Guest: Damien Quinn
Damien Quinn left Multiplex to build Visibuild. The site never left him.
Damien Quinn is co-founder and CEO of Visibuild. He left Multiplex because quality tools on site were still paper and hope. Visibuild later raised $6.6 million from Skip Capital.
From this episode
- Damien spent about 15 years at Multiplex including Sapphire Apartments, Shangri-La and Monash.
- Visibuild is used on large Australian projects including data centres.
Show notes
In Episode 11 of Behind the Facade, Jake from Proline Group and Daniel from Complex Facade Install sit down with Damien Quinn, founder of Visibuild, for one of the most unique conversations we have had on the podcast yet. Damien brings a wealth of on-site experience after a career spanning almost 15 years with one of Australia's most highly regarded builders, Multiplex.
This episode gets into what it actually looks like to step away from a 15-year career in the construction industry to back yourself and build something from scratch. Damien unpacks the moment he decided to take the leap into tech, what the transition from site manager to software founder really felt like, and why his experience on the tools and on site turned out to be his biggest advantage in building a tech company for the construction sector.
We also get into how AI is transforming the way construction businesses operate day to day, why doing things manually before automating them is the only way to build systems that scale, how Damien is navigating capital raises and investor pitches, and why the people who have lived and breathed site work are the best positioned to solve the industry's biggest operational challenges.
If you work in construction, facades, cladding, glazing, project management, site management, subcontracting, trades, estimating, operations, software, or business ownership, this episode is a raw look at what it takes to back yourself completely and build something the industry actually needs.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome Damien Quinn, founder of Visibuild and his 15-year career in construction
08:24 From managing sites with a clear set of plans to building a company from a blank sheet of paper
15:43 Why doing things manually before automating them is the only way to build systems that scale
24:17 How AI is changing the way construction businesses report, schedule and manage their teams
35:52 The moment Damien knew he had to step out of construction and back himself completely
44:11 Building a software company without a tech background and why construction experience is the advantage
58:30 Raising capital for the first time, pitch decks and what investors actually want to see
01:10:22 Why the construction industry is years behind on technology and what it will take to close the gap
01:28:44 Do things that don't scale first, then work out how to automate and make them efficient
01:41:09 The next 12 months for Visibuild, the Series B raise and what success looks like from here
ABOUT BEHIND THE FACADE
Behind the Facade is a construction podcast hosted by Jake Gorry, Director of Proline Group, and Daniel from Complex Facade Install Pty Ltd. The podcast goes behind the scenes of the facade, cladding, glazing and construction industry, sharing real conversations about business, leadership, site work, project delivery, culture and the people building the industry from the ground up.