Cascade
Cascade is in a16z speedrun SR006. Based in San Francisco, California, United States of America. Team of 2, founded in 2025.
Facts
- San Francisco, California, United States of America
- 2
- 2025
About Cascade
Summary
Cascade is a San Francisco-based startup, founded in 2025, that builds AI-powered software for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms. The platform helps these firms identify relevant project opportunities and compete for them more effectively. On the discovery side, Cascade continuously scans thousands of government portals—at the state, local, and federal level—to surface request-for-proposal (RFP) listings that match a firm's track record and capabilities, scoring each opportunity so teams can make go/no-go decisions quickly rather than spending days reviewing portals manually. On the win side, the platform drafts proposals, analyzes project specifications, and flags scope inconsistencies, compressing a process that typically takes weeks into a matter of days. Future capabilities appear to include pre-bid intelligence drawn from budget announcements and government meeting minutes, as well as private-market signals such as land purchases and permit filings. The two-person founding team brings backgrounds in machine learning at Google Search, fintech scale-up, and applied AI in public-sector contexts.
Business model
Cascade appears to operate on a SaaS subscription model, charging AEC firms for ongoing access to its opportunity-discovery and proposal-generation platform. Pricing is likely tiered by firm size or volume of opportunities surfaced, with the value proposition framed around revenue growth rather than headcount expansion.
Go-to-market
Cascade targets AEC firms of varying sizes that pursue government and private construction contracts. The buying motion is likely product-led at entry—firms can surface their first opportunities within minutes and without any integrations—converting to a sales-assisted or account relationship as firms expand usage across proposal writing and bid management. Customer acquisition likely relies on direct outreach to estimating and business-development teams at contractors, supplemented by word-of-mouth within the tight-knit AEC community.
Founders (2)
- Hannia Zia
- Joana Ferreira
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