This week’s interview is with Tian Deng and Qi Su, co-founders of the startup Modelo based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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 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. Way to go!

Keep reading to learn how the two founders managed to finance their startup, about their Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, and about the similarities of being an architect or software entrepreneur.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

What are your respective backgrounds and when did you partner up?

Qi Su: I was an architectural designer and had worked for several firms before I went to The Harvard Graduate School of Design. While there my major focus was on technology, so it’s fair to say that at that point I became half architect, half programmer.

Tian and I met through a mutual friend. At the time, I was mainly doing everything by myself, showing my prototype to friends. I still remember the first time Tian and I talked about potential collaboration; we actually did it on a model page of Modelo where we could both chat and rotate the 3D model together.

I think we shared the same vision for and interests regarding the solution we are offering to the industry, and so that’s why we decided to partner up.

Tian: I had worked as an industrial designer before, so the design disciplines were different for both of us. But our experiences gave us a great combination of perspectives to build our product.

What made you decide to found Modelo? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Qi Su: The first moment must have been when I first saw a 3D model get rendered in the browser using WegGL; that was back in 2012. My director at Harvard, Panagiotis Michalatos, showed it to me. I was so excited because finally our major digital production outcome, CAD models, could reside in a web browser and be shown to the others interactively, in 3D. As a result, I decided to do something with it.

How do you finance your startup? Any tips for our community on how you managed it?

Qi Su: We were supported by our friends (mainly architects) at the beginning and also got some funding from an accelerator program called BetaSpring. After that, we went on the same track like every other technology startup in the world: getting money from institutional VCs.

Regarding tips, I think you really have to think your business through, keep your mind open and learn as much and as fast as you can.

You developed a browser-based 3D design collaboration tool. Could you give us some examples of how the tool is used and how it helps architectural practices?

Tian: Modelo provides web-based communication and presentation tools for architects and people who use CAD as their production tool. The goal of Modelo is to help our users get things done faster: making presentations, rendering, giving design feedback, sharing files, getting clients’ approval or validating building issues with engineers and consultants. We’ve seen our customers extensively using Modelo for internal design feedback, file transfer and client-facing presentations.

We’ve heard from one of our customers that their design partner wouldn’t allow anyone to show him models that are NOT on Modelo; besides that, they use Modelo for most of their client presentations and the clients love it.

In what stage of development is your tool?

Tian: We are still in beta, but the product has been pretty stable and we already have many paying customers using it in their work. We will probably launch our full commercial release in the next couple of months; by that time, we will have released several very exciting functions.

What is your business model for your startup?

Tian: It is Software as a Service (SaaS) and subscription based. Users go to www.modelo.io, sign up, choose a plan, try it out, and then they get to decide whether they want to pay after a 14 day trial. We also have a free plan where people can sign up and try Modelo out by uploading models that are under a certain file size.

Qi Su, first you worked in an architectural office, now you are an entrepreneur. What do you find the most fulfilling about it?

Qi Su: I found both very interesting, and in some ways similar to each other. They are both about creating things for people to use and getting big projects done – but the pace is very different. As an entrepreneur you can probably (and have to) learn new things faster than as an architect.

Do you miss working as an architect?

Qi Su: Sometimes. I still love architecture very much. My family’s background is in architecture and civil engineering. So becoming an architect was my childhood dream – except during my teenage years when I tried to become a professional soccer player!

The building industry is known for being slow to adapt to new technologies. What is your experience with this?

Qi Su: We are dealing with buildings, not toothpaste. I think it is reasonable for the industry to be slow. It’s such a complex industry, and it involves many stakeholders.

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.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who want to start and build their own business?

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.

In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major business opportunities for up and coming architects?

Qi Su: Wherever our skills can be sold and the Internet can help us in selling.

About Qi Su and Tian Deng

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 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.

The post How Modelo Started a SaaS Business appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Tyler Stonebreaker, founder and CEO of Creative Space, an integrated real estate company that transforms buildings and places into ‘housing’ for the most innovative businesses, brands and people.

