Architecture Social

After being made redundant three times, Dominic McAndrew went on to co-found Ruumi Studio and build a new architecture practice from scratch.

In this episode, we talk about the reality of starting an architecture studio, what redundancy actually teaches you, why running a young practice is not as glamorous as it looks, and what small studios really look for when hiring.

Dominic also shares how Ruumi Studio was built with AI in mind, how the team started trading quickly after a chaotic Christmas setup, and why personality, attitude and communication can matter just as much as technical ability when you’re applying to smaller architecture practices.

We have partnered with ArchAdemia, an online learning platform built by architects, for architects:
https://archademia.com/architecture-s...
Use code ARCHSOCIAL10 for a discount on the monthly or annual membership.

00:00 Intro
00:48 Meet Dominic and Ruumi Studio
03:06 Getting Into Architecture by Accident
09:40 Made Redundant Three Times
18:15 Turning Redundancy Into Opportunity
22:27 Leading a Team Through Redundancy
26:08 How Ruumi Studio Began
32:00 The Reality of Starting a Studio
37:01 Building a Team and Hiring Architects
44:03 Lessons From the First Six Months
47:47 Building an Architecture Studio Around AI
53:42 What’s Next for Ruumi Studio
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Curated content, insights and opportunities to accelerate your career in Architecture, Design, Development and Real Estate to the next level.

💻 Find more content at https://www.architecturesocial.com

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Creators and Guests

Host
Stephen Drew
Hello! I’m Stephen Drew, Founder of the Architecture Social—an online community and resource hub dedicated to helping professionals in Architecture, Design, Development, and Real Estate advance their careers. I’m here to connect you with insights, tools, and opportunities that lead to meaningful growth, whether you’re just starting out or ready to take that next big step.

What is Architecture Social?

It is hard to get a job in architecture. We exist to help you get there. Hosted by Stephen Drew, Architecture Social is the unfiltered guide to the UK Built Environment. We decode the realities of the industry, provide actionable cheat codes for your career, and bridge the communication gap between the drafting board and the boardroom.

Whether you are a Part I assistant trying to survive your first role, a Part III architect managing complex procurement, or a Practice Director fighting tight margins and adapting to the Building Safety Act, this podcast is your central node of intelligence. We strip away the aesthetic gatekeeping and toxic positivity to talk about the actual mechanics of the business.

Expect honest conversations about salary realities, portfolio strategies, hiring economics, and the true experiences of the people actively shaping the profession.

No fluff, just the reality of practice.

00:00:00:33 - 00:00:19:00
Unknown
I know you're post-grad. Yeah, I've been made it three times. Yeah. Me too, by the way. So we're we're we're we're in the redundant class. So yeah, very different approach to redundancy, I guess. And yeah, redundancy can be a positive thing. We just sort of shrugged and said solve it, but we just did it. We started the business in a map.

00:00:19:00 - 00:00:38:09
Unknown
Panic over Christmas. And anyone who wants to do this. It's not easy. I enjoy it. But you have to be a bit insane to run a business. You have to be even more insane to have started. What kind of things resonate with you? What grabs your attention? Probably more interesting than the person that I think we built the practice from the ground up to be amplified by AI.

00:00:38:16 - 00:00:47:52
Unknown
It's not AI, in my opinion. Replacing the human. It's human. Plus AI equals superhuman.

00:00:47:57 - 00:01:08:07
Unknown
Hello everyone! I am super excited to be here. Not often do we get to talk to an architect and entrepreneur. Being the business founder who's a few months in and has already got projects under their belt already hiring? I'm super excited to go for it because so many of you ask, what is it actually like to run an architecture business?

00:01:08:07 - 00:01:25:02
Unknown
And it's not easy, but it is quite fun. So on that note, I'm here with the fantastic Dominic McAndrew of Dominic. How are you? So yeah, I'm good. Make good to see you again. Good to see you. We've worked once or twice over the years, but for anyone that's not met you, we're going to win back a little bit.

