AI Agents Are Rebuilding Europe’s Construction Industry

Jörn Menninger
Nov 13, 2025
33 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

Cover graphic for Startuprad.io’s ‘This Month in DACH Startups – Summer Wrap-Up 2025’ featuring illustrated portraits of the podcast hosts, highlighting startup news from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

What Is This About?

AI agents are entering Europe's construction industry — one of the last sectors to undergo digital transformation. This episode explores how ConTech startups are deploying autonomous AI systems to automate building design, project management, and quality control across European construction sites.

Introduction

PlanCraft, founded by Julian Wiedenhaus in Hamburg, is redefining digital transformation for Europe's construction and craft industry through AI agents. This interview explores how the startup is solving the unique challenges of digitizing an industry where pen-and-paper processes persist, skilled labor shortages are acute, and traditional software solutions have consistently failed to gain adoption among tradespeople and contractors.

Executive Summary

PlanCraft brings AI agents to Europe's construction and craft industry, solving digitization challenges that have defeated previous software approaches. The startup's platform addresses skilled labor shortages by automating administrative tasks that consume 30-40% of tradespeople's working hours. Key to adoption is a mobile-first design that accommodates workers who operate from job sites rather than offices. The company's Hamburg-based team combines construction industry experience with AI engineering to build tools that actual tradespeople will use.

PlanCraft is redefining what digital transformation means for Europe’s construction and craft industry. Founded by Julian Wiedenhaus in Hamburg, the startup evolved from a family carpentry shop into a €38 million Series B SaaS scale-up serving over 20 000 businesses.

PlanCraft is redefining what digital transformation means for Europe’s construction and craft industry. Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

This founder interview is part of our ongoing coverage of Scaleup Founder Interviews from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Management Summary

AI is no longer reserved for tech giants and developers — it’s reshaping the workshops, construction sites and family businesses that keep Europe running. In this episode and pillar analysis, we explore how Julian Wiedenhaus and his team at PlanCraft built an AI-first operating system for the trades — software that gives craftsmen their weekends back.

Born from a Hamburg carpentry shop, PlanCraft bridges the gap between Excel and enterprise ERP, offering a simple, affordable SaaS that connects field teams and offices. With 20 000 customers and a €38 million Series B, the startup proves that digitization of “non-digital industries” is both profitable and deeply human.

This article distills the core frameworks behind PlanCraft’s success — from product-led growth to creator-driven referrals and AI agents that act like digital co-workers. It also examines how founder values, pricing psychology and a voice-first UX are changing Europe’s construction ecosystem.

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From Workshop to Series B — The Origin Story
Why the Trades Were a Blue Ocean for SaaS
Product-Led Growth for Craftsmen
Pricing and the “Robin Hood” Model
Creator Referrals and Community Trust
The AI Pivot — Agents and Voice Interfaces
Culture as Infrastructure
Future of Construction 2030
Key Takeaways + AI Search Capsules
Explore More from Startuprad.io

From Workshop to Series B — The Origin Story

When Julian Wiedenhaus first walked into his co-founder’s family carpentry shop in 2018, he found the real Germany — busy hands, paper invoices, and evening hours lost to bureaucracy. Existing software was either too expensive (on-prem ERP licenses) or too primitive (Excel and Word). No one had connected the construction site to the office.

So PlanCraft was born to fill that gap — a cloud-native SaaS for craft businesses with human-centered design and AI in its DNA. Fast-forward to 2025: 20 000 customers across Europe, backed by Headline, CREANDUM and HTGF, and a €38 million Series B.

“Most craftsmen don’t need more paperwork — they need more time for the work that matters.” — Julian Wiedenhaus

Why the Trades Were a Blue Ocean for SaaS

In 2018, there were virtually no cloud tools for Europe’s trades. Construction software was a legacy market running on local servers and lifelong licenses. PlanCraft introduced subscription pricing and cloud freedom to a sector that had never seen it.

The insight: digitalization doesn’t start with features — it starts with empathy. The team spent months observing how craftsmen actually worked. Invoices done on Sundays. Quotes drafted at night. Paper plans folded in trucks. Every minute saved by software was a minute earned for life.

Why SaaS Suits the Trades:

Cloud = mobility between site and office.
Subscription = predictable costs for small firms.
Updates = no more manual maintenance.

Product-Led Growth for Craftsmen

For most founders, PLG means funnels and activation metrics. For PlanCraft, it meant “first win faster.” The moment a craftsman creates his first quote without training is the moment he believes.

Julian’s team optimized onboarding to make that moment arrive in minutes, not hours. Auto-creating projects, pre-filled customer forms — everything designed to reduce friction.

Pro Tip: Map the user’s “aha” moment in seconds, not sessions.

And when your target audience spends its day with hammers, not keyboards, you design for instinct, not tutorials.

Pricing and the “Robin Hood” Model

PlanCraft’s pricing strategy is deceptively simple — make the product affordable for the smallest clients and charge larger companies fairly based on their revenues (which the platform can see via invoicing data).

