Born In Silicon Valley Podcast: Stop Wasting Time On Estimates

Togal.AI Founder and CEO Patrick Murphy sat down with host Jake Karen Verrial on the Born in Silicon Valley podcast to talk about the path from a family construction business to building the AI-assisted takeoff platform used by estimators across the country.

Murphy traced the throughline from digging holes and pouring concrete on his family's job sites, through a term in the U.S. Congress, back to a construction business where the numbers told an uncomfortable story: estimating was eating the largest share of overhead, and quantity takeoff — measuring drywall, paint, electrical, HVAC, and everything else off a set of plans — was consuming 50 to 60% of the team's time. That gap became the starting point for Togal.AI!

The conversation covered why an industry-wide problem like this had gone unsolved for so long. Murphy pointed to the sheer variability of construction: no two sets of plans are drawn the same way, no two buildings share the same conditions, and the materials — concrete, steel, wood — haven't fundamentally changed even as everything built with them has. That complexity, paired with a 2D, plan-based workflow, made construction one of the only major industries with flat productivity over the past 50 years.

Murphy also spoke to the design philosophy behind the product: speed paired with accuracy, and a firm belief that estimators stay in the driver's seat. As Murphy put it, the goal is a tool that acts as "a power tool to help that human speed up the process" — not a replacement for the judgment that comes with reading a set of plans and knowing what an architect actually meant.

Listen to the full episode.