00:01:25:04 - 00:01:47:28
Unknown
But tell me a little bit about who you are now and the name of your new studio, which is taking over all the buyers and takeovers. The strong word. But yeah. So, like, my name is Dominic. I'm an architect. It feels like I'm in the name and said, and at the start of this year, we started a new business, Remy Studio.

00:01:47:38 - 00:02:09:02
Unknown
Me and my co-founder and some of our old team, aspire to a previous entity. And, you know, we're recording this now towards the middle of end of April. It's been a wild ride. Yeah. What's really great is people are coming to talk to us. Work is coming in. We're looking. It's really interesting stuff. And so stuff that I can't quite talk about.

00:02:09:02 - 00:02:30:16
Unknown
Yeah. Which is frustrating because I don't mean to like paywall anyone, but, you know, there's some stuff covered. Yeah. And it's been really nice to see the way that the market has reacted to, to us coming in here where a bit of a different voice, but we also don't really know what our voice is yet. I guess everything's brand new.

00:02:30:21 - 00:02:48:39
Unknown
Our sort of birth story, if you like, is is still a bit wrong, a bit fresh, and probably that's something that we're going to touch on any great detail. But the long story short is Darius and I started the business at a bit of a panic over the three weeks of Christmas break. Nice. Like, of course, just a bit of stress at the end of the crack act.

00:02:48:43 - 00:03:06:04
Unknown
So, you know, box of nervous spent building the website on freeware. Knowing that come fifth agenda, we have to be ready to trade because the requirements there that needs to be service. Yeah. And things were going to kick off in January and then. Yeah. And they did something rapid. Wow. Well before we go into all that and we will it all starts somewhere.

00:03:06:07 - 00:03:26:28
Unknown
So meaning at one point both went to the career advice and we said we want to study architecture. He tell me what made you go into architecture and what it was like studying for you? I got into architecture kind of by accident. Right. So and a lot of my life in my career is generally just a series of things that help my accident.

00:03:26:33 - 00:03:50:43
Unknown
My goal all through high school was to study medicine. Right? I was that crazy kid. That. So I'm from Scotland. So we made things a standard. Greater hires and. Yeah, GCSEs and A-levels aim for my kids GCSE. I did all three sciences, maths and English because that was the path to new the careers of Pfizer and was like, if you want to do this, this is what you need to do.

00:03:50:45 - 00:04:12:26
Unknown
But like, are you mad? There's our biology and everything. Yeah. So biology, physics, chemistry, maths and English to to to to to to show up. Yeah. Sorry. That was from my A-levels. Sorry. So yeah. The subjects that you do to get into into your, got to the end of my second final year, which in Scotland is when you do most of your stuff to get into me.

00:04:12:28 - 00:04:34:19
Unknown
Yeah, I realized I hated studying it. Right. Like sitting, looking at books is not for me. Got it. And was flicking through the prospectus and was like, like I, you know, I regretted not taking art for every level. But the art teacher that had been through school was that I hadn't done. I was like, yeah, I probably need to do something creative.

00:04:34:23 - 00:04:51:21
Unknown
But there's still an analytical, scientific thing in my head that I need to scratch the whole, and, you know, true to form, that I can sit down and read because I got to a in the prospectus, I was like, architecture. Yeah. I'll do. I'm sorry. Really pretty bad. Yeah. It went to the open days. I'm like, yeah, I can do this.

00:04:51:24 - 00:05:09:45
Unknown
It's just kind of the color it end and make a model. This is all right. Yeah. How long did that last for the the easy period. Oh, I'd say at least the first three minutes of the first thing. Exactly. But, yeah. Had an interesting time at uni, studied up in Aberdeen, with a great cohort of people.

00:05:09:48 - 00:05:32:21
Unknown
Yeah. Interesting university that I am going through some changes. I can't say it was all all plain sailing. And I think that's there's, I talk for another ten hours about the state of architecture education in this country. And there is definitely some form of teaching there. And I guess I saw other challenges and other parts of my life.

