From being a novelty a few years ago, VR solutions are slowly becoming a medium that’s transforming the way professionals in the AEC industry communicate, create and experience content. But in our interviews we often hear that the AEC industry is slow to adapt to new technologies. This week we found someone who can get to the bottom of this question: We spoke with Ailyn Mendoza, Director of Customer Experience (CX) at IrisVR, a tech startup that develops virtual reality software for professionals in architecture, engineering and construction.

Ailyn is trained as an landscape architect and prior to IrisVR she worked as a designer and project manager at various landscape architecture firms. Now at IrisVR, she serves as the liaison between software users and the software development team to develop new product features, case studies and educational materials on the power and benefits of virtual reality as a tool for communication, design and construction within AEC.

Keep reading to get an insight into a tech startup, find out how VR can be used in AEC and learn from Ailyn’s path of career.

Enjoy the interview!

Could you tell us a little about your background?

I grew up in Miami, FL and my dream had been to be a fashion designer. But when it came time for college, my parents – who are Cuban immigrants – told me that wasn’t a “real” profession and I could choose from their list of pre-selected “safe” careers: doctor, lawyer, engineer or architect. The only hobby I was really passionate about was drawing, so I started architecture school at Florida International University. I graduated with a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture in 2010 and two years later started course work for my master’s degree at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, graduating in 2013.

Having immigrant parents meant having to pay for school on my own, which turned out to be really valuable for my career. I wanted to avoid as much student debt as I could, and I took any job that paid me to use the skills I was learning in school, which covered everything from sales, graphic design, event planning, and marketing proposals to designing projects and managing construction. I ended up working in some of the best firms and with an amazing roster of mentors.

All of this was happening during the recession, and I quickly learned the most important thing I could do for myself was not to label myself as an “architect” or “landscape architect” because it really limited the work I could apply for.

Instead, I considered myself a problem solver who simply used design thinking to achieve a solution, sometimes with brick and mortar, sometimes with a spreadsheet – and it’s the best career choice I’ve ever made.

When did you first come across Virtual Reality (VR)?

In 2015, prior to joining IrisVR, I was working as a Project Manager at a landscape architecture firm. On the way back from a meeting, I agreed to meet with a friend who was working at IrisVR to see what he was developing. At that time, virtual reality headsets – like the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive – were rare.

While at the office, he gave me a demo of the software (which was in beta) and I immediately could see all the ways that a Project Manager could use it – to help me coordinate within my team the best way to build, and to help win projects by conveying design intent.

My short visit turned into a brainstorming session that evolved into an interview. A few weeks later I had joined the team.

Could you tell us about your job at IrisVR as Director Customer Experience?

Currently I lead the Customer Experience (CX) team at IrisVR where my primary role is to be the voice of our customer and their point of contact at our company.

My day-to-day varies quite a bit as a result. Sometimes I’m working with our product and marketing teams preparing for a software launch, sometimes I’m on the phone with users gathering feedback, or I could be traveling to different offices and cities to provide demos of our software.

How did your architectural training help you in what you do now? What specific/transferable skills have proved the most useful?

I was really fortunate to attend two universities with really amazing curriculums structured to support creativity and exploration. My time at the GSD was like getting dropped off at a playground – we had unlimited resources and access to some of the best faculty which supported your interest in any project you could fathom. As a result, I feel all the skills I learned were transferable and help me daily at my current position.

If I had to pick the most useful skill, I would say it’s the ability to listen and interpret your client’s needs. All those weeks spent on research, site analysis, and demographic research for my studio projects instilled in me how critical it is to have empathy. Your client often won’t know or have the vocabulary to express what they need.

Let’s speak about the products IrisVR offers: Could you give us some examples of how the software can be used and how it helps architectural practices?

We’ve developed two types of software that leverage different types of virtual reality technology. Prospect instantly and automatically converts 3D models into fully navigable Virtual Reality (VR) experiences for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets. Scope is an app that allows you to view rendered 360° panoramas with a Google Cardboard, GearVR, or other mobile VR headset.

The primary users of our software are architects, engineers, and construction companies looking to augment the way they communicate ideas with clients and coordinate across trades.