This data-driven tiering creates a self-balancing ecosystem: micro-SMBs get access, larger players fund scale.

Stat Spotlight: Average construction SMB spends < 1 % of revenue on software; PlanCraft’s model fits within that threshold while driving ARR growth > 40 % YoY.

Creator Referrals and Community Trust

PlanCraft didn’t buy trust; it earned it through creators who actually use the product. Influencers from the trades community create content with PlanCraft because it simplifies their lives, not because they’re paid actors.

The company incentivizes referrals through Cello, a tool that shares ARR with users who bring new customers. Word of mouth becomes a growth engine — honest, sustainable and rooted in peer trust.

“You can’t pay people to advertise a bad product. You can only make one so good they want to talk about it.” — Julian Wiedenhaus

The AI Pivot — Agents and Voice Interfaces

In 2024, PlanCraft began its most radical shift — rebuilding its operating system for trades around AI agents and voice control.

Where most SMBs see AI as a buzzword, Julian sees it as workforce augmentation. Each agent acts as a digital assistant — creating quotes, sorting invoices, reminding teams of deadlines.

“It’s like hiring new employees — only this time they’re digital.”

Market Lens: Europe’s construction sector faces a deficit of half a million skilled workers by 2030. AI agents offer capacity without immigration bottlenecks or training delays.

Voice interfaces take it further: field workers can dictate quotes, log hours and sync data hands-free.

Culture as Infrastructure

PlanCraft’s growth from 40 to 100+ employees wasn’t managed by OKRs alone — it was anchored in values: enthusiasm (Bock), solidarity (Zusammenhalt) and down-to-earth authenticity (Bodenständigkeit).

Founders personally screen for value alignment. Culture scales only when it is made visible and reinforced daily.

Pro Tip: When scaling headcount, double-down on culture rituals before you double your team.

Future of Construction 2030

Julian’s vision is clear — a paperless, fully digitized workforce where craftsmen are AI-enabled, not AI-replaced. By 2030, Europe’s trades could achieve a 10 % productivity gain simply by removing manual documentation.

AI agents will not replace the human touch of craft — they’ll give it more time to breathe.

Key Takeaways

Digitization of the trades is a massive untapped market in Europe.
Empathy-driven design beats feature-driven software.
AI agents can solve labor shortages by augmenting, not replacing workers.
Culture is a scalable system, not a poster.

Atomic Answer

Internal & External Linking

Internal

Authority Sources

McKinsey Report 2025 on Construction AI Productivity (https://www.mckinsey.com)
European Commission Digital SME Outlook (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu)

Relationship Map

Julian Wiedenhaus → CEO & Co-Founder → PlanCraft Joe

Who → invested → PlanCraft

Jörn "Joe" Menninger → Host of → Startuprad.io

Automated Transcript

1 We start with the hook Madhu. If you're building a SaaS for 2 traditional industries, you know the challenges. Customers 3 are busy doing the real work, not sitting in front of screens. 4 Julian Videnhuis, CEO and co founder of 5 PlanCraft in English PlanCraft turned that reality 6 into opportunity. From a family carpentry shop 7 to 38 million Series B funding, Planecraft is 8 now transforming how Europe's craftsmen run their businesses 9 using AI agents, voice control and human 10 centered design. Today we unpack how you 11 scale a startup that makes real work more human. 12 Welcome to Startuprad IO, 13 your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German 14 startup scene with news, interviews and 15 live events. 16 Today we're joined by Julian Videnhuis, CEO and co 17 founder of Plancraft in English Plancraft 18 one of Europe's fastest growing SaaS startups of the

19 trades, Plancraft began with a simple 20 insight. Most craftsmen don't need more 21 paperwork, they need more time for the work that 22 matters. Under Julian's leadership, the Hamburg based startup 23 crew from a student project to pan European 24 platform serving more than 20,000 25 businesses backed by top investors like Headline 26 Creatum and the high tech Grunder from hdgf. Log 27 into the interview of the former CEO to learn more about them. 28 Recognized by Welt Virtual and frz, 29 Julian's vision fuses AI simplicity, 30 human empathy. Moving that technology can 31 empower even the most traditional industries. Julian 32 Moin and welcome to Startupgrade IO. Thanks for having me. 33 Great to see you. Great to talk only my pleasure. Let us 34 directly jump in with the question. 35 Take us back to the first moment of 36 your co founder's carpentry shop. What problem

37 did you see that none of the existing 38 software solutions did solve? 39 So you gotta imagine that was in 2018 40 somewhere. May, June, weather turned great when 41 the business kind of starts to flourish and then there is just a shit 42 ton of work to do for those folks in the carpentry and in any other 43 craft as well. And so we've been visiting 44 because they've changed the software, wanted to of course improve 45 a lot of things mainly to speed up of course and get more 46 freedom but secondly also to better connect construction 47 sites and the office. And so in this carpentry, like roughly 48 20 folks, 20 employees in that, in that crew, we've 49 seen the hectic everyday life and I 50 think what existing players, mostly 51 on premise tools back then there was no other cloud solution available,