00:05:32:26 - 00:06:13:45
Unknown
Always had a good work ethic for some reason. My brother didn't get that from anyone else in the family. That's definitely just me. And again, stumbling into things, stumbled into working in hospitality. From a very early age when you was working in coffee shops and things before I went to any and then around sort of second year, third year, started working in restaurants, ended up becoming a system manager in a restaurant, Aberdeen, and opening a new restaurant for Lewis and National restaurant brand and, the shooters and the lecturers at university hated the fact that I was in my third year of last year apart, supposed to be buffing down

00:06:13:45 - 00:06:28:24
Unknown
and doing the work and all that sort of good stuff, right? And I was skipping off to run a restaurant in the evening just because I thought it was a bit of fun. Yeah. Not dedicated. No. Not said no. Taking a serious work ethic. Who do you think you are? Yeah, this is architecture. What, are you not taking this seriously?

00:06:28:26 - 00:06:48:04
Unknown
What are you ever going to learn? Running restaurant. Okay. And the reality is, I probably more running a restaurant that I did in five years of university. Yeah. I mean, this was a rent time to crash my year out stead of getting an underpaid, overworked, part one job, which didn't seem particularly appealing. They just ran a restaurant prettier.

00:06:48:09 - 00:07:06:57
Unknown
And being in that type of setting, you're the fresh brand that I worked for. Very good in the training. And like, when you go out onto the floor, it's a stick. You go out through that. It was a great door. You went through that red door. It's like going out stage I through the stage, Carson, and everything's a performance.

00:07:07:02 - 00:07:33:33
Unknown
And for me, in sort of that point of my maturity, I was probably still quite quiet, maybe hadn't quite found my voice, or at least hadn't knitted it all together and going out and perform. It helped me learn how to speak to people who I, how to walk into a room or to a table of people that you've never met, that you'll probably never meet again, and all the conversation and convince people to do things that they otherwise maybe weren't planning on doing.

00:07:33:48 - 00:07:55:28
Unknown
And these skills you believe was pushing because you're you're hiring now. You're always looking for people. Those courses working in retail and hospitality, Ethan, carry a lot of weight. Right. You believe that it almost puts you in at around age against someone that doesn't? Absolutely. I mean, I think if you break down the chorus of Serving Table and restaurant.

00:07:55:33 - 00:08:15:34
Unknown
Yeah. And then the mechanics of going to a DTM on the first day of a project table for the consultants, they don't know. Everyone's trying to figure everyone out. If you can go in and comfortably sit at that table and command a conversation and you're already ahead of everyone else. So, you know, I've been in a position to hire people for the last few years.

00:08:15:34 - 00:08:34:33
Unknown
And then I guess, and all of the things being equal, say, recruiting upon to and everything else is the same. And there's one person that's maybe not worked. And it's a real problem in our industry that there's so many students that are working part time, like they need something to go and scratch their heads, even if it's just working.

00:08:34:45 - 00:09:03:04
Unknown
You're just telling me before we started rolling and the cheese curds are Waitrose, that's where I was. So other kids are available. It gets you thinking about things in a different way and exposes you to something outside of what is a very narrow field of architecture education. So all the things being equal, I take one of the first statements that I have, I can look at people I've had in teams in the past and gone, yeah, I hired you because you've worked a lot.

00:09:03:09 - 00:09:22:26
Unknown
I know that I could throw you into a room and you'll be fine. Yeah. It's so true. Me and my colleague Hannah were talking about flagging work, retail. But then you speak to other people. And actually, before we move on, one of the main reasons I got the gig at Waitrose, he was. I went to the Jobcentre, I went round the room mentally and I went and studying architecture and I went he studied architecture.

00:09:22:28 - 00:09:40:28
Unknown
I was very good. So if you want to work our way through, studying art is not a bad thing. But moving on from that then, so you don't know that you survived. You got your part one. Part two. You've been the management. You got your qualifications. Congratulations. You're thrown out into the world of architecture and and looking for that job.

