A Letter From Snaptrude Founder, Altaf Ganihar
What's in this post?
As we return from our summer break, I want to take this opportunity to share our perspective on the future of the AEC industry. As our product and company have matured, we are eager to share more about our vision.
We started 7 years ago with a bold idea: to revolutionize design technology by moving to a cloud-first world. Our goal is to connect an industry built on collaboration, enabling seamless cooperation among people, their tools, and the data they create and use. Tools and platforms should empower, not hinder, the process of designing and constructing our built environment. We aim to create a modern design infrastructure that will serve our industry for decades, not just rebuild old tools with new technology.
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The Complex Design-to-Construction Journey
Today, design to construction is a complex, non-linear journey that involves multiple disconnected tools. Projects constantly move between stages, but the lack of data integration within the ecosystem of these tools hinders iterations. For example, market factors can impact a building’s budget, leading to intense value engineering. Additionally, initial square footage calculations for FAR or building code requirements may turn out to be inaccurate. These scenarios are common in our industry and result in substantial rework all of the time.
Impact on the Built Environment & Design Firms
Due to these complex processes, design decisions are often made without all the necessary facts, because the data simply isn’t available when it’s needed. This leads to rework, inefficient designs, project delays, and other costly mistakes that can last the life of the building.
A vicious cycle of compressed schedules, long working hours, and non-billable labor have led to the AEC industry experiencing extreme levels of burnout. We must change this.
The Need for Industry-Specific Tools
Current tools are a significant impediment to this workflow. Most of our existing tools are based on technology from the late 1990s. They were groundbreaking then but have since become outdated due to stagnancy, while other industries have leapfrogged ahead.
Our Vision for the Future
Snaptrude is built with a modern perspective to help the AEC industry leapfrog for the decades to come, ensuring we don’t get stuck again. This is why we spent the bulk of the last 6 years on core foundations that involved building -
- A modern geometry kernel that runs on the browser,
- A modern data schema that can solve interoperability issues
- A database stack to handle real-time updates to gather insights from people and other data sources instantly.
Our vision is to help design teams create more efficient and sustainable buildings faster by enabling a platform that does so seamlessly. We are committed to leading this transformation, making the design process more transparent, collaborative, and responsive to the needs of all stakeholders.
We are a growing team of ~100 people filled with Architects, Construction professionals, software engineers, and mathematicians focused on this vision. We are glad to have the support of the AEC community - our customers, partners, and investors in this journey. Together, we can build a future where great design is accessible to everyone and where the built environment reflects the best of what we can achieve together.
Thank you for being an integral part of this exciting journey. I will continue to share more details about how we’re building Snaptrude in time to come. Your support and belief in our vision mean the world to us.
