Rory - Innovation & Collaboration Centre

Keeping builders building, not chasing paperwork

Folkware was founded in Adelaide by Kosta Canatselis after years of hearing his brother-in-law Jeff, who manages minor works at a local construction company, describe drowning in admin and emails across 40 concurrent jobs. This led to a series of discovery interviews with other Australian builders, who all reported the same problem: hours spent every day and revenue lost to administrative work, and coordination across disconnected systems. Kosta is a product designer with eight years across software as a service (SaaS), fintech, consumer, and government digital services. He set out to build Rory (getrory.com.au), an AI admin assistant that handles the daily work for builders across every tool they use.

Benefits

One daily view across every active job, surfacing only what actually needs a decision
Holds the operational knowledge of every active job, so it doesn’t walk out with the admin
Handles the admin work for you across every connected tool, only after you approve.

Technology

Rory is an administrative assistant built specifically for construction businesses, combining Large Language Model (LLM) orchestration with construction-specific context awareness and a human-approval gate before any action runs. Unlike project management tools that only store data, or general AI tools that lack project context, Rory reads across email, project management, accounting, and documents, distinguishes a variation from an approval or a follow-up, prepares the work, and does the work once approved, drafting invoices, variations, and quotes. Every person in a building company gets their own Rory. Long term, specialised AI agents like estimators work alongside, a future operating system for builders.

Potential markets

Folkware is focused on the Australian construction sector, where builders of all sizes are managing growing administrative demands that are difficult to scale efficiently with additional staff alone. As construction activity increases, both locally and globally, many businesses are relying on a patchwork of tools, including general AI solutions, resulting in fragmented workflows and compounding inefficiencies as projects grow. This creates a strong market opportunity for an integrated, purpose-built assistant. Over time, Folkware plans to expand into other coordination-intensive industries, such as electrical and facilities management, where similar operational challenges exist.

Partnering opportunities

Folkware are currently seeking design-partner builders across residential, custom, and commercial minor works to pilot Rory, channel partners already advising builders (bookkeepers, accountants, and construction consultants), and a commercial partner with existing trade industry trust. As Rory expands into adjacent trades, Folkware are also looking to collaborate with associations representing plumbers, electricians, and facilities managers.