Tyler started out in corporate real estate and developed millions of square feet of office, retail and production facilities throughout California. But after 10 years of being in the business, he became tired of it. After a sabbatical, Tyler followed his intuition and founded Creative Space in 2009, a real estate company that specializes in working with businesses in the fashion, music and entertainment industries – and mostly for the people he knew.

Keep reading to learn more about place making, from the founder of the not-your-average real estate company!

I hope you enjoy the interview!

When did you team up with your business partner Michael Smith and what are your respective backgrounds?

Michael and I met as kids on the Southern California junior tennis circuit. He ended up going to college in Chicago while I stayed here in Los Angeles. About a decade and a half passed before we ran into each other again, at a reunion of sorts in Santa Barbara. Turned out we were both living in Los Angeles and had similar interests. Michael, as a successful music entrepreneur, and I was just beginning to formulate the conceptual framework for Creative Space. Initially, Michael acted as an advisor. Within a short time he became a client – and then eventually a partner. Although he’s no longer active in day-to-day affairs, he still plays an influential role for me and for the company.

What made you decide to start Creative Space? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

I had spent my entire career in real estate but never really felt that developing generic “spec” buildings for hypothetical customers whom I didn’t have any real connection to was a worthwhile way to make a living. As time went on, my personal and professional lifes became more and more separated – to point that I was super unsatisfied, and decided I needed to make a change and leave the real estate business altogether.

So I took a sabbatical in the mid-2000s, with no plan to ever return to the business. Then, after spending about a year traveling and wandering the boardwalk between Venice and Santa Monica (where I lived at the time), I had the proverbial light-switch moment while drinking a cup of coffee at a local café near my house. Two film producers sitting at a table next to mine were talking about a building they wanted to invest in.

That triggered an immediate “duh” moment: most of my friends worked in the entertainment industry here in LA and they all needed real estate for their businesses. Why not build a company to help them? I set out to build a business that would help my friends develop offices, studios, production/post facilities, etc.

In Creative Space’s manifesto it says, “It takes a coffee shop to build a village”. What’s your secret to creative urban placemaking?

Understand first and foremost who and what you’re building for, and make sure you respect the community(s) you’re impacting. Ironically, the local community is most affected by real estate decisions, but rarely are those decisions made by or for the local community.

At Creative Space we’re not curating or speculating or developing buildings for “people” based on demographic studies or Pinterest boards. Rather, we’re facilitating real estate for the people we know and respect. As a result, we feel a personal connection to our clients, and our respect for the local communities we work in leads to better outcomes.

Among your first clients were Handsome Coffee Roasters, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Counter Culture Coffee. What does it take to create great places?

Fortunately for us, we have amazing clients who make these places great. Our job is to facilitate and support them with an integrated real estate team and process.

What clients do you work for now?

We work with a varied mix of clients and projects, ranging from an art center for Hauser Wirth & Schimmel through a 67-room boutique hotel for Grupo Habita to a multi-facility expansion for Tartine Bakery.

Your company handles marketing, development, architecture and other aspects of the realty process. How many people do you employ and what kind of professional background do they have?

Our team’s collective experiences, backgrounds and interests are the foundation of the company. From my previous time in institutional development and investment, what I knew was that most real estate companies employ a very narrow group of mostly finance- and sales-related people – especially at the decision-making level – who often have very little technical knowledge of how buildings actually work and function.

We decided to put architects and engineers behind the wheel, so to speak, as the developers/producers of our projects. Under their direction, we offer all of our projects/clients a full range of real estate services. We produce a very high volume/range of outputs throughout LA/SF/NYC with a small, highly focused team (10 people in 2 offices) who harness today’s leading productivity theories and technologies.

To us, it’s not about how many people we have or how much money we’re making or even what articles are written about us; rather, it’s about doing work for the people/businesses we believe in, and in making a relevant and sustainable impact on the cities we live and work in.

Another statement from your manifesto says, “Repurposing is the new building.” Do you build at all, or is architecture a commodity you buy in?

There is a component of building/construction on almost every one of our projects but, generally speaking, most of the building/construction we do is through adaptive re-use. Our first Creative Space project was a ground-up 100,000sf Gold-LEED certified, 100% solar powered corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility for a contract furniture brand located at Hawthorne Municipal Airport. The property itself is part of a former Northrop Grumman aerospace manufacturing facility that was reimagined through a brown-field redevelopment, eventually becoming home to SpaceX and Tesla.