00:09:40:31 - 00:10:04:19
Unknown
How how was it for you at the time? Was it when sailing or was it hard work? I mean, it's so weird. What? I'm now 11 years post-grad. Yeah. I've been made redundant three times. Yeah. Me too, by the way. So we're we're we're the in the redundant club. Yeah. And it's like, I mean, my career has been defined by that in quite possibly the most positive way.

00:10:04:24 - 00:10:31:04
Unknown
You know, first year at uni went into a good agent firm. Yeah, sat at a desk, did drawings like a good little boy, and didn't speak to anyone outside of the people in the office. Yeah. Never went to a DCM, never spoke to other consultants or very rarely spoke to other consultants, but got really good at setting IP's, setting up what was the iPad or its IPS for the case?

00:10:31:04 - 00:10:55:40
Unknown
We don't know. I definitely know it was a integrated panel system. Toilets. I'm really. Yeah. You know, lies. A fancy way of saying that it was a panels at the back of a toilet. Very important skills. And to be fair, I thought I was doing really well. Yeah. Was looking around. The room was probably outperforming some of my peers, but was and the last thing.

00:10:55:40 - 00:11:21:45
Unknown
So in this is what 2015 last ten first out. Yeah. And like this new work on Brexit had just been invented. Yeah. So yeah. So three days, 3 or 4 days before the Brexit referendum put in, dragged into said right. This is your 30 days notice. You're done. Thanks very much. Your works been great, but the market looks a bit shit.

00:11:21:50 - 00:11:38:31
Unknown
Right? Okay. It's a bit of a knock to the eye. From the first time I was made redundant, I felt it was a knock to the ego through my mind. You like, oh my gosh. Because it's like one of those things, you know, the bad news, you know, things have to you. And then when it does, you like what in the first time happens to you?

00:11:38:36 - 00:11:56:36
Unknown
You're there's nothing in your education that is equipped you for that. Yeah. There's no CPD or how to handle redundancy. There should be. Maybe you should do that as a webinars because I'm just full of joy. But I think it should be important jokes aside than they actually. Yeah, yeah. And I mean I learned a lot through that process.

00:11:56:38 - 00:12:19:14
Unknown
Yeah. And the subsequent ones that. Come on. You know, I think there's, there's stuff that that employer could have done differently. Yeah. And there's a lot to be said about you as a professional, conducting yourself with grace through the entire process. Yeah. Of course. You know, the one thing that's that's always stuck with me in his so, I guess, molded the way that I've worked with staff as I've gone through my career.

00:12:19:19 - 00:12:37:07
Unknown
I went into that meeting, got told this news, and then was sent back to my desk to do my work. That is hard. It's time for it. Yeah. Because sometimes, you know, because sometimes the concept of being sent home sounds like, oh, gosh, got the the box and you had to be sent out. So I was I was said like, hey, just got home and process it.

00:12:37:07 - 00:12:57:00
Unknown
Yeah. But to go back and continue and doing CAD and everyone's just like, I, I don't get scared. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course I used to. Micro station. I know, cause you're innocent. I'm sorry man. Oh. Oh I always lovely to say that. Get him off right now. Just turn this camera off. Yeah. And there it was, like, what happened?

00:12:57:04 - 00:13:21:33
Unknown
I was, well, yeah, I've got three days. Yeah. And then obviously went straight to my friend, the neighborhood recruitment consultant. Wasn't you? Fortunately. Sorry. There's guy in Scotland who does good work. As a wrote about any new job? Yeah. And he just sort of. Right. Okay. Let's see how the referendum goes. I'll talk to Friday morning.

00:13:21:36 - 00:13:42:36
Unknown
Yeah. The morning comes along. Obviously, the result didn't go the way people were expecting. Market was reacting to that. We. And if only I was, like, buckling. This is going to be a long, bumpy road to find something that is not a reflection on you or your your quality as a candidate. This is Scotland, the market, Scotland's very volatile.