Virtual reality has become a critical tool because the experience is so much more powerful than a 2D drawing could ever be. The hard truth is most clients don’t understand the beautiful black and white 2D exploded-axon-section-plan you spent days on. Traditional drawings are difficult to read for anyone who doesn’t have years of training and they fail to help your client confidently make decisions.

We’ve heard so much positive feedback from our software users describing the impact Virtual Reality (VR) has had on their work – from saving money on meetings to decreasing coordination time. In particular, architects working in healthcare, retail and hospitality have a lot to gain from using Virtual Reality (VR) because the costs of physical mockups can be so high and delivery timelines can be very tight, leaving no room for error.

On our blog, we have a number of case studies which explain further the many ways Virtual Reality (VR) is being used.

What is the business model of IrisVR?

We are a SaaS company, which means that our software is available for download and purchase directly from our website.

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

AEC as a whole is slow to adopt new technologies so it’s important to connect with the industries and users who are at the forefront. For example, construction companies tend to have more resources for investing into new technologies because of the high amount of risk associated with that field. If new technology can increase on-site safety or reduce construction delays that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s worth it for them to invest.

I’ve also seen many firms who’ve learned the hard way that they can’t afford to hit snooze on adopting new technologies because it means that they are losing projects to companies who are at the forefront.

In the past few years, as Virtual Reality (VR) has become more widely known, I’ve also witnessed a shift in who is demanding Virtual Reality (VR). Project owners are increasingly including a “VR deliverable” as part of the scope of work, where they might stipulate that a certain software is used in the project. Many of our current AEC users have found our software because their clients have requested that they integrate Virtual Reality (VR) into the project.

Do you have any advice for architects looking to change careers?

First, don’t undervalue the skills you’ve learned in design school. When you work at a firm it’s easy to feel like your skills are not unique, but the moment you leave the industry you realize how valuable those photoshop and project management skills actually are.

Second, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it. Two years ago, when I told most of my colleagues (and my parents) that I was leaving my safe career as a landscape architect to join a Virtual Reality company, I received a lot of grief. From the, “that’s probably going to fail” look to, “what a waste of talent” pity glance, none of it deterred me. Today, I have still haven’t looked back. In an odd twist of fate the number of emails I get from friends, classmates, and old co-workers wanting to know how they too can use virtual reality increases weekly now.

And of course, regardless of where you choose to go to next, join a team you trust and work well with. These are the people you’ll spend 40, 50, sometimes 60+ hours with on any given week. To succeed, you’ll have to work quickly and efficiently, and the ability to anticipate each other’s needs will help you move faster during those critical growth moments.

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

There is a bounty of opportunity for up and coming architects outside of traditional practice – it’s simply a matter of perspective. From working in robotics, graphic design and UX/UI, there are a ton of excellent careers that need creative thinkers who can also execute the work. Take advantage of course work that pushes you into exploring non-traditional skill sets, for example app design and coding, because you won’t regret it.

But like Baz Luhrmann, the best advice I can give anyone is to wear sunscreen.

About Ailyn Mendoza

Based in NYC, Ailyn is the Director of Customer Experience (CX) at IrisVR, a tech startup that develops virtual reality software for professionals in architecture, engineering and construction.

Prior to IrisVR, Ailyn worked as a designer and project manager at various landscape architecture firms, including Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, DLANDstudio and Raymond Jungles. As a minority professional she has been involved in diversity initiatives, including the ASLA’s National Diversity Summit and CLARB’s Foresight Sessions. She holds a post-professional degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and has 8 years of practice within AEC.

The post How IrisVR brings Virtual Reality to the AEC Industry appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Sébastien Lucas, Co-Founder and CEO of Bricks.

Sébastien has been working an architect for 7 years before he started as an entrepreneur and self-taught web developer. His goal was always to make architecture a collaborative practice. He first developed Openbricks, a platform to share and find open source architectural projects and designs.

Then, inspired by GitHub, he developed Bricks. Bricks is an app for architects that focusses on providing collaborative solutions for architectural design. The public beta of Bricks will be launched this month.

Continue to read to learn more about SaaS, business models for open source and of course about Bricks and how it could help your practice.

Enjoy the interview!

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

Since the beginning of my entrepreneur journey back in 2006, when I was still working as an architect for agence TER, a well-known French landscape architecture studio, my motivation is to improve the way architects collaborate.

