Growth, Lessons, and the Future: Reflecting on a Decade of BIMcollab
This year, BIMcollab celebrates 10 years of innovation in BIM collaboration. It’s a milestone we’re proud of, and one we couldn’t have reached without the trust of our customers and the dedication of our team.
But what does it take to build a company that transforms how people collaborate in BIM? And where do we go from here?
To find out, we sat down with Founder and CEO Erik Pijnenburg, who reflects on the journey so far and shares his vision for the next chapter.
“There wasn’t really one big ‘aha’ moment,” says Erik, when asked about how it all began. “We just saw our clients struggling to get problems solved in their models and to coordinate between different disciplines. That’s when we realised something was missing.”
Over the years, that simple observation has evolved into a clear mission: helping teams work together seamlessly across disciplines and tools.
BIMcollab’s origin story
Long before BIMcollab officially launched, Erik and the founding team had spent decades immersed in BIM. Yet they saw the same challenge again, and again: tools didn’t talk to each other, and teams couldn’t truly collaborate.
“When we started, we already realised the real benefit of the platform would be the connections to other tools,” Erik explains. “It took years to build some of those connections, but when our clients started saying BIMcollab was ‘bridging the gaps between BIM applications’ — that told us we were on the right path.”
That mission to connect people and tools laid the foundation for BIMcollab. What began as a solution for issue management evolved into something much more: a complete platform for collaboration, model checking, and data management.
“Back then, our slogan was ‘making people happy with BIM,’” Erik adds. “People were struggling with complex tools, so making BIM easier and more accessible was our focus from the start.”
From a single solution to a full platform
What started with BCF managers quickly grew into issue management, and then into today’s full platform offering, complete with Model Quality Assurance and Common Data Environment capabilities—a unique and powerful combination that places the federated model at the center of everything our customers do.
Along the way, one thing has never changed: our focus on listening to customers and turning their needs into solutions.
“We’re always listening to clients,” Erik says. “Sometimes they ask for something specific, but our job is to translate that into a smarter solution — one that’s even better than what they imagined. That’s how we keep improving.”
That spirit of collaboration between our users and our team continues to drive how BIMcollab evolves today — shaping not only what we build, but how we build it.
Looking ahead
As BIMcollab enters its second decade, we’re more committed than ever to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. With a strong platform in place, we have a foundation to make exciting changes to what our product can do. The road ahead means keeping a balance between the things we find most important: customer needs, sustainability, and staying ahead of the ever-evolving technology landscape.
“What excites me most right now,” says Erik, “is that we now have one strong platform — integrating Model Quality Assurance and the Common Data Environment. This gives us the foundation to innovate, reduce manual work, and help clients improve the quality of their models in a proactive way.”
“The construction industry is moving toward using even more data and faster processes,” he continues. “Our goal is to help our clients manage all this data — to analyze it and make better, data-driven decisions earlier in the building process. That’s the future of BIMcollab.”
Erik also highlights how BIMcollab’s commitment to sustainability plays a role in that future. “We believe companies should be a force for good,” he says. “That’s why becoming a B Corp was such an important milestone for us. It reflects our dedication to doing business responsibly.”
Want to hear the full story? Watch the full interview with Erik Pijnenburg.
People-first, always
Without our customers and employees, BIMcollab would be nothing but a great idea. The people make it real and bring ideas to reality. To everyone who has been part of this journey so far, both past and present, we want to say thank you. We look forward to the next 10 years of bringing innovation to BIM collaboration.
“I’m really grateful for the trust our clients have placed in us,” Erik says. “It confirms that we’re on the right path and allows us to keep doing what we do best: developing software that helps people collaborate more effectively.”