52 did not see or maybe didn't want to see, is that they had good business 53 running. You know, they had a product they could sell for a 54 lifetime license and then they were selling Additional 55 packages such as maintenance contracts and 56 service contracts, and partially even evolving, including 57 updates. And that was going okay and people were 58 at least not happy with it, but it was working because there was no other 59 solution at hand. And I think while this business 60 kept being eligible, nobody really 61 dared to fully innovate and fully set on cloud. And I 62 guess what then of course changed was that we been growing 63 up with Spotify, Netflix and Amazon, and then you don't want to have that, you 64 don't want to have that run on your local computer, on your local machine. 65

And we just wanted to bring that freedom and that ease of use 66 to software for the carpentry because we just saw 67 insanely much was happening in their everyday lives, but 68 not what was really kind of moving the needle for them. 69 Plus what I also have in mind, because there will be breaks 70 from time to time for the carpentry work that they can or cannot do at 71 this point. And basically when they do have a SaaS solution, a 72 cloud solution, they can just simply pull out their tablet, the laptop and 73 start working, which doesn't necessarily work with on 74 premise tools. Before plancraft, most craft 75 businesses used, for example Word and Excel. Where 76 was the market so underserved? And what did you learn 77 from observing like the real workflows in small workshops? 78 So basically there were two paths to follow. If you have your own

79 construction business, either you go with something that's basically for free, 80 or in Excel, nothing, you got to kind of pay additionally and 81 you can just use it. Of course it's not meant to be your enterprise 82 resource planning system. So no ERP or the other way was 83 you go with any of the existing on prem tools, pay a couple 84 of thousand for a lifetime kind of license for you to 85 use that software, and then you have a couple of hundreds of 86 euros per year, partially per month to keep it up and running. And of course 87 there is a gap in between where companies can either afford for 88 this very expensive tool or they go for Word Excel. 89 And so what we basically did was we filled that gap with 90 SSAs typical business model, you gotta pay monthly or in yearly

91 advance and then you're gonna just have that SaaS 92 fee instead of having those even bigger investments 93 or nothing to use. And so this is kind of still valid 94 until this day that we try to, yeah, go with good options 95 for clients that they can actually finance. 96 When somebody starts a company with a 97 vision, you somewhere have in the back of 98 my mind, one day I want to. What was your one day 99 catalytic moment like 100 the point where you realize this needs to Be startup, not just 101 a project. So 102 while we were doing our interviews after that 103 carpentry and after every interview we 104 came kind of out of it saying gosh, 105 there's just so much we could do. 106 And kind of it was more of a where's the 107 end? What's kind of the scope we can actually work on always?

108 Rather than the okay, is there anything we could actually do? So 109 after seeing the carpentry, it was already clear that there's 110 definitely the chance for opening a business. It was just a question 111 of what's that business, how big can it be 112 and what do we want to do and where do we kind of feel 113 it has value and we love to do it and form a team around. 114 So yeah, it really started when that first, first time when 115 we've been in the back office, at least for me, and then after every 116 other interview that we did to understand is it just the carpentry? If it's just 117 this one carpentry or if it's any other carpentry we might pick. 118 And yeah, it confirmed more and more and over time. So 119 this was kind of basically building. Up the trades in,

120 in Germany you, I know like 80% of our 121 audience is from the Dach area and they know that you can 122 really learn the trades in a two year, three year apprenticeship, 123 but you really have to learn it. But the trade sector nonetheless 124 faces massive headwinds like the skill shortages because 125 you have to train like people two, three years, then they are 126 like real apprentices and then they learn more and more. 127 So there's a skill shortage because you cannot like 128 staff all the vacancies, the climate mandates 129 and biocracy. How did you decide 130 where Plancraft could make the biggest impact? 131 So in that sense, kind of we've, we've seen the companies 132 and just figured okay, we do 133 already have some people working in the trades even though of course 134 there's, there's a shortage and we need more of them. But

135 just the imagination saying, okay, if the ones that we have 136 wouldn't spend their evenings and days 137 unproductive and you know, loaded with stuff they 138 shouldn't be doing or that just takes longer than it should, we could 139 achieve already filings 140 for example, way more like you gotta imagine usually like Saturday was always 141 is a, is a construction day is like a work regular work day 142 for most of them either to earn extra money on the site. 143 And then Sunday is typically the kind of back office day by 144 nature where you also do kind of everything that you just need to do legally 145 as well, of course, partially Caring for invoices and 146 quotes that just need to serve customers. Whereas 147 in the evenings on a regular workday, there's terms just to 148 try and bring order to chaos that the team is