I developed Archiref in 2010, a platform to share images of architecture,  and then Openbricks in 2014 to make it easier to find open source elements for architecture.

Those two projects seek to encourage architects to share their library of inspiration and projects. In order to save time, build a community, and communicate their work in a way that is useful for everyone. With Bricks, I was also at the design side of the development.

Software developers have GitHub, where most open source software are built and shared. Github is both a working tool and a huge library. Inspired by GitHub, I was motivated to develop an app for architects that can be useful daily and help in making the design process collaborative, in essence, the GitHub for architects.

I met my two associates about a year ago. One of them, François Muzard is a BIM manager. He introduced me to the BIM world and the fact that the BIM ecosystem needs apps to help efficient communication among project stakeholders, task sharing, and even discussions…

All Bricks associates have experienced agile methods in the fields of web development and BIM collaboration. So the idea arose to quickly build an app that would integrate not only all the benefits of Agile Methods, but also adapt to AEC and closely integrate to the growing BIM ecosystem.

You have just launched Bricks app. Could you give us some examples of how the tool is used and how it helps architectural practices?

Architects lose a lot of time for external and internal communication. After a meeting, everyone seems to be all clear on what needs to be done. But how to track progress and answer questions before the next meeting? How to keep the project momentum and maintain flawless communication day after day, and keep everyone involved motivated and informed?

Communication is usually a mix of emails, phone calls, and maybe some paperwork… but it takes time and never provides a clear state of the work to be done.

With Bricks, we propose a shared platform to communicate and exchange ideas about tasks before and after the meeting.

You can then:

• plan tasks for the next meeting
• assign them to your team or external collaborators
• discuss the tasks in greater detail
• follow their progress and hierarchize them with a kanban board

We will release a new meeting module soon. It will allow you to invite meeting attendees assigned to specific tasks. It also generates a report to send out automatically to all the attendees.

Compared with other architecture project management tools, Bricks is based on Agile approach. More than just tracking tasks, we also aim to give everyone a clear idea of what how far along they are on the project.

Of course, you can manage privacy too, thanks to our group feature. It allows creating separate project groups where you can share specific topics to just your engineers, the client, or to everyone on the project.

In which development phase is your app?

The public beta of Bricks will be launched this month. This version is the result of nearly one year of development and iteration on the product. We have decided on a clear roadmap, giving priority to the ease of use and simplicity along with specific attention to the quality of the user interface.

Though BIM and 3D model integration are important, we have decided to orient our first product on task management, as it is at the core of agile methods. Also often the simple, such as sharing comments and images, is more efficient than the complicated, like discussing a complex 3D model. Indeed the 3D model environment could be overwhelming for many people and not accessible under bad internet connection contexts.

We will make a demo of the app at Web summit, the biggest startup event in Europe, held in Lisbon this November. We will animate a few specific user workshops in our network of innovative architectural practices. Our objective is to gather as many feedbacks as possible to improve the app for its next iteration.

The next feature we will develop is a new module that handles meetings efficiently and integrates with task management seamlessly. We expect to launch it before the end of the year.

After which, we will launch the final v1 version and payment plans at the beginning of 2018.

How did you finance it?

Since the end of 2016 and until now, we have financed the Bricks app project out of our own pockets. We are looking for public and private funding to move with the project even faster. As in the startup world, completion speed  is a key factor to success!

Further I wanted to ask you about a project you launched earlier, Openbricks. Could you tell us a little about it?

Openbricks is a platform to share and find open source architectural projects and designs. These past few years have seen open source architecture gaining momentum, with a community like the Wikihouse and the Pritzker prize Alejandro Aravena who shared four of his social housing designs under the Creative Commons license.

I have the chance to be both an architect and a web developer, so I know very clearly how open source contributes in development – it simply revolutionizes everything!

While big tech names like Google and Facebook also contribute to open source framework, a software collaboratively developed by a community of people can eventually get bigger and more powerful than the software developed by powerful companies. It is a way to democratize the knowledge.

But now to get back to architecture, the open source movement face several roadblocks that prevent its viral development :

• A clarification of licenses
• A clarification of responsibility for the design
• A simple way to find and participate in open source design
• A business model to share the benefits to contributors
• …

With Openbricks, we wanted to solve the problem of the fragmentation of open source architecture projects to create a standard that facilitates discovery like GitHub did in its time.

