Behind the Facade Episode 11: Damien Quinn, Co-Founder of Visibuild
Damien Quinn shares how lived experience in construction became the foundation for Visibuild, and why better project data can transform quality and prevent rework.
What does it take to walk away from one of Australia's biggest builders and start again in an industry you know almost nothing about?
In Episode 11 of Behind the Facade, Jake Gorry and Daniel Cooper sit down with Damien Quinn, Co-Founder of Visibuild, to unpack his move from almost 15 years at Multiplex into building one of Australia's fastest-growing construction technology companies.
From Construction to Technology
Damien never planned to leave construction. After starting as a cadet and working his way through major projects at Multiplex, he expected to remain a builder. But after seeing the same problems with quality assurance, documentation and rework play out across major projects, he and his co-founders saw an opportunity to build something better.
That idea became Visibuild.
In this episode, Damien breaks down what it was actually like making the jump from construction into software, learning the venture capital world from scratch, building a product for an industry he knew intimately, and why having lived the problem became one of Visibuild's biggest advantages.
Rethinking Quality and Rework
The conversation goes deep into a challenge that affects almost every construction business: rework.
Damien explains why quality should be much more than a box-ticking exercise and how better planning, documentation and project data can help businesses prevent mistakes rather than simply record them after they happen.
Jake and Daniel also share how Proline uses Visibuild across its own projects, including how project photos, inspections, lessons learned and quality data are helping the team create greater accountability and continuously improve from one project to the next.
Where the Industry Is Heading
From there, the conversation turns to the future of construction.
Damien shares his thoughts on AI in construction, the growing ability for businesses to build their own software and automations, Australia's looming construction workforce challenges, Visibuild's international expansion and his vision for using project data to identify risks before they become costly problems.
Leadership, Networks and Opportunity
The episode also explores the culture that produced a generation of construction leaders at Multiplex, why Damien believes in giving young people enough responsibility to make mistakes and learn, how to build a valuable network, and why persistence still matters when trying to win bigger opportunities.
It's a conversation about construction, technology and what happens when people who have spent years living an industry problem decide to solve it themselves.
Episode 11 of Behind the Facade with Damien Quinn is available now.