00:13:42:45 - 00:14:03:26
Unknown
People are going to be bound. Yeah. And, and then by Thursday that we get out of job. So it was funny. You were right there. Yeah, yeah. And went to Shepherd and had the best time. And that is probably the single practice that I'd say has made beginning to most of the sector. I am not. Yeah.

00:14:03:31 - 00:14:25:19
Unknown
Day three at that job, jumping to taxi with my boss to go to a design team meeting. Having obviously never been to one of these before, Chataway was asking questions. And I have this really bad habit, a ton of questions like that stage of my career. And this, this meeting keeps going, but, and he just heard that he's like, you've never been to one of these before.

00:14:25:24 - 00:14:46:57
Unknown
Oh, you got rumbled. And he was like, no, no. Is that right? Well, you'd better be a quick study, because this job here is now not here in exec, is it? Oh, okay. Yeah. Holy Shannon. And and you know, I'm intrigued to maybe 7 or 8 weeks where I was writing my dad. Yeah. I've been to one, by the way, and I didn't know what I was talking about.

00:14:47:00 - 00:15:05:21
Unknown
And my boss said, yeah, you'd be fine. Yeah. What's the worst that can happen? And there you go. Yeah. What do you think? Should we sign off on that? You're like, well, if I make the wrong decision, so I have. Someone will get sued. That's why we have insurance. And that's why there's other people on the team.

00:15:05:24 - 00:15:28:31
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Of course. QA processes are really important. So I was very fortunate on that. It was tricky job. Yeah. The tricky part of concept. But a fantastic consultant team in the other disciplines. Yeah. And they were all good lads. They all understood I was making up a lot. Yeah, yeah. Of course. And they were incredibly supportive, actually.

00:15:28:33 - 00:15:52:12
Unknown
Yeah. It was nice. I'd say about a year ago, we ended up working on the same site again for me, in a different road and married different role. My career moved quite a lot and end up in the and the structural engineer. And he's like, you're right. Are you getting old? And yeah, the had emailed me afterwards and he's like, have I just said to a senior director in the world's largest real estate company.

00:15:52:14 - 00:16:17:16
Unknown
You're right son. I was like, yes, you detector. But it was a great environment. You know, we did a bunch of other projects and they gave me as much rope as I asked for. Yeah. And that was quite a lot to, in the process of working towards doing my part, 3D, ran the sort of construction stage of the 20 million pounds university building and got free run at that, which was great and learned a lot then.

00:16:17:19 - 00:16:38:26
Unknown
Yeah. You're the slightly life supportive consultant team, but that's made for some interesting stories over the, over the way. But great project, great client. We ended up five engineering furniture to redesigned half of our cells. And like you, the work that gets to do that. So yeah. Yeah, I get to do that as your first sort of serious big boy.

00:16:38:36 - 00:17:02:39
Unknown
And the project was was great. Yeah. And then as Brexit got close to Brexit and Scottish market, shut the bed again, it's like, right, things are getting quiet. I dodged the first round of redundancies. It was clear that I wasn't going adopt a second. So I was going to be the one with no jobs to finish. And I got the phone call on the same recruiter that had thrown me in there, to be fair, a few years prior.

00:17:02:43 - 00:17:32:24
Unknown
They said, you want to drop and double it. I was like, yeah, okay. Why not? Yeah. Not quite as straightforward as that, I guess, but I did stumbled into it by mistake. Yeah. Went to my boss at the time. I was just like, this has come on. So pretty good. And my boss at the time, he said, create God, man, genius just wants to sit and draw and color in means he's normally a terrible communicator.

00:17:32:28 - 00:17:51:40
Unknown
But it's it's part of what makes him endearing. I guess there is this one with a fire. He was more excited about it. Like, he's like, if you don't take it well and he's like, you go, you can always come home. And. But this looks like it'll be really good for you. So. Moved to Ireland for a practice.