149 producing because they're not using any tool. And so just 150 seeing that kind of we need to start in thinking, okay, how 151 can we make them more efficient was kind of the starting point. And so we 152 started with quotation and invoicing because we saw that 153 was kind of the task that is taking up the most time 154 if it's spent in the office. So while in the office, which is generally 155 not anything where you would create value for your customers because 156 it's something that you need to do as overhead, purely 157 what's the biggest part of it. And that was pretty clearly 158 invoicing and quotation. So we started with that topic. 159 We may add for everybody who's not from the area that when you give a 160 quote, there is a limited amount of what it can go

161 up and down. So basically you have to nail the quote, otherwise you're 162 working more than you get paid for. Let's talk 163 a little bit about this. Quote calculator and product evolution. 164 Going from a quote calculator to full business suit, 165 what was the hardest pivot you made along the way? And 166 when I was looking at your product, you do now cover a lot of 167 common traits. But I was wondering, could for example, a 168 dog groomer also use your tool? 169 So let me start at the front of the question. So I 170 guess coming from this co calculator to the full business suite 171 was quite the challenge to maintain ease of 172 use and simplicity, which by nature means 173 that you won't have a million buttons and a million functions because you just want 174 to keep it lean and clean. And at the same time, as

175 the core operating system of a company, you 176 need to have a good amount of features to be actually 177 the operating system. And so this is a challenge that is just 178 inherited and kind of part of the problem we try to 179 solve. And so it has taken us a good amount of 180 time to always make sure that it's despite we're adding more 181 depth and more width and features still 182 doesn't overload the interface. And so I guess this was the biggest 183 challenge. And when you, when you talk about pivots, 184 I guess is there have been multiple points where we just realized, 185 okay, let's not add another process that 186 would kind of make sure that we can target another segment. You got to see 187 in the trades, of course, there's different segments by the trades. So

188 there's construction companies there's carpentries, there's painters, roofers, 189 solitaires, installers, electricians. So 190 every of these types of business have a couple of things they would 191 really want to have in the, in the tool and kind of we started on 192 the carpentry with more of a project based companies 193 in mind and we had to say no to a lot of features that 194 we found valuable and would be interesting to get into. 195 Yeah, in conversations with other, other trades we were not 196 serving that well. So it's kind of a constant pivot 197 in the sense that we said no to new things that we would love to 198 do. And I guess now the biggest pivot is what we 199 just kicked off a couple of months back when we said okay, 200 we want to rebuild in the way we think about a

201 operating system for tradespeople with AI in mind. How is an 202 AI first solution looking like while 203 having the still the range of features and processes that we cover 204 but being used in the totally different way, more 205 autonomous through agents, more driven through single interfaces 206 and voice steering. And so I guess the biggest pivot is 207 just ongoing. In our interview 208 with Fonio AI also company they said 209 we don't have right now a reset my password button 210 because it was never requested by a client. Do you have like 211 similar stringent rules you follow in order 212 to achieve, not to overload 213 with buttons, not to overload with features and what you 214 drop and what you actually implement. So a 215 nice example was in the early days the first thing that came 216 to mind when we built like a contact list. So as your

217 operation system you need to maintain clients and have a customer 218 database. And so the kind of tech 219 tech folks would always just go with okay, let's, let's build an API 220 to Google Contacts and an Apple and just 221 integrate the different solutions that there are because they must store their data 222 there. And then talking to our clients, figuring out, okay, 223 they mostly just have either Excel lists or 224 none at all, maybe stored on their local iPhone or 225 whatever so they can export this. We don't need to build an 226 API to Google Context, for example, that is kind of 227 maintained because we needed to step into the shoes of 228 our clients at the same time. Of course we want to push also the 229 kind of where the trades is today and that they use more of the tech

230 available. But this was one example that I still under this 231 day found very fascinating when thinking about is that we always 232 need to remind ourselves okay, what's something that we would just love to see in 233 that, in that product because we're, we're a tech company and what's something that our 234 clients really need to have. When was researching for 235 this interview, I saw you often say your mission is 236 to create frantwerker, meaning free 237 free time for craftsmen. How do you balance 238 this automation with preserving the 239 craft's human touch? I guess it's. 240 It's nothing that goes in different directions. It's just a. It's just the same thing. 241 Any. Anything where we can kind of create space which is how we would 242 translate it. It's a means to give more 243 human touch in the real world because they can spend their time