Since then, most of our work has involved adapting existing structures for commercial use and more recently for residential use as well.

Is your business acting as a service developer for companies or are you also taking on the trader-developer role? Are you also buying land and property, which you then develop and sell?

From day one, our core objective was to advantage our friends by helping them source and develop great buildings/locations around Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. At the end of the day, the market is placing the highest premium on things that are unique and special. But over time we’ve learned that there isn’t just one way; in fact, there are almost an infinite number of ways that unique and special buildings/locations are sourced and put together.

Thus, we view everything we do through a simple lens of inputs and outputs driven by our client’s needs, and we are constantly focused on improving how the inputs we utilize lead to better outputs. The fact that two roads can lead to a single destination just as one road can lead to more than one destination is something we keep in mind with everything we do. In terms of how we’re compensated, we are very adaptable. Sometimes we are just paid flat fees while other times we invest capital alongside our clients to acquire/develop projects.

More recently, we have been focused on investing in many of our clients’ businesses as well, as we see it as a natural way to better align with our clients on a long-term basis (plus it’s a smart hedge against the cyclical nature of real estate markets). We don’t speculate in neighborhoods trying to trigger hyperinflation to make a quick buck via arbitrage or get in the way of great things happening for the sake of it “just being the name of the game”. That is unfortunately how most of the real estate industry operates.

We believe that the primary customer of real estate (i.e., the tenant) should always be at the center of the equation and the real estate industry should be squarely focused on providing their customers with what they need and want. However, tenants are at best a means to an end in most landlords’ eyes, with customer service viewed primarily as a cost (which, coincidentally, is generally passed through as an operating cost that is then paid for by the tenant).

Hence why it’s been so easy to build our business from the start – because the only thing we set out to do was to deliver what we knew our friends (and most people, for that matter) wanted – great real estate and great customer experience!

For architects who know very little about real estate development, how would you break down the process of getting their first project off the ground?

We think the best place to start is by understanding what people want from their real estate. Getting the first project off the ground can be a lot easier to say than do, given the technical knowledge and experience required, although if you understand customer needs, most of the (real estate) process can be outsourced to a variety of service providers that have the knowledge/experience required.

Most people seem to start on either the residential side and/or on small commercial remodels, which I think is wise. We just happened to have the capabilities and experience of developing millions of square feet of mixed-use projects in our previous corporate lives so we could develop a 100,000sf corporate headquarter project right out of the gate.

In that specific example, the owner/client was a close friend and he very much liked the idea of getting the benefit of our experience/capabilities while at the same time working with a new company focused on building towards the future.

How would you finance a project in its first stages of development? Any tips on how to manage it?

That’s actually the part we hate most about the real estate industry and development/investment business. More specifically, that is the $$$ part of it. Capital, in our opinion, gets in the way more than it helps.

From day one, Creative Space was focused on developing projects that were not speculative in nature. Thus, the capital side of things has never been something we’ve had to worry about as projects are funded based on cash flow and partially or fully occupied buildings, rather than a speculative basis through acquiring vacant or underutilized property to try and turn around by “adding value” and then selling for a profit.

My tip on this topic would be to either start with your own money (if available) or figure out different ways to finance projects based on a sound business plan, as money tends to find great deals.

What is your marketing strategy for pre-leasing spaces?

Great buildings/locations lease themselves (except when the economy drops into recession – then nothing really works). Since we work primarily with businesses, there isn’t much of a need for a marketing strategy. That being said, when property owners/investors (who we work with from time to time) ask us for business plans to help them acquire/reposition/lease a property, we start with understanding who would want to be in that property/location and then just speak directly to them.

We still apply our core strategy of advantaging our friends only; we head further upstream, so to speak, to make sure property owners don’t screw up their properties, and calibrate them to be great landlords in order to attract and service the desired audience (which in most cases end up being our clients, so marketing for us is perhaps a bit different than the traditional real estate marketing approach most people are accustomed to).