00:17:51:43 - 00:18:14:57
Unknown
I went to work for practice that most people will know. Big name here. Realize that that practice wasn't for me. The Dublin was really good friends. Had a good social circle. Yeah. And realized there was more opportunity there. So moved around. Going on a bit. Another couple of practices. So let's wind o'clock forward a little bit.

00:18:14:58 - 00:18:39:04
Unknown
We get to redundancy. Number two. Nice. Here we go. Second one. So I was working for the largest architecture firm in Ireland and had a strange job there and said that I was kind of responsible for overseeing resourcing and quality and all of these types of things that became credibly not popular. Yeah, yeah. And in that role obviously had access to all the numbers.

00:18:39:19 - 00:19:02:40
Unknown
And I was like, I'm going to get better done. And so that's fine. I've been toying with the idea of starting my own business for a while, and I needed that redundancy appeared as the runway. So this would have been sort of end of the summer of 2324. Yeah. Yeah. 24. Yes. No 23. And looked at numbers.

00:19:02:43 - 00:19:21:53
Unknown
Knew their redundancy. So I called it they noted did this before. And is that right? October. I'm going to get made redundant. Come on up. Nice. Had everything set up, had these grand plans of getting into modular construction and had a deal struck with a factory included. It was just. Just waiting. October came and went, and I still like the job.

00:19:21:58 - 00:19:46:24
Unknown
Should I shit? Right. Okay. Could I have to find something else that I can't sit here? And then phoned. Phoned the job that I ultimately went on to take. And then through the jigs and the rails and everything that's going on. The day before, I was going to hand in my notes, my notes. They opened Folger another T for so sets and hired.

00:19:46:38 - 00:20:05:43
Unknown
So I was just like, can I go, oh wait, how does that feel then, condita? Because the first thing you've ever done, he almost feels like the the rug spoke for me. It did for me. Voluntari the different feeling right? Yeah. I mean I think, you know there was, there was a I think it was about 20 of us went through that process.

00:20:05:45 - 00:20:25:04
Unknown
You decided it was the right time for us to leave and it we all had different experiences. Yeah. I was the the only one walking straight into a job. Yeah. You know, makes it a bit easier. Yeah. It makes it really easy. Yeah. In the hands. Yeah. Thanks. You take. Yeah. You stand on the sword. You got no problem.

00:20:25:09 - 00:20:47:14
Unknown
Straight away on maintenance. Yeah. You know, saying the paperwork with HR. So I'm going through a bit of the. Yeah. Hadn't told them I had this job yet. There's a matter because the point is voluntary. They need to. Yeah, they need people to move in the business. So it's still a win win that end of that. So what you do know this extra time of like no, I start a new job on Monday.

00:20:47:19 - 00:21:11:09
Unknown
You know you got to keep that better. Yeah. How about whether you're not getting much if you got any job? No, no, that was the sack of the paper episode. So, yeah, very different approach to redundancy, I guess. And, yeah, redundancy can be a positive thing. Yeah. And then moved to work through, I guess, the world's largest real estate company who had an architecture division at the time.

00:21:11:14 - 00:21:35:52
Unknown
Started off just as one of the directors of the Doppler studio. Yeah, that office had turned a profit, and it's for that division, if you like, hadn't turned a profit in its 14 years of existence. And I think everyone knew that it could be done. Yeah. And they brought in to try and do it. So, you know, that first year that we've been 20, 24 made it profitable, diversified the order book, grew.

00:21:35:52 - 00:22:02:48
Unknown
The team had a bit of fun. And then through other changes in the organization, the design function became a different entity and a different part of the business. Yeah. I then assumed the role of head of the UK and Ireland. This point I would have been, what, 34, nine years at uni, right? Yeah. Right. My career is a long tail of employers that made reckless hiring decisions.