We, of course, want to advance in a better model and improve the tool. But for the moment, the development of Bricks is our current priority.

Open Source means that knowledge is shared at no costs. What is the business model for Openbricks?

Openbricks is completely free!

Open source platforms can have several business models. Let’s take two examples. First is the Noun project, a platform of quality design icons shared by the designer community. They offer free license of the icons they share, all within the Creative Commons framework. Most people don’t pay, but the professionals do and contribute for the others.

Secondly GitHub, the hub for open source development projects. It is free for open source projects and does have paying plans for companies that want to use the same tools (code versioning, project management, etc) to manage their private projects.

In our case, Openbricks is a library of architectural elements that could be, at some point, integrated with Bricks app. Openbricks will remain free and what people will pay for is to use the Bricks app as a monthly subscription. This, in turn, will go to the services, formation, integration, and customisation that could be needed for architects to set up the app internally.

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

Don’t be afraid to study your project idea. We are all constantly overwhelmed by announcements of new apps, new startups. You may feel discouraged to launch your own project in such a competitive and dynamic world.

But do it :

• start small
• focus on one specific problem to solve, one that you experienced personally
• choose the right people to build and complete your team
• don’t be afraid to talk about your idea to anyone you meet
• show the product early for feedbacks and do not hesitate to change your initial idea

Experience has proven that ideas that seemed very similar at first can create a whole new experience and with continuous improvement, differentiate itself from the rest and find its target market.

Think about Instagram, who would have imagined that an image sharing app with a few filters could end up being so popular!

About Sébastien Lucas

Sébastien Lucas is co-founder and CEO of Bricks, a SaaS application focused on providing collaborative solutions for architectural design. Sébastien is an architect by profession and for 7 years worked for award-winning French architecture and landscape architecture companies.

In 2009, passionate about the web and with the idea to make architecture a collaborative practice, he developed several projects: Archiref, Openbricks and then, the Bricks app. He became, as a result, an entrepreneur and self-taught web developer with a specialization in javascript and frontend technologies.

He then worked 5 years as a freelance web developer to create web applications for other startups, media and web agencies. In 2013, he organized three Future Architecture Night events, a conference cycle inspired by TED’s or Pecha Kucha and offered the opportunity for more than 30 startups and architects to talked about their innovations related to architecture.

The post Design Together with Bricks: Collaborative Solutions for Architects appeared first on Archipreneur.

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 Filippo Schiano di Pepe, founder of CoContest.

Filippo’s career started out in the same way as many other architects: He graduated, and worked to gain experience in well-known international architecture studios, in his case, these were in Rome and London. While at these studios, he came to realize the inefficiency of the market. In his home country of Italy he found there were far too many architects for just a small pool of clients.

That’s why in 2013 he founded CoContest, the first crowdsourcing platform for interior design. The online platform connects designers from all over the world with potential clients. It offers the possibility for those in need of new design ideas to establish a contest, open to architects in the CoContest community, decide a money reward and to award a winner.

CoContest’s website says, “Our goal is to disrupt the status quo”. And so they did. Italy’s established architects see a thread in the company. But it is less a thread to Italy’s architect then a gain to international architects – especially young ones.

Keep on reading to learn how clients and designers can profit from CoContest, and about the positive change that the Internet has brought to the architectural industry.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

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

I have worked many years as an architect in different studios in Italy and in London. This experience made me discover numerous inefficiencies in the market of architecture. A lot of clients were unsatisfied with the architectural services they received.

Meanwhile, in Europe, particularly in Italy, young architects had a hard time finding jobs and new clients. As a matter of fact, there’s high percentage of inoccupation for architects. Just imagine: a third of European architects are Italian, and a third of architects in the world are from Europe!

That’s how I came up with the idea of creating a website where clients can find the perfect architect and offer up opportunities to designers to find new clients and work online, at home.

Could you tell us a little about the business model behind CoContest?

The idea of CoContest is inspired by public architectural contests, but it’s created for the individual consumer rather than a public organ. Basically, clients who want to renovate their home can describe what they have in mind, what they’re looking for and their personal tastes and styles, and then launch a competition on CoContest – a Contest, by all means. All registered designers on our website (over 35K to date, and from 90 countries around the world) can participate in the contest.