Great architecture and marketing materials will help, but not if the building/location sucks and/or if the landlord is un-calibrated. Also, because the real estate industry has gone head-over-heels for anything with the word “creative” in it, we’ve quickly moved away from the concept altogether (short of our name, which is not in reference to physical space anyway).

Buildings can certainly enhance/affect behavior, but buildings themselves are not creative; people are. So if landlords want a “creative” building, put creative people in them. Otherwise, the use of “creative” in real estate should go the way of disco.

Do you have any advice for “Archipreneurs” who are interested in starting their own business?

Focus on your personal knowledge/capabilities and listen/respond to the underlying needs of the marketplace. Everything should follow from there.

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

We think the more that technology replaces humans, the more important human activities and connections become. And, until we can figure out how to live as humans in cyberspace, we’re going to need to continue to live our lives attached to the ground in some form of shelter.

Kidding aside, we think there are so many important applications of architecture/development to address mankind’s needs. A lot of the things we’re worrying about today will seem trivial as the fundamental problems facing our world, from global warming to economic inequality, become more and more of an acute reality. With those challenges there will, of course, be major opportunities. Just different, perhaps, from what we’re all used to.

About Tyler Stonebreaker

At heart, Tyler is a creator. He was immediately determined to acquire, harness and utilize the tools required to build big things. After receiving his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Southern California, he went on to develop millions of square feet of office, retail and production facilities throughout California.

After 10 years in institutional real estate development and investment, it became clear that the world was moving in an entirely different direction, and Tyler followed his intuition and founded Creative Space in 2009 to better connect the cultural world to real estate.

The post How to Create Great Places – Tyler Stonebreaker on His Real Estate Company Creative Space appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Antje Kunze, Co-Founder and CEO of SmarterBetterCities.

Antje founded SmarterBetterCities together with Jan Halatsch in 2012. It started out as a spin-off from ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology); the company has since gone from strength to strength and has recently opened its second office in Berkeley, California.

The initial goal of the company was to provide easy-to-use and intuitive tools for urban planning and management. They did so with their web-based tool CloudCities, an online platform where users can view, upload, share and discuss 3D city models.

This “YouTube for cities”, as Antje calls it, runs on any device that has a web browser. You can bring all of your design data into CloudCities’ practical and eye-catching dashboards without any prior coding knowledge necessary. This web-based tool is especially designed to help governments, city planners, architectural companies and consulting companies with their planning scenarios and city visualizations.

Keep on reading to learn from an architect with a background in computer science on how she started her business, the kinds of services and products she creates, and how she envisions the future of the building industry and energy-aware urban planning – all from a simple web browser.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

What made you decide to found the software company SmarterBetterCities?

In 2013, we established SmarterBetterCities to provide easy-to-use and intuitive tools for urban planning and management. We designed our products for integrating, sharing and understanding complex urban data.

Back in the days at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), my colleagues and I researched urbanization and how information technology can support designers, stakeholders and decision makers to arrive at the best decisions. Traditional software technology is difficult to use, and creates data silos and unnecessary boundaries between people.

We believe that combining and sharing planning information is important. However, it should not be so time-consuming and complicated. People should be able to easily access contextual urban information and analyses. In addition, the urban fabric is becoming even more important with emerging technologies such as IoT and Smart Meters, creating Big Databases of planning information.

Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

The idea of founding a company and becoming its CEO did not instantly come to mind. In fact, I had been planning for an academic career. In that sense, there was no particular moment. However, my co-founders and I had been involved in a couple of large-scale research projects that provided our team with an opportunity to create an ETH spin-off company.

At the same time, our research group at ETH Zurich had received several requests for consulting work, which were beyond the scope of the university. It was the perfect time to bootstrap SmarterBetterCities.

Who were your co-founders and in what professional position were you at that moment?

Initially, I founded the company together with Jan Halatsch in 2013. We had both known each other for years. At the time, we were working as research scientists and project leaders with the Chair of Information Architecture at ETH Zurich.

Half a year later, Michael Van den Bergh joined us as a co-founder of SmarterBetterCities. He was a Postdoc at the Computer Vision Laboratory of ETH Zurich and was very interested in designing great user interfaces and 3D computer graphics. I think we are quite a unique combination of talents.