244 whatever they. They gain kind of with whatever they feel is 245 fruitful. So my biggest aha moment 246 that we really make a difference for the lives of our clients was when 247 I've seen a Instagram post of a client that was in a swimming 248 pool and in the background you could see that kind of there was the pool 249 and there was kids playing around and swimming and he was on 250 a little table and had his iPad in front of him and 251 basically saying okay, now I can bring my 252 son to training because he has a swimming class and I can use 253 the time productively so we can spend the night together. 254 And seeing that was the perfect essence of okay. This 255 is actual human touch. Not in his work but in his. In his private 256

life. And it's all about giving this space to our 257 clients. Julian, you scaled a 258 tech company serving people who still work with their hands. There's 259 something deep, there's something deeply human in that 260 contrast in the founders world. We'll explore how your 261 daily meditation routine shapes how you lead 262 through chaos. Find the link down here in the show notes. You can 263 subscribe on substack or YouTube for this premium 264 membership which only runs five bucks. 265 Don't worry about it. Not that expensive. Julian, 266 talk about culture. Culture can make or break 267 scaling, especially between 268 SEED and crsb, you 269 said 270 so which the person whose values don't align 271 does not get hired. How do you keep that culture 272 intact, especially when scaling across countries? 273 So I guess first of all kind of it's the. It's the answer to

274 questions. So making sure that people who don't align 275 just won't make their way into this company. 276 We do a pretty decent job of communicating what 277 we stand for and what we want to see in people, which is 278 that they are absolutely stoked about the thing that we're doing and 279 we're building together, that they work together and they want to 280 cooperate rather than have their individual success being 281 highlighted. And lastly being down to earth 282 and so having those crystal clear Values 283 being shown to the outside world, being checked for in the hiring 284 makes of course sure that there's kind of an 80% alignment 285 on that whenever somebody's joining the kind of the team. And 286 then the second part to the answer is, of course, if you don't treat 287 this with care and if you don't live this especially as the leadership team,

288 but everybody in the company, then it kind of washes down over time. 289 And so I think us as the former, 290 as the founders, as the C level, as the management team, but 291 just as true for every other person in the company. We need to 292 remind ourselves and show this every day and live by this. 293 And it's something that I think we do very, very well 294 because we all together see that this is very, 295 very important when it comes to maintaining the culture that 296 we love and that we are happy to have 297 talked about the. Culture that you have and your core values. Actually 298 that was a little bit of a head scratcher for me. 299 Bock Susannheit Buck is 300 to have enthusiasm. And that took me quite a long time 301 to nail that. That translation solidarity

302 and is down to earth now. Especially since you're working 303 with people who really still work with their hands. 304 How do you recruit, especially internationally, you have to 305 have a few people who understand what you want, what you do, what kind 306 of people you're looking for. How do you get like those first people, the 307 core from what you're growing? I think it's a 308 general question like how do you interview for values? And 309 it's of course, situational questions where you have people 310 describe how they've approached certain situations. 311 It's not always only professional situations, but just anything that's 312 important to them in life. And I always go with also with the question to 313 understand, okay, what kind of shaped you as a person? 314 What are other people that have shaped you and why and what's something that you

315 find valuable? We asked the question of which is 316 the value of our three values that you align most with? 317 Already checking. Okay, do they even know the three values that we stand for? Have 318 they seen, have they checked it and then which one they they pick and why? 319 And then to just, yeah, trust the interview process 320 of making sure that happens. And this is done first, right 321 away when kind of screening candidates and also at the very end, 322 until this day, someone of the especially management 323 team, but mostly even founders are still involved to make sure 324 kind of that we check twice on this because this is the most precious 325 thing that we have. Founders, if you're scaling a SaaS 326 beyond your comfort zone Drop a comment. What's the biggest 327 challenge? Culture, pricing or product market fit?

328 Julian, you moved from 40 329 to over 100 employees in a year. What system, 330 what mental framework or idea helps you scale 331 culture as well as headcount? So I think 332 culture is something that only scales 333 if you manage this well and actively. And I mean, we've just talked about it. 334 That is something that we bake into everything that we do. 335 And it's more about making 336 culture kind of tangible, that people know what 337 it is and have this on their mind, because it's something that tends to be 338 forgotten way too quick. So whenever we do okrs, such as 339 goal setting, we partially even connect kind of. How do 340 those fit into our framework of our values? 341 I mean, we mostly, of course, use our values as the one thing 342 that's super sharp and super concrete and easy to use. And culture is way

343 more than that. Culture is everything that we do and mostly also the stuff that 344 we are not aware of, that we're doing. This when 345 it comes to kind of doing coffees and 346 bringing something to your colleagues and the handshake that we have 347 and anything that's kind of making us special that we don't really feel 348 and see it because it's normal for us, it's about highlighting those things 349 and making sure they kind of are lived, reinforced. 350 And this is something that happens from the team, but of course, mostly through the 351 leadership. And having this leadership team in place 352 when we've been the 40 to then even scale to cross 100 and not just 353 throw people at a problem, but just really go in a structured way is just 354 as important as scaling the culture. 355

Let's take a little bit into your growth mechanics. 356 You transitioned from a few early adopters, 357 which usually on average include some relatives of 358 friends, to really 20,000 paying customers. How did you do 359 that? So this is the kind of the 360 core question everybody would love to see. And if there would 361 be an easy answer, everybody would do it. So it's a complex 362 system of things that we've tried out and stuff. But for us, 363 the most important channels have been, of course, having 364 the best product in the market, at least from our perspective, because that will always, 365 that will increase CVRs, that will drive referral, 366 that will do anything kind of for you. And so having this product that we're 367 really, really obsessed with and trying to make sure that it's the best 368 in doing the job of creating space is the core and most

