Newman, CEO and Co-Founder of Patabid, to discuss how AI is transforming construction estimating and why innovation in this space matters more than most people realize.
Melvin's journey is unconventional. He's a mechanical engineer who taught himself neural network development by buying textbooks on natural language processing in 2015, built an AI system that worked so well it "terrified" him, and turned a side project into the #1 unified public tender and electrical estimating software platform in North America. Along the way, he's become a passionate advocate for R&D tax credits, construction innovation, and using AI to amplify human expertise, not replace it.
His philosophy: "Never build the same thing twice."
In construction, every building is a prototype. Every project carries unique risks. And the companies succeeding are the ones leveraging technology to move faster, safer, and smarter.
The Problem: Construction's Aging Workforce and Risk Blind Spots
Melvin identified a critical challenge facing the construction industry: An aging population in the front end of construction business is retiring out, and there hasn't been enough thought put into raising up another generation of estimators.
The ones still there are getting hammered with more work, tighter timelines, and higher stakes. And because construction continuously builds prototypes, it's exceedingly hard to get a firm foundation of where costs and risks actually are.
"Mid-size and smaller contractors can't afford teams of lawyers like the really big guys have. But they desperately need that risk analysis in this day and age. That's where AI can start to facilitate that."
The Solution: AI That Amplifies Human Expertise
Patabid automates the entire construction estimating process with features like automated screen takeoff, automated pricing and labor features, quick item pads, blueprinting, and pre-built assemblies. But it goes further, allowing users to find public tenders from across North America to bid on directly within their workflow.
The key insight: AI doesn't replace the estimator. It dramatically backstops them in their daily grind and helps owners understand what they're looking at on a project-by-project basis.
"AI amplifies the human. Don't ever be afraid of the AI—be afraid of the human controlling the AI. It'll amplify the good aspects and the bad aspects. What it's doing is removing the excuse not to think."
Melvin's philosophy: Humans have an "11-pound shoulder-mounted supercomputer" (the brain). AI should free that up for creativity, strategy, and critical thinking; not copying values between Excel spreadsheets.
The Origin Story: From $60K Woolly Rhinos to Production AI
Melvin's path to founding Patabid started with a personal need: a way to sort through all the public tenders across North America to identify key ones worth pursuing.
In 2015-2016, he bought textbooks on natural language processing and AI development and started building. One Christmas in 2017, it came online and started working better than he expected.
They named the system "Doug." And Doug had a sense of humor.
"There was a tender for prisoner restraint chairs that Doug classified as office furniture. I almost fell out of my chair laughing because I'm like, 'Yep, that's what I'm sitting in right now—a prisoner restraint chair.'"
Doug also taught Melvin that a stuffed and mounted woolly rhinoceros (an animal he discovered exists) costs about $60,000, thanks to a public tender from a museum.
Fast-forward to connecting with Maxwell, a computer science PhD, who looked at Melvin's code and said: "Do you know what you've done here? How did you come up with this?"
Melvin's response: "It just had to work. I was under massive pressure and I needed this to work, so we found a way."
Maxwell asked about his degree. Melvin: "Dude, I don't have a degree. I went to college for three years of mechanical engineering that I did in four because I sucked at it."
Today, Patabid is running its first in-house LLM specifically geared to construction and complex trades on their own hardware, in their own data center.
R&D Tax Credits: Validation and Risk Mitigation
Melvin is a passionate advocate for R&D tax credits and government funding programs like SR&ED.
"We at Patabid have had R&D tax credits in our regions to facilitate a bunch of what's gone into this. And in the companies I've worked for, we went for some of those in construction because there is so much room for research and development right now."
His message to construction companies: "Explore those tax credits. We call it non-dilutive funding. If you're running thin margins but you have an idea—you want to deploy some new process, prefabrication development—that sort of support is huge."
Why it matters beyond cash: "When you qualify for that funding, it's validation from the government that you are doing something that is genuinely innovative. It shows investors this is legitimate. It shows you're bringing something to productization. And the government can take on higher risk than institutional VC firms."
For early-stage startups, SR&ED funding can prove viability before approaching investors. For growing companies, it provides non-dilutive capital that doesn't compromise equity.
"You don't have to prove you're a unicorn—which by definition, you can't do while telling the truth. You can do it while lying through your teeth, but not while showing objective reality."
The Ecosystem: Platform Calgary and Community Support
Melvin credits Calgary's startup ecosystem—particularly Platform Calgary—with helping Patabid navigate the brutal early years.
"We were bootstrapped for the first five years. None of us came from business families. It was a tremendously vertical cliff to keep climbing."
Platform Calgary provided a municipal/government-funded co-work space where entrepreneurs could hang out, share notes about painful lessons (like salespeople who defrauded them), and develop strategies to succeed.
"If you don't come from a business history, you need that. And you have to be willing to thrive on personal abuse and suffering—straight up, that's a requirement for startups."
On naivety as a superpower: "I heard well after starting the business that 98-99% of startups fail. I'm glad I didn't know that stat until we were well and truly revenue profitable. Naivety can give you a superpower where you don't know it's not possible."
Innovation, Risk, and Why Government Funding Matters
Melvin shared a powerful perspective on funding innovation:
"Innovation by its very nature is risky. Thomas Edison tried to bury Nikola Tesla, yet today all the world runs on AC power generation developed by Tesla. It's almost impossible to identify which innovations will succeed. You can get good senses, but it's risk."
The tension: Pure capitalism suggests Wall Street should take that risk. But Wall Street really can't defensibly take pure new R&D risk.
"If we don't take the risk somewhere, we can't innovate anymore. Having these non-dilutive, ultra-high-risk financing options—government grants and R&D tax credits—allows innovators to try. The true innovators rise above and move on."
What's Next for Patabid
2026 priorities:
- Getting their in-house LLM production-ready (currently beta testing with clients: "No software ever survives interaction with the user—it's been really fun to see how they've broken it")
- First formal fundraising round launching soon to accelerate growth
- Expanding into new markets in Europe and New Zealand
- Continuing to help mid-size contractors make step changes (residential to commercial, commercial to industrial/hospitals) without putting companies at colossal risk
The mission: "I don't want people to get hurt—financially, societally, at every level. Construction companies are putting their companies on the line when they take step changes. Every one of those carries tremendous risk because you don't know what you don't know. Patabid helps identify and properly monetize that risk so companies can make that leap."
Key Takeaways
Never build the same thing twice – Construction is continuous prototypes. Innovation should be baked into every project, making teams eligible for R&D tax credits.
AI amplifies humans, doesn't replace them – Remove the excuse not to think. Free up the "11-pound shoulder-mounted supercomputer" for creativity and strategy.
R&D tax credits are validation – Government funding proves you're genuinely innovative, shows investors legitimacy, and provides non-dilutive capital for high-risk R&D.
Naivety can be a superpower – If Melvin had known 98-99% of startups fail, he might not have started. Sometimes not knowing it's impossible helps you succeed.
Community matters – Platform Calgary and startup ecosystems provide critical support for founders who don't come from business backgrounds.
Government funding enables innovation – Institutional VCs can't take pure R&D risk. Non-dilutive funding from programs like SR&ED allows true innovators to try—and succeed.
Listen to the Full Episode
Want to hear Melvin's full story about building neural networks from textbooks, why Doug the AI classified prisoner restraint chairs as office furniture, and how Patabid is making construction estimating safer?