SmarterBetterCities developed the web-based tool CloudCities. Could you give us some examples of how the tool is used and how it helps architectural practices?

CloudCities is a novel tool to present and share complex 3D data containing architectural and urban designs. CloudCities runs on any device and on any modern web browser. Think of it as a YouTube for cities.

Using CloudCities, architects and urban planners can upload 3D data from CAD, BIM or GIS applications. In a few steps, they can configure the look and feel of their design, and share them online. The resulting web scene can be easily embedded inside blog posts or shared on social media for public or closed audience approval.

When you configure a CloudCities web scene, you can control what information, layers, cameras and animations are shown to your audience. You can set up sliders and toggles for design comparison. And, if you are using Esri ArcGIS or Esri CityEngine for 3D content authoring, then you can easily add meta-information.

For instance, you can report floor areas, open space ratios, energy demands and other key performance indicators. The great thing with CloudCities is you can bring all of your design data into useful and beautiful looking dashboards without the headache of coding it yourself. The result is a beautiful web application that is driven by architectural design facts.

CloudCities currently supports SketchUp, Google Earth, and Esri CityEngine. Soon we will add support for Autodesk Revit using the fbx file format as well as more CAD and GIS file formats.

What other software do you offer?

We offer 3D Libraries, making it very easy to create 3D city models using Esri CityEngine and Esri ArcGIS Pro. The 3D Libraries are parametric building and parcel models that contain typical urban morphologies. They come as abstract, simplified building models or as very detailed models including facades and some interior features.

Unlike conventional 3D models, our 3D Libraries work with footprint or parcel input of any size. The geometry (e.g., facade elements, courtyards, vegetation) will always adjust, depending on size or other input parameters. Designers can use the 3D Libraries to create a contextual 3D model, which surrounds their actual building or development proposal.

Alternatively, they can use the 3D Libraries to create a buildout analysis of land parcels. Urban planners can generate 3D zoning plans, following exact legal thresholds. Think of defining setbacks, governing floor area ratios, building masses and checking the energy efficiency of your proposed building shells at the same time.

Step by step, we are uniting our 3D Libraries with CloudCities. The idea is that, in the future, users will be able to instantly draft their urban scenarios online. Another novelty will be that CloudCities users can bridge their data between the architectural (CAD, BIM) world and the city planning and management world (GIS).

Your clients are both private and public – architectural offices and real estate agencies on the one hand, and municipalities and local governments on the other. Is it difficult to meet their very different needs?

All of our clients share more or less the same parts of the value creation chain. It is all about creating, modifying and optimizing urban assets. Unfortunately, the value creation chain lacked integration. We like to make life easier for both sides.

Imagine that a municipality can create a 3D zoning plan that optimizes the energy demand of its buildings (e.g., maximize solar impact for local energy generation, minimize building shell area to avoid energy losses) and also considers system thresholds such as traffic network traffic capacity.

On the other side, architects and urban planners can instantly check to see if their designs meet legislative requirements or if there is a need to negotiate. Both parties can easily digest different types of data and can profit from clear communication channels.

The reduction of CO2 emissions is a big topic in city planning. You are working on a pilot project that might help in the decision-making. Could you tell us a little bit about it?

Yes, of course. We are currently integrating our 3D Libraries into CloudCities. For a couple of years, we researched a novel product for energy aware urban planning. The idea is that you can quickly assess the current energy demand of buildings, even when very little usage data is available.

Using this product, users can understand what options might be effective for significantly reducing the energy demand of buildings. This product will be coupled with our 3D Libraries. Imagine that you can create energy efficient building and urban design proposals right at the design phase, only using a web browser.

This will be especially important for emerging countries, where cities are growing extremely fast and skilled planners are limited. We hope that we can leave a big impact there.

What are you working on right now?

This one is exciting. We are about to release the next version of CloudCities. The new release will stream whole cities instead of individual web scenes. We are also adding the ability to upload any 3D and 2D data to compose large urban scenarios, only using a web browser. The next big thing will be to include even more realtime data from sensors and refresh the user interface.

How did you finance your start-up? Any tips on how to manage it?