By the time of a contest’s deadline, clients have 20-25 proposals on average; from which they choose the one they like the most.

We receive a fee at the launch of each contest. This is our core business but we have other minor business models on the side.

How can clients and designers profit from CoContest?

Clients can receive dozens of projects for the home in a minimum of 14 days, with no need to spend time on finding one single ‘perfect’ architect and negotiate the price. So clients benefit from multiple design projects in a short time and at a convenient price. A design project for a 100 sq. home costs around $3,000-$4,000. On CoContest, you can get an average 14 projects for the same house at only $700.

At the same time, designers earn money when they win contests, so they benefit from CoContest through income and the opportunity to find new clients.

There are many designers, many of whom are from Eastern Europe who work full-time and exclusively on CoContest – and earn more money than they would have if they had worked in traditional architecture studios.

CoContest was the only Italian company last year to be invited to the 500 Startups Incubator Lab in Mountain View, California, which must be a dream come true for every startup. How did you finance your company at the beginning and how is it looking today?

We managed to find private investors right at the beginning that believed in our project and could see the potential of our company revolutionizing the market for interior design. This has helped us in various stages of fundraising. At the moment, we’re just about to open our series A round of fundraising.

Did your architectural skills set help you to become a digital media entrepreneur and do you continue to use these skills in your work?

Absolutely! I could’ve never come up with idea of CoContest if I was not a professional architect. Actually, I believe architects can be very successful project managers in that they develop an idea and follow it through to its realization. I have tried to apply the same model of designing and building a structure to how I develop my company: research, design, create, test, repeat.

Can design students apply to work for CoContest, or do they have to have a degree or diploma?

Yes, they can. It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have, you just need to be great at what your clients ask you to do. It is clear that our service is particularly selective, as our platform hosts contests. If a designer is not good and loses in every contest they participate, at the end of the day he/she will just stop participating in the contests. I believe that only great designers will continue to work on CoContest.

As a client I’d really like the idea of getting 10 proposals for my contest. But what about the designer’s perspective: what if my design was among the 9 that didn’t win, would I receive anything?

I think many architects are used to participating in public competitions and not winning all of them. Of course, it’s not great to lose a contest but our aim is to offer the best service possible for our clients with maximum results and rewards for the best designers. Moreover, there’s a system of collecting ‘points’ on CoContest for designers for each contest in which they participate. These points turn into other rewards.

A 2014 Forbes article about your company was titled “Disrupting In Style”. Somehow, the word ‘disruptive’ is a compliment in the startup scene and is understood as a threat for established professionals. How is the situation in Italy?

The word isn’t really known in Italy. But with the revolution of the Internet and innovative services such as Airbnb, Uber and Kickstarter, the term ‘disruptive’ is being used more and more, even in Italy, as a revolutionary term that indicates the changing of rules in the market.

Italy is a very traditional country at its core, where it is extremely difficult to bring about change and innovation. The market of architecture, for example, is in extreme crisis. It’s not a free market, and it is very limited by regulations, where only few architects and architectural studios can operate and earn money, while the greater majority of designers, specially the young ones, are unemployed.

Our precise goal is to ‘disrupt’ the market of interior design by making it more competitive, freer, more democratic and accessible to everyone.

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

It’s always hard to give the right advice. I believe that we architects are very good at one important thing, and that’s creativity; imagining things that maybe others can’t.

My advice to architects who want to start their own business is to put creativity at the heart of their activity, and to try to invent new things that can be really useful for other people. In the end, there’s no magic formula for success and there are many variables: the team, the idea, the execution, etc. but the most important thing is give real value to people.

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 think the Internet, through SaaS and other online tools, have made the lives of architects much easier. But the real change that the Internet has brought to all people and therefore to architects as well is annulling geographical barriers; I can work from my home or on a beach in Italy for a client in New York City without having to move at any time I want.

About Filippo Schiano di Pepe

Filippo Schiano di Pepe was born in Rome, Italy. After graduating in Architecture and becoming a qualified architect in Italy, he moved to London for some years to experience a different environment for the field of architecture. He has worked in various important studios for architecture, such as Massimiliano Fuksas’ studio in Rome, Ray Hole Architects in London among others. He established the idea of CoContest, the first platform for crowdsourcing interior design, in 2013.