369 crucial thing. And any you can have the best marketing, can have the best sales, 370 it won't Last for long if your product shit. And so you need to care 371 about it very, very, very, very, very much. And 372 besides that kind of always try to go with a rather 373 product led approach where also the product is not only delivering value, but also 374 easy to learn, easy to understand and something that especially in our 375 target group was very, very crucial. And then again that drives really 376 that we can win creators that we collaborate with and carry us out into world 377 if we would, if we would be a shitty company that has a 378 stupid culture nobody wants to work with and has a shitty product. You can, you 379 cannot win, at least not for long creators. You cannot pay that

380 much money that people will advertise shitty products. You cannot 381 have word of mouth, which is something that is a core emotion for us. 382 Of course we kind of subsidize in a way that we or 383 incentivize our clients to do referrals. So we do work 384 with, with Cello as one tool to kind of have them 385 participate in the ARR they generate for us through referral. And 386 so kind of it's a actual good relationship with the client saying 387 okay, thank you and not here's like a $20Amazon voucher, 388 but it's you, you can participate in the value you create 389 by referring the product. And so I guess just layering these 390 different motions and while connecting them to having a good, good product 391 is the one thing that really, yeah was always crucial and 392 essential in making that happen.

393 Guys, we'll be back right after a short break where Julian shares how 394 plancraft's pricing model and product led 395 growth strategy turned word of mouth into 396 sustainable scale. 397 Julian, welcome back. You mentioned pricing and 398 ACV strategy in past interviews. How did you balance 399 the affordability for small trades with predictable ARR 400 for investors? So I guess it's not about 401 AR for investors, but it's about AR for the company. 402 But the one thing I always like to 403 take as a metaphor is kind of Robinhood. So we always try to focus on 404 having an affordable product for the very, very small ones of our 405 customers and at the same time charging the 406 prices the bigger clients can afford 407 for again, the bit bigger clients to just balance this off. 408 And I guess having this in mind, we've of

409 course are in a very, very nice situation of being an 410 invoicing tool. So we know more or less kind of the revenue of a company 411 that's working with us. And so we of course check, okay, how much do you 412 actually pay compared to what's the revenue that you're making? And we even know how 413 it's composed and that of course helped us 414 understanding and having a guidance on, okay, how much 415 should those companies pay for Plantcraft? Depending on how much money 416 you're making and how much, what's your overall margin, 417 etc. Product led growth 418 in construction SaaS. Kind of sounds counterintuitive. 419 How did you design onboarding to work for 420 craftsmen, not tech users? 421 Yeah. So the core question we've asked ourselves, okay, what's the first 422 big win that you need to achieve in order to understand and love the product?

423 I mean it's a, it's the same thing as Meta, formerly Facebook did 424 back then was finding out, okay, what's that one movement when 425 people really stick? And for us that was really identifying those, 426 those wins and how can we make sure that happens super, super fast. So in 427 early days we've skipped some of the regular process 428 steps. When you want to create your first quote, you need to usually 429 create a little project in which you also create the customer. 430 And we said, okay, to really give the client a fast 431 aha moment, we've kind of speed 432 up that process and so you create your account and then you just hit, okay, 433 create my first quant. And kind of, we've done that steps for you in the 434 background. We've kind of reworked this flow 435 I guess a hundred times. But it was always about thinking, okay, what's the

436 win the customer needs to do? And how can you make sure to 437 show this really, really quickly? You've 438 been doing some interesting stuff. You build a strong influencer network 439 with creators. How did that community 440 first strategy impact the trust in your brand? 441 And how do you measure that? So I 442 guess measuring this is super, super difficult. And it's something 443 that's rather qualitative in nature. When you talk to clients, when 444 you talk to partners and you can sense, are they actually 445 trusting you? Are they actually willing to go the extra 446 mile? Are they enduring fuckups that you do over time because 447 you increase prices overly or you miscommunicate certain 448 feature releases? Whatever it is, I guess it's, it's all the 449 metrics that you have that paint this picture. I 450 guess what really matters in this sense is that we work with real tradespeople,

451 not just somebody who's doing advertising for us. So it was always 452 mandatory that they really, yeah. Use the system themselves 453 to create offers and invoices and whatever they need to do 454 to really be standing behind the product and seeing that it has a value. And 455 so this was really crucial for us that we are not doing something 456 superficial, but just honestly and true. 457 We've Been talking and teasing a little bit about AI in your tool before. 458 What role does it play, especially 459 using AI agents voice first interactions. 460 Is the plane the next generation of plancraft? 461 Yes. AI agents is the next generation of plancraft 462 definitely. Because it's just 463 insanely valuable for our clients to 464 think they could get new employees, digital 465 ones, without having to source for them, having to onboard them