We used a combination of bootstrapping and Seed round supported by smart investors. Right from the start we had customers and worked on a consultancy basis. Research project funding provided us with additional resources to flesh out our products.

Last year, we completed a first Seed Investment Round and the Swiss Environmental Protection Agency certified that we created effective GHG assessment tools for urban planning. The certification was a great success and it brought additional resources to our company.

Do you have any advice for “Archipreneurs” who want to start and build their own business?

I think that the most important step is to just do it. It sounds bold but in the end you need to think about your business idea and how customers will use and pay for it. Finally, you need to implement it. Do not wait too long; make it a reality.

In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major business opportunities for up and coming architects?

Smart cities, energy consultancy and data interoperability are hot topics for architects. Architects are extremely good to structure spatial information at all scales from indoor to city-scale. The big geospatial and IT companies are typically missing these kinds of qualities. Paired with local knowledge, an architect can provide true value.

About Antje Kunze

Antje is the co-founder and CEO of SmarterBetterCities, and the creator of CloudCities, an online platform to view, upload, share and discuss 3D city models. 3D has never been easier.

Antje founded SmarterBetterCities together with Jan Halatsch as an ETH Zurich spin-off in 2012. Up to 2013, Antje had been a research scientist at the Chair of Information Architecture ETH Zurich. In addition to her degree in Architecture, Antje has a background in Computer Science, with a strong focus on information visualization.

The post Smarter, Better Cities: Converting Data into Designs for Urban Planning with Antje Kunze appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Marc Kushner, FAIA, Partner at New York architecture firm HWKN (Hollwich Kushner), and Cofounder of Architizer.

With portfolios from over 40,000 architecture firms worldwide, Architizer is today the largest database of architecture online – the ‘Facebook of architecture’, so to speak. In 2013, Marc launched the A+ Awards, an international awards program for architecture. But he didn’t stop there: at the beginning of this year, Marc launched his next innovation – Architizer Source – an online products marketplace for architects. His vision for it was that it could revolutionize architecture. Marc definitely has the means to achieve this: to help fund the national launch of this online tool, Architizer has secured $7 million in Series A funding in a round led by August Capital.

Marc just might be the very definition of an archipreneur! Keep reading to learn from an architect who built two very successful businesses, launched one of the largest awards programs for architecture, and now plans to completely revolutionize the industry. He is always one step ahead, and yet makes it all look so effortless.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

You first co-founded the architecture firm HWKN and later Architzer. What made you decide to partner up with Matthias Hollwich and start your own architecture firm? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Matthias and I knew each other for a few years and both found ourselves between jobs in the Spring of 2006. After sitting on a review together at Columbia GSAPP, we decided to enter a competition together. We lost – but it was an amazing experience. We just completely clicked. I was interviewing for a new position at the time and Matthias was only temporarily in NYC, but the magic in our collaboration was palpable to both of us and we immediately decided that we wanted to do more things together. It was a shotgun wedding – not much planning, just a mutual respect and admiration that we knew would lead to good things.

So what made you then decide to start Architizer? Could you tell us a little about your idea behind it?

We launched Architizer in 2009 with the goal of transforming how architects engage with the Internet. At the time, Facebook was growing and platforms like YouTube and Flickr were changing the way we share information. We looked around and wondered where the innovation for architects was.

How did you finance it?

We bootstrapped the launch; we’ve since taken financing from a group of NYC investors and, most recently, a Series A led by the Silicon Valley venture firm August Capital. We also have architects joining in. Gary Handel sits on the board and SHoP architects are our investors.

What is the business model for Architizer?

We sell business tools to building product manufacturers who rely on architects to choose products for construction. Architects control nearly $100 billion worth of product choices every year in the US – that makes our community very valuable.

Architizer started out as a side project for your firm. Now, its community consists of over 40,000 architecture firms and it can hardly be called a side business. Do you still find time to design as an architect?

I do – but it isn’t easy. The single greatest decision I have made in my professional career is partnering with Matthias Hollwich. We sat down together a few years ago and found a way to run Hollwich Kushner together as I continued to run Architizer. It is a relationship that requires a lot of faith and trust.

