On April 8-10, 2025, ECOR Global’s CEO Jay Potter attended BuiltWorlds’ Venture West Conference in San Francisco. Since 2018, the BuiltWorld’s Venture Series has grown to become the premier symposium for investors, innovators and corporate leaders focused on emerging technologies for the built environment. What started as a digital community has evolved into a research and networking platform supporting specific areas of research, collaboration, and in person events and conferences. By scheduling a robust series of events like Venture West, and Demo Days, BuiltWorlds connects capital, technology and industry in the architecture, construction, engineering and operations sectors.
On April 9, 2025, Jay Potter participated in the pitch contest as part of the Demo Day event at Venture West. Attendees were able to physically handle and inspect a 6” x 6” sample of ECOR-Ply, which is notable given the fact that very few companies are able to provide this kind of hands-on demo experience in a pitch.
With the exception of robotics, almost all of the other companies in the contest were AI and software-based. ECOR’s competition included the following innovators:
Arvist: Warehouse management
Concert: Project software
Azure Printed Homes: Robotically printed tiny homes utilizing plastic waste
Quotr: AI Pre-construction assistant
Green Badger: LEED sustainability software
Projexion: Complex project forecasting software
Siiv: Accounting and project management software for WIP reporting
WrkDn: Enterprise AI process compliance for construction
BYLD: Integrated software and hardware for design and construction
HardHat Robotics: AI embodied robotics for construction
Cyphra Autonomy: Autonomous wheelbarrow systems for outdoor material moving
CalmFloor: Vibration control technology
Terrascape: AI: AI-driven platform for construction software development
While many of these companies provided excellent presentations and have great futures, ECOR won the competition. As noted by the judges, unlike most of the competition, ECOR is not just a concept, but a viable business with commercial scale manufacturing operations already in place. The judges were also impressed by the scale of ECOR’s ambitions. Instead of just competing against themselves like the AI start-ups, ECOR is going for a very big play: substituting a fully sustainable alternative for existing well-known products with no sustainable attributes. The judges also recognized that manufacturing at scale presents a whole host of challenges not present in the digital realm. These include more robust R&D, higher capital requirements, and longer timelines to commercial manufacturing scale.
Everyone that attended was fully engaged and interested in ECOR’s objectives to address the real pain points in the industry with material solutions. Most start-ups focused on the built environment provide modest efficiency increases, operating on the fringes of the real problems. ECOR’s solutions to these problems address a future that will be governed by carbon accounting. Our 100% bio-based, non-toxic, recyclable products really garnered a lot of attention.
ECOR made many invaluable connections at the event that we are following up on this week. We hope that ECOR’s participation in BuiltWorlds’ network and events will continue to spotlight much needed manufacturing and hardware solutions.