466 and having to pay them even in a way at least we're 467 not charging as much as an actual co worker. 468 And so in a 469 industry where you have a shortage of skilled labor and even unskilled 470 labor, it is very interesting to have this 471 agentic approach. And so I guess looking 472 in the next kind of one, two, three years into the 473 future, we will see dramatic changes in 474 the way small businesses are being operated 475 and run. When 476 talking about AI, everybody has something, everybody has 477 tools, features also box. 478 Obviously I was wondering if you guys 479 do have a framework for deciding which 480 AI features will be built next versus 481 what you leave out. So 482 it's following the same kind of logic that we've always tried to have is really 483

okay, where do our customers lose most of the time and where 484 is kind of most potential that we see. And then from there on we decide, 485 okay, what's the bet that we want to take? And 486 at the same time we also need to acknowledge that especially in, in early 487 days of new technology and new solutions, 488 you need to experiment a lot and you just need to develop stuff, throw it 489 out to the clients, get real, real world feedback and then 490 see what sticks and what works and whatnot. And so at the same 491 time we try to have both kind of experimenting a lot and 492 just playing around with whatever is kind of again, state of 493 the art in this week and what's possible and in 494 parallel following kind of the track where we see, okay,

495 tackling the problems, the bigger ones that our customers have, 496 where kind of the most. Potential sits in 497 the founders world. Julian breaks down different pricing 498 experiments and referral loops how he trains his 499 team to think like craftsmen and not coders to 500 learn more in our founders vault. Taking you now 501 a little bit into vision and reflection part of 502 this interview, you said every employee at plancraft 503 should experience AI. How do you do this 504 on an operational basis? 505 So a, you need to give access to the tools that are at hand. 506 And I guess this is sounds super logical, but 507 I see a lot of companies holding back and then there's somebody requesting and then 508 there's a, there's a no. So we really give room and 509 also use that, that money that we've of course fundraised through investment

510 rounds to make sure that we, we were always thrilled about 511 having the newest solutions at hand just to understand what's, what's 512 currently possible. And then secondly, of course, 513 just getting the people that want to, want to 514 experiment and that want to collect these experiences is a 515 very important step, especially in a growing company. And, and also with the existing 516 team just making sure everybody understands why they should 517 do it, why they should experiment, rather than the how. So I 518 guess this is the, the core task every, every management, 519 founder, whoever runs an organization has to fulfill. It's. We 520 don't experiment with AI and experiences because of the, because it's a hype topic, 521 but because it has so much to offer for you and 522 making sure that this translation follows and 523 doesn't threaten people, but makes them curious and

524 willing to experiment and try stuff. And 525 there will always be the negotiation if there is enough time operationally 526 to really figure out stuff. And so while on 527 the one hand you have to communicate to the team 528 that if it's important for them and that's something they should understand, they need 529 to invest the time. And on the other hand you also need to, as a 530 founder or management, make sure that there's room and 531 goals set in a way that there's this potential to play around 532 with it. I was wondering, what's your vision 533 for Europe's craft industry for 2030 if 534 digitalization finally catches up with them? I 535 guess just having a workforce that is fully 536 digitized where there's no paper trail, that will be already 537 something which doesn't sound too fancy and 538 future led. But if you look in the real world in construction,

539 that is something that would really envision is every company 540 is using the tools to get rid of paper trail, increase 541 data quality, increase speed and efficiency among their 542 teams and peers. Last question on 543 AI, I promise. What's a common misconception about AI 544 in the more traditional industries that you wish 545 founders would stop? I've actually, 546 I'm not so sure that founders are the ones 547 communicating misconceptions. I guess there's just a lot of buzz 548 and hype in, in any different direction that you might look 549 because it's just a topic that nobody yet knows how it will turn out 550 and how it really will reshape. I guess 551 what everybody I feel are now agreeing on is that if you 552 learn or do an apprenticeship and get to learn the job of a 553 carpenter or of a painter, that you will be very,

554 very much valuable in the next couple of years. And I of 555 course go the step further and just think of okay, if you are not only 556 a carpenter but you are an AI enabled carpenter that also gets rid 557 of the stuff that's kind of annoying then you'll be the top one. So 558 why not directly answering the question. But I guess this is just my standpoint, 559 not knowing what other founders proclamation I find difficult. Again, 560 there's a lot of misconception I guess, but because everybody 561 nobody really knows, neither do I. I just know it for my industry and 562 how we'll change that. From our audience. I would like 563 to know if you're running a tech startup in a more traditional 564 industry, what's the biggest mindset barrier that 565 you have faced? Comment down here. 566 Let's do a few more questions. Very, very soft,