But you didn’t stop there, even though one would think handling two successful businesses might be enough. In 2013, you launched the A+ Awards and now, at the beginning of the year, Architizer Source. Could you tell us a little about your visions; why you created this tool?

I guess I am pretty restless! Source is the culmination of what we have been working on at Architizer – leveraging the huge buying power that is wrapped up in the architectural profession. Architects are, per capita, the nation’s largest group of shoppers. Our profession calls it ‘specifying’, but it is not more complicated than shopping. There is a huge disconnect between how much spending we control and how underserved we are by the tools for making our jobs easier.

Today, specifying is a nightmare of Google searching, phone calls with salespeople, lunch-and-learns, PDFs, and postage stamps. You know things are pretty f**ked up when stamps are involved! Everything we do springs from the basic observation that architects are powerful; we just need to unlock their value.

Architizer has been compared to Facebook. You said that Architizer Source could be doing for the architectural industry what Airbnb has done for accommodations, or Uber for taxis. So you’re planning to go global with this, and hope that architects all over the world will use it?

Of course! The Architizer community is truly international. Source will be for everyone.

I read that to help fund the national launch of Architizer Source, Architizer secured $7 million in Series A financing in a round led by August Capital. Wow! That’s the type of funding every startup dreams of! How did you achieve it?

We raised money by looking beyond the self-deprecation that pervades the architecture profession. I attend dozens of architecture events in a year, and that means that I have endured endless complaints about the perceived value of architecture — about how architects don’t make enough money, about how we aren’t respected. I can prattle on for pages about how important architects are to society, but sometimes dollars speak louder than words.

$570,000,000,000. That’s how much architects oversee in US construction every year. That is a very compelling figure to bring to Silicon Valley and you don’t need to #LookUp to understand it.

Are architects the better digital media entrepreneurs?

Digital media is the least of our concerns as a profession. We need innovation in every aspect of our profession – and innovative risk taking is the only way we are going to address the challenges we face.

I know Architizer Source is still in its beta version and so there is still more work to be done – but considering your speed in completing projects, what’s next for you?

I dream of starting an investment fund focused on the architectural profession.

Do you have any advice for “Archipreneurs” who are interested in starting their own business?

Figure out where the money is. As architects we aren’t trained to be hard-nosed about money, but, if you figure that out, you can accomplish great things. The amazing thing is that it is actually easier than most of the problems that we face in designing a building!

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

I see a profession that is completely different from the one we know today. Traditional practice is broken – I yearn to see solutions that we can’t even imagine today.

About Marc Kushner

Marc Kushner, AIA, is an architect with just one agenda: he wants you to love architecture. As Partner at progressive New York architecture firm HWKN (Hollwich Kushner) and Cofounder and CEO of Architizer, Marc is a celebrated designer and pioneer in the digital media industry, continually striving to find new ways to help the world not just like, but fall in love with architecture.

Architizer is the largest platform for professional architects online, and the most comprehensive database of the products and people behind the world’s best buildings. With acclaim from The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, and New York Magazine, Architizer has revolutionized the way architects communicate their work to the world and engage with the design industry since its launch in 2009.

With his business partner Matthias Hollwich, Marc also founded one of the most dynamic architecture firms to come out of New York in the past 50 years: HWKN. Continually developing projects that combine provocative design with commercial sustainability, HWKN’s work is regularly printed in publications such as Wallpaper* and The Wall Street Journal. In 2012, HWKN won MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program with their project, WENDY, a 5,000 sq ft temporal project whose ‘personality’ was brought to life through direct interactions with the public and her cult digital media following on Facebook and Twitter.

Marc regularly presents on topics about the intersection between architecture and digital media, he has taught architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and has spoken at event conferences including TED, PSFK and GRID. He also serves on the board of +Pool.

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Designing and developing one’s own project may sound like a dream pursuit, but without the initial investment such a vision becomes almost impossible. Several individuals have proved that it is indeed possible for an architect to become their own developer. Architects present valuable skills in the development world, from the expertise required for site analysis and selection, to the ability to follow through with the design details and supervise construction. With the rise of more innovative sources of financing for projects, architects have the potential to step outside their usual roles in serving clients in order to realize their own ideas and designs.

