Tian Deng

Tian Deng worked as an industrial designer after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design. He worked on several hardware design and interactive design projects before he joined Qi Su and start working on Modelo in 2014.

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.