567 very slow. What advice would you give 568 pounders for building for non digital native 569 users? Get in touch a 570 lot, sit next to those people, really understand 571 how they are using your tool or any other tool 572 and just familiarize and lay off your own 573 perspective. What's one 574 belief or practice, maybe from your meditation that keeps you 575 balanced through scaling chaos? 576 I think it's two thoughts. One is 577 I always think there's so many great companies and so many people who have built 578 this, who have gone through struggles of 579 having this chaos. So we will be fine. We will also 580 do this. So it's a lot of good kind of 581 I say confidence in ourselves. I guess it's the one 582 thing. And the other one, a big belief I have is just that you

583 got to show up and do the work. There's not enough 584 shortcuts in life for you to only run shortcuts. So you 585 got to show up and again, you got to talk to your clients, you got 586 to get your hands dirty, you got to do the work. And of 587 course one or the other thing can automate or give out of your 588 hands, but it should be the 589 actual work that you feel you're doing if it really 590 should be helpful. And our 591 two usual closing questions. Are you open 592 to talk to new investors? As we just closed our Series 593 B Now in 2025 summertime, 594 right now is not a good time. The only time I take is to 595 go and talk to you this podcast because I think it's valuable to 596 share the learnings that we've made. But not right

597 now. I think there is. Then of course 598 the second usual question. You just raised funds as you said. 599 Are you currently looking for talented people? If you are 600 as stoked as I am about the change in construction and if you 601 are not only an AI native but also somebody who is 602 wanting to work together very closely, then please 603 please join my team and reach out. Just check plant 604 growth.com I'm sure you're going to share the link that we have plenty of 605 open slots and feel free also to reach out to me directly through 606 LinkedIn. Just hit me up. 607 Juju was a pleasure talking to you. Thank you very much. Hope 608 to have you back after you see your C funding. Thanks 609 for having me. My pleasure. Have a good day. Bye Bye. 610

That's all folks. Find more news, streams, 611 events and 612 interviews@www.startuprad.IO. 613 remember, sharing is car.

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🧩 FAQ Section

1️⃣ What does PlanCraft do?
PlanCraft builds cloud-based SaaS tools that automate quoting, invoicing, and workflow management for Europe’s construction and craft SMBs.

2️⃣ What are AI agents in construction?
They are autonomous digital coworkers that handle repetitive admin tasks so craftsmen can focus on on-site work.

3️⃣ How is PlanCraft different from legacy ERP?
It’s cloud-native, subscription-based, and designed for tradespeople with instant setup and voice control — no complex IT required.

4️⃣ Who founded PlanCraft?
Julian Wiedenhaus and his co-founders launched the company in 2018 after discovering inefficiencies in a family carpentry shop.

5️⃣ How did PlanCraft grow to 20 000 users?
By focusing on product-led growth: fast onboarding, referral incentives, and creator partnerships within the trades community.

6️⃣ What is the “Robin Hood” pricing model
Smaller firms pay minimal SaaS fees while larger customers contribute more based on turnover, keeping access fair for all.

7️⃣ Who invested in PlanCraft’s €38 million Series B?
Headline, Creandum, and HTGF backed the round in 2025 to expand AI and European reach.

8️⃣ How does PlanCraft use AI right now?
AI agents prepare quotes, process invoices, and analyze data while voice interfaces allow hands-free operation on-site.

9️⃣ Will AI replace craftsmen?
No — it augments human work, removing paperwork and freeing time for skilled labor.

🔟 What trades does PlanCraft serve?
Carpenters, roofers, painters, installers, electricians, and other construction specialists.

11️⃣ When did the AI pivot begin?
In 2024 PlanCraft started rebuilding its platform around agentic workflows and voice steering.

12️⃣ How does voice control help?
Workers can speak to create quotes or record progress, converting speech directly into structured project data.

13️⃣ What problem does PlanCraft really solve?
Administrative overload — the software turns evenings of paperwork into minutes of automation.

14️⃣ How does the company measure success?
By hours saved for customers and organic referrals ra13th

15️⃣ What are PlanCraft’s core values?
Bock (enthusiasm), Zusammenhalt (solidarity), and Bodenständigkeit (down-to-earth authenticity).

16️⃣ How does hiring preserve culture across borders?
Founders personally vet for value alignment, ensuring every hire embodies the same principles.

17️⃣ What advice does Julian give founders building for non-digital users?
“Sit beside them, watch them work, and forget your assumptions.”

18️⃣ What’s PlanCraft’s vision for 2030?
A fully digitized, paper-free craft industry where AI agents and voice workflows are standard.

19️⃣ How can AI help the trades’ labor shortage?
By automating admin and logistics so existing teams accomplish more without extra staffing.

20️⃣ Where can I learn more?
Visit plancraft.com or hear the full conversation on Startuprad.io for deep founder insights.

The video is available up to 24 hours before to our channel members in what we call the Entrepreneur’s Vault.

The Host & Guest

The host in this interview is Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. And guest is Julian Wiedenhaus, CEO & Co-Founder of PlanCraft

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Julian on LinkedIn

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About the Host

Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.

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