The post How an Architect Created a Crowdsourcing Platform for Interior Design – with the Founder of CoContest appeared first on Archipreneur.

Do you have an idea for a software that could make life easier for architects? Perhaps you already own an architecture-related software startup and are looking to scale up? There are several ways of selling software these days, but an increasingly successful model which is slowly pushing out the software as a product solution is Saas (Software as a Service).

Software as a Service (SaaS) is not a new concept. It’s been around for a while, but has only recently gained popularity due to its advantages over the more traditional ways of delivering software. Most architects are familiar with the issues of expensive licenses, compatibility, paying for endless upgrades, and having to stay informed on the most recent bug fixes. Anyone who has as some point created a file that couldn’t be opened on a client’s or colleague’s computer knows the frustration behind dealing with software as products.

Besides, this type of user engagement also requires certain skills in other aspects of software beside those relating to its actual use as a design tool. This constant back-and-forth between software developers and customers and required engagement by users has proven to be inefficient for both sides. Companies are increasingly switching to the SaaS business model as a way of making their products more accessible and drawing steady revenue streams instead of relying on the one-off license purchases.

Software as a Service delivers applications over the Internet and is based on charging regular fee for their use. The model also includes a variety of options like maintenance, hosting and customization. This business model is very scalable and responsive to customer feedback. Unlike the software as a product model, SaaS firms that are just starting out recover their investment much slower, but often manage to work better over the long haul as they later generate steadier revenue streams. The economics of SaaS can be diverse, but the common denominator among all SaaS-based businesses is a high level of automation and the ability to introduce changes based on user experience quicker and across entire platforms.

SaaS software and applications use the provider’s servers and, in order to access the software, users only need access to the Internet. Since internet access in the developed society is pretty much a given, this isn’t an issue. Some companies also provide the option of working while offline, and allow the content to be automatically updated once you go back online. SaaS companies also roll out upgrades across the entire system, lessening the amount of work required from the user. There is no need for installing software on your machine and having to purchase several licenses for your employees. Maintaining the hardware falls under the jurisdiction of the provider which also provides secure data backups. It is all about convenience and reliability.

SaaS is also beneficial for startups, as is allows the introduction of incremental changes and eliminates the need for spending huge amounts of time perfecting the software before it’s finally shipped. A similar type of scenario played out in the case of ArchiOffice, time and expense tracking, project management, billing, accounting and reporting software for architects.

ArchiOffice Online a multi-user, cloud-based application currently part of the offering by California-based BQE Software, with over 325,000 active users, but its beginning were quite humble. It was first developed as a much cruder version by architect Steven Burns. Burns ran his own practice in Chicago and was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of administrative work he had to complete each day. By the time he would finish with invoicing, project management and time tracking, hardly any time was left for him to design. He decided to build a tool which would streamline these tedious tasks and free him up to participate in the creative aspects of the work.

Other local firms heard about the software and wanted to try it out. Noticing the success of the solution, Burns hired a team of professional coders to optimize the solution and soon sold his interest in the architectural firm to his partner in order to focus strictly on ArchiOffice. After meeting with BQE CEO, Shafat Qazi, he decided to join their enterprise and make ArchiOffice part of their product line. Initially conceived as a license-based software, BQE gradually converted it to a fully SaaS and cloud-based business model in 2014 with subscription-based pricing.

A revenue model in SaaS doesn’t rely only on subscriptions. Upselling is also a great technique for getting your existing customers to buy new features and complementary products to those they’re already using. You can also offer additional improved services and strengthen your revenue streams by making your products compatible with other software applications. Young startups can speed up their growth with affiliate sales, thus lowering the costs of marketing and expand while keeping their existing customers on board. Using specialized services like SaaSAds can also generate additional recurring income.

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The startup culture is known to be driven by technological innovation. However, nowadays, innovation in the arena of small businesses is more connected to new business models. The reasons behind startup failures are usually not related to inefficient technologies, but are rooted in the lack of defined ideas for acquiring customers and generating revenue. As with other business models with great potential, the success of a SaaS-based business is determined by several factors, including financing strategies, sales techniques, partnering and defining a value proposition.

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