#1 – Crowdfunding

The rise of crowdfunding in recent years has harnessed the power of millions of internet users to finance worthy causes. Some architects and developers have already realized the potential of this financing platform, including renowned Danish architect Bjark Ingels. When speaking about his kickstarter campaign to wired magazine Ingels stated, “One of the inhibitions of the architecture profession is we are limited by the vision of our clients put forward. I’d be curious, if this works, what other proactive ways architects could get ideas out there.”

With their recent kickstarter campaign, BIG has done just that, and has successfully raised funds for developing a steam ring generator at their innovatively designed Copenhagen power plant. This unique feature for the power plant caught the public eye because it is a visual manifestation of how much CO2 the city of Copenhagen is using and is just one example of the many ways architecture can benefit from the support of the broader public.

Another example of a successfully funded kickstarter project was the renovation and remodeling of the historic Jennings Hotel in Joseph, Oregon. This project was undertaken by a small group of design-minded individuals with the desire to convert this historic apartment building into a hotel and artist residence. By offering various incentives to donors, kickstarter campaigns such as this have the potential to draw millions of individuals to support a cause. Do you have a project in mind that could benefit your local community or inspire others? Then you might consider how crowdfunding could bring you closer to achieving your goals.

#2 – Partnering

Partnering is perhaps the most common way for individuals to begin financing development projects, although architects are not always familiar with how to begin the process. If an architect has access to a potential site and has found a suitable program for the land such as a condominium development, he or she might consider partnering with an investor to acquire the private equity needed for the project.

This is important because in order to get financing from a bank, one usually needs approximately 30% in private equity. If the architect does not have the capital to supply half of the required private equity, the investor could provide the total amount and charge his or her partner interest on their share until the project is finished. This particular funding model is known as mezzanine capital financing and tends to offer the potential investor a high interest rate for absorbing much of the risk in a project.

Once a project is complete, the architect or partner who borrowed the money for the project will use their profits to pay the investor back with any additional interest accrued over time. However, an architect may also consider the integrated equity they bring to a project, meaning the fees normally charged for architectural planning. These fees can be offset with the equity one brings to the project and any architectural work put into the project will serve as an investment towards future profits from the completed project.

This method of financing, although common, requires careful planning and appropriate legal arrangements. When beginning a joint venture such as real estate partnering, one should be careful to set up a contractual agreement beforehand that stipulates the terms of the project in detail. Such an agreement makes it clear how all parties will be paid upon completion of the project, but also serves as a plan of action should unforeseen circumstances arise.

#3 – Co-Housing

Co-Housing is a concept that has existed for many years yet is often overlooked as a means for developing projects as an architect. The basic process of co-housing involves designating a location and acquiring multiple buyers who want to build together with an architect and eventually become co-owners of the property. It is a participatory planning and construction process that has achieved widespread popularity in many European cities including Berlin, but is only just beginning to gain momentum in American cities. The practice is particularly beneficial for architects because instead of a capital investment, an architect brings a required set of skills to the development of the project.

The practice has broad potential to create communities of like-minded people such as senior citizens or families interested in sustainable living, but it is in different from a commune because it requires substantial investments from the owners. By financing, designing and building residences as a group, individuals become part owners of a building much like in a co-op apartment building.

However, this method allows architects and investors to take a highly personal role in the project and create uniquely suited residences for their families and neighbors. Residents often design their home environment themselves and benefit from a variety of shared spaces such as a communal kitchen, guest room, and gardens.

Should this particular kind of housing community interest you as an architect, one can find many co-housing groups online who are interested in finding architectural professionals to take a role in the project. If an architect initiates such a project by finding a suitable piece of land, he or she has the benefit of building a portfolio of design experience while passing along the financial risk to the co-housing group.

However, this method of financing also requires a more personal and long term interest in a project that often serves to create a tight-knit community of individuals interested in communal life, environmentally friendly lifestyles or intergenerational living. Additionally, such a project may require a great deal of patience in order to take on the requests of multiple individuals while also playing the role of mediator, architect, and project manager.

Do you have any tips for financing your own project? Tell us in the comment section below!

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