Darren Bechtel
Founder and Managing Director
Darren Bechtel is a pioneer in the engineering and construction technology industry and is leading the charge to modernize one of the last industries to step squarely into the digital age.
As the founder and Managing Partner of Brick & Mortar Ventures -- the first and largest venture capital firm focused solely on supporting the commercialization of emerging technology to improve the design, construction, and ongoing maintenance and operation of the modern built environment -- Darren is forging a new path in an industry his family and its eponymous global engineering construction firm, Bechtel, have helped shape for over one hundred and twenty years.
Darren’s Brick and Mortar Ventures announced in 2019 its $100 million fund backed by global heavyweights from across the construction value chain including Ardex, Autodesk, Cemex, United Rentals, Hilti, Obayashi, and Google sister company Sidewalk Labs. Darren and his team continue to invest those funds exclusively into early-stage AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) and O&M (operations & maintenance) technology startups. Among Darren’s portfolio of over thirty-five past and present investments are notable startups PlanGrid, BuildingConnected, Fieldwire, Levelset, Rhumbix, and BuildZoom.
Darren’s ethos is not that of a “disruptor”; rather, he is interested in how technology and early-stage risk capital can be paired with the skilled talent and industry expertise of established construction industry leaders to reduce the cost and risk of capital projects and make one of the world’s largest industries cleaner, safer, and more productive.
In January 2020 Venture Capital Journal named Darren to its “40 Rising Stars Under 40” list. He is a member of the Advisory Board of The Innovative Infrastructure Initiative (I3) and the Cornell University Program in Infrastructure Policy; a recipient of Builtworld’s inaugural “Mavericks Award”; and is a member of the Leadership Board of both CRETech and Future Place.
Darren attended Stanford University where he earned both a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering/Product Design and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business. He is an avid supporter of environmental conservation and STEM education and sits on the boards of local San Francisco non-profit organizations The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and The Exploratorium museum of science, technology, and arts.
Curtis rodgers
Partner
Curtis Rodgers is an industrial technologist and investor at Brick & Mortar Ventures, with six years of construction process improvement experience at both Kiewit and McCarthy Construction — across federal, industrial, infrastructure, and commercial markets. Curtis founded The Society for Construction Solutions (SCS) in 2014, contributed to the NASA Centennial 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, and participated as a lecturer for the US Dept. of Energy's Project Leadership Institute.
Curtis holds a B.B.A. in Management and an M.S. in Technology from Texas State University-San Marcos.
KAUSTUBH PANDYA
Partner
Kaustubh Pandya, P.E. brings over eight years of strategy and industry experience in the AEC industry. Prior to Brick & Mortar Ventures, Kaustubh was with McKinsey & Company for over four years advising engineering & construction firms, investors, construction technology providers, and owners. He also contributed to and co-authored research in construction technology at McKinsey. Before joining McKinsey & Co, he worked as a forensic structural engineer assessing catastrophic failures and improving building resilience. Kaustubh holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from U.C. Berkeley, a M.S. in Design Construction Integration from Stanford, and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. He is an avid rock climber and enjoys spending time in the great outdoors with his wife Konstantina and baby daughter Sonia.
GUILLAUME BAZOUIN
Partner, EMEA
Guillaume is an accomplished professional straddling the realms of venture capital, construction, and scientific innovation. As a Partner at Brick & Mortar, based in France, he focuses on EMEA investments in revolutionary architecture and engineering startups. Prior to Prior to joining Brick & Mortar, he led Startup and Intrapreneurship Programs at VINCI, forging essential relationships between the corporate giant and innovative startups to advance the field of construction and infrastructure. Before VINCI, Guillaume made key contributions to sustainable building solutions as Director of Product and Innovation at BONE Structure. A noteworthy segment of his career was dedicated to fusion science at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where he designed and operated experiments on linear particle accelerators. His work there entailed the collaboration with a team of esteemed physicists and engineers, making strides in nuclear fusion research. While at Stanford, he was a Project Coordinator for The Solutions Project, focusing on data-driven paths towards a renewable energy future. An avid lover of the outdoors, Guillaume relishes in sailing, kayaking, and hiking during his leisure time. His work in sustainable technologies and renewable energy reflects his deep-rooted respect for the natural world.
AUSTIN YOUNT
PRINCIPAL
Austin Yount is a Senior Associate at Brick & Mortar Ventures and helps the team evaluate, invest in, and grow early stage companies. Prior to Brick & Mortar, Austin was one of the first 10 employees of Enjoy Technology, a rapidly growing company reinventing retail and go-to-market channels for consumer electronics. He was a member of the Business Development and Partnership team whose responsibilities were to source, execute and grow strategic partnerships with companies in the consumer electronics and telecommunications industries such as AT&T, British Telecom, Sonos, Microsoft, and Apple. Prior to Enjoy, Austin worked with technology growth companies on their M&A and capital raising strategies as an investment banking analyst. He spent 3.5 years playing professional baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox organizations after his career at Stanford. He has a passion for real estate, technology and building great teams.
Austin graduated with a BA in Economics from Stanford University and lives in San Francisco with his wife Bess and son Denver where he enjoys running, surfing, golf and coaching.
ALICE LEUNG
VICE PRESIDENT, Platform & Product Strategy
Alice started her career in the AEC industry with DPR Construction in the San Francisco Bay Area building UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. She led the Bay Area Skunkworks group and implemented various construction technologies on project sites. In April 2016, Alice relocated to Singapore to help start up the Southeast Asia HQ for DPR Construction as the resident BIM/VDC and construction technology expert and worked on data center projects. She was part of various workgroups led by the Singapore Building and Construction Authority (BCA), was a part-time lecturer for the BCA Academy BIM Management Certification Course, taught BIM courses for RICS and spoke at various conferences in the region. She joined the Digital Built Environment Institute(DBEI) organizing committee whilst in Asia and is now part of the DBEI North America Committee since her relocation back to San Francisco. After realizing the slow pace of digitization in the construction industry, Alice joined the Brick & Mortar Ventures team to work with startups that want to disrupt the way we design, construct and maintain the built world.
Alice holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Brown University where she was on the Formula SAE racecar team and worked in a materials science lab researching lead-free piezoelectrics.