00:22:02:54 - 00:22:26:14
Unknown
Yeah. And spent a year coming to London. A day, a week at least, trying to build a team. Had a team London, Manchester and Dublin. And then at the end of last year they said thanks, but no thanks. You're all done then. So another power in the back. Yeah. It was shaking my hands. But you're a tough cookie there and we're done.

00:22:26:28 - 00:22:47:21
Unknown
Number three. So I, different experience when you're also. But you're being made at under. But the people that work for you and they're living up to you for the leadership and guidance were also being made redundant stuff. Yeah. So how does that feel on a human level? Yeah. It's it's not pleasant. No. For sure. It's here.

00:22:47:21 - 00:23:08:14
Unknown
It was only few months ago. So it's all all a bit fractured? Yes. I certainly there are things that I would do differently. Yeah, absolutely. That's life though. In there. Yes. But it's it's nice to feel that way. You got to keep us on in these situations. There's, as you joked earlier, this, there's no real handbook for when it happens.

00:23:08:14 - 00:23:28:16
Unknown
Seriously? No. And I think, you know, the one thing that's consistent across the three different types of holes is all you can do if you're in that position, is conduct yourself in the best possible way that you can and be honest. Yeah. Go guys gonna do in this situation? Yeah. Like don't hate everyone else is there to support you even if they're going through the same thing.

00:23:28:16 - 00:23:47:04
Unknown
We're all coming at the end of the day. Yeah. Just talk about it. Yeah. The more people talk about it through redundancy, it becomes less tempered. It's like talking about mental health, right? Yeah. Yeah, it happens to everyone. It's a bit shit when it happens. That was better to get it over with. Yeah. Quite. Isn't it? Yeah. Feel the faster off.

00:23:47:09 - 00:24:06:52
Unknown
So. Yeah. Like, look tricky. Messy, complicated. Yeah. If you imagine doing it inside of the US conglomerate, it's a whole different beast entirely again. But, you know, we've been able to spend something positive out of it. Yeah. For it, at least. At least for some of us. And, I'm sure everyone else in the team will go on to do great things as well.

00:24:06:55 - 00:24:28:21
Unknown
Yeah. Now, it's it's a very exciting time. I had a little bit of a similar thing where before. So my first business, I came with my third person, I saw that. We see now we talk about the free world and see my third. So the first two were spectacular failures for different reasons. Right. Your number one was the wrong business partner.

00:24:28:26 - 00:24:48:14
Unknown
You're on besties at the start, but when you're in that room getting things going because there's the excitement. There's the champagne. And then there's the the next day you're in that black world and you've got to get the work and get things going. But the second one was in between, and this is my fear business. And hopefully I feel so.

00:24:48:14 - 00:25:04:26
Unknown
I feel it's the one to stay. Well, yeah. What was that feeling like kicking off then? So. Yeah. Did it kind of force you to go? Did you always have it in the back of your mind? Were you like, now's the time to go. And I've kind of like the name. Everything in my head. Oh. Oh, no. The name.

00:25:04:28 - 00:25:26:00
Unknown
That's a that's a whole thing, right? And no, I think I'd when I was at uni, I was like, oh, it'd be nice to run the ultra Monday. Yeah, yeah. And life gets in the way. Yeah. Or. Well, I end up working for some really great large practices. I was just like, why would I don't want to start again, but I can just continue that.

00:25:26:02 - 00:25:46:12
Unknown
Yeah, I would I not try to climb the ladder. Yeah. And I was very fortunate that, I bounced around a bit. Yeah. But bouncing around, always continuing to tip up the ladder. Yeah. Second, I got a little bit bored or felt like I wasn't being stretched. I was probably moving on somewhere else. Yeah, that was part of my boss, Robson, as I was like, you need to go and do this.

00:25:46:14 - 00:26:08:19
Unknown
The with to Dublin. Because if you don't with the work that we've gone on, you're going to get bored. Yeah. You're a fucking. I grew up on your board. That's me and I've got no attention to. It does mean. So it's like, just do it. Yeah. He goes, you can always come home. So. Yeah. Starting the business was.

00:26:08:24 - 00:26:37:16
Unknown
It was completely by accident. I'd given up on another given up. I'd just outgrown this idea of running my own firm. And, yeah, I realized I started the organization I was in. I thought it was our potential, and we could do something really special. Yeah. And, we were so close to getting there. Yeah. You know, if you want to go look at one of your competitors podcasts, you'll hear me drinking the Kool-Aid last year and telling everyone all about that.

00:26:37:19 - 00:26:55:57
Unknown
And at the time, I absolutely believe that the business that we were in came into a pretty abrupt end. Yeah. Frustrating for all of us that had given everything to to build it into what it was becoming. And I, I guess I felt like I had the guilty that I'd hired a lot of people. Not a lot.

00:26:56:00 - 00:27:14:28
Unknown
I'd have their hands full of people in the vision of what we were making that business. Yeah. Turned into. And they sort of could have trusted me not to screw it up. And ultimately, through through no fault of our own. The business was profitable. Business was growing. All the metrics were right. And it's just that business. I go a different direction.

00:27:14:28 - 00:27:35:19
Unknown
So, in the process. So at the same time that I was being made redundant and the team was being made redundant. I started off trying to find a buyer for the business. Yeah. Got back those with a couple of people. But, like, buying businesses is tricky. Yeah. My timeline was incredibly tight for for whatever reasons, for reasons for different parties.

00:27:35:31 - 00:27:59:02
Unknown
And those deals fell apart. And this would have been November of last year. Holy moly. 34 months away. Yeah. And you. But you you you. So then you decided to do your own studio? Yeah. So companies house? Yeah. Well. It's real. To make it even more complicated, we've got a business in Ireland. We've got a business in the UK.

00:27:59:07 - 00:28:18:00
Unknown
A great company that I let them free. So I tried register and my tax in Ireland for a year once. And I, you know I it's all different than me. Yeah. No I mean it's really charming until you get the late measures. Yeah. I forget my tend to log in. Yeah. So it's a the week before Christmas last year.

00:28:18:12 - 00:28:37:12
Unknown
Darius, who's no, my business partner, was part of the team. He ran the Manchester offered. That's great. So you had that report? Yeah. And you were both in the situation? Yeah. And so had had a cheeky little pint of something and decided to do it. Yeah, well, it wasn't even under the influence. Yeah, I was in Dublin.

00:28:37:12 - 00:28:52:07
Unknown
He was in Manchester on teams called one day. We were just sort of shocked and said sold it, but we just did it. Yeah. Why not? You know each other? Yeah. It's going to work. You've already worked with each other, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure he feeling you. What? He was getting myself into working with me, but, you take the leap of faith together, right?

00:28:52:09 - 00:29:11:36
Unknown
Yeah. And we were really fortunate that there was some work that we were able to take with us to have a bit of a running start. There was a couple of people that were in the team that were like, we want to we wanted to come and be part of that. Let's, let's do it differently. And, you know, we've tried to define who we are as a business.

00:29:11:38 - 00:29:32:33
Unknown
And, you know, it's quite difficult thing to do when you're emerging. You know, we started the business in in my panic over Christmas. Yeah. Adam, you know, I said earlier on Boxing Day was on framework of doing the website. If it was registering the two businesses. It's very important. Well, yeah, that's how I got the name article The Social by the way.

00:29:32:38 - 00:29:51:57
Unknown
I was I was in furloughed and then the brackets. It's so rare to get a domain. And I was like, this is real. Let's do it. That was the name. Yeah. So I think we spent almost all of those three weeks debating what the name would be. Yeah. Do you write them on the list and then you look again in the next day like it's great?

00:29:52:00 - 00:30:08:00
Unknown
Yeah. And trying to get consensus, but diaries like. Yeah. Are you saying on the phone you're like, oh, that'll be it. We can't, we can't use