Qi Su

Qi Su

Co-Founder

Modelo

Cambridge, MA

Qi Su is an architect who has worked for the architectural offices amphibianArc, MADAs.p.a.m. and Michael Sorkin Studio.

He graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Design and is the only master’s student in school history who has won both the Peter Rice Prize for structural design invention and the Digital Design Prize for the innovative creation of digital tools.

Tian and Qi developed a browser-based 3D design collaboration tool, which makes it easy to share and comment on digital 3D models. From his work in various architectural offices, Qi’s experience was that sharing a 3D model with a client for giving feedback could be difficult. The process was hardly optimized, involving converting the 3D model into a flat image, printing it out for the client, marking on the print, and then scanning it and updating the 3D model.

That pain point is what eventually led to Modelo, which Qi Su founded together with industrial designer Tian Deng in 2014. Their product is now in its beta development stage and the full commercial release is coming soon. The startup has raised more than $1 million in funding and has 12 employees.

Company description:

Modelo was founded to help professionals who work with CAD software, including Revit, Rhino, and SketchUp, more intuitively collaborate with team members to perfect their designs and interactively present them.

Our name, Modelo, comes from combining the word ‘model’ because we work seamlessly with all CAD models and the letter ‘o’ because we believe great design is a continuous process of composition, collecting feedback, and refinement. Our name underpins our mission to support that ongoing process by being a comprehensive centralized communication, collaboration, and presentation platform for CAD users.

Articles featuring Qi Su

17 Inspirational Archipreneur Quotes that will Motivate You in 2017

In our interview series Archipreneur Insights we have spoken with more than 40 Archipreneurs. Experts and entrepreneurs in the field of architecture, building and development have answered our questions and giving us insight into their creative and unusual operations of their businesses and projects. From these interviews we want to share with you the most inspirational […]

How Modelo Started a SaaS Business

Welcome back to “Archipreneur Insights”, the interview series with leaders who are responsible for some of the world’s most exciting and creatively disarming architecture. The series largely follows those who have an architectural degree but have since followed an entrepreneurial or alternative career path but also interviews other key players in the building and development […]

Quotes from Qi Su

  • " Follow your heart and do what you love to do. However, if it’s business you want then you need to learn to take care not only of yourself but also your customers."
  • "The bigger problem I see is in architectural design education. I think it’s very broken; it’s rare that people coming out of it will know anything about how to run an architectural practice. I think we need to change that."
Join the Archipreneur Newsletter
Get Our Best Content on Architecture, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Weekly Delivered to Your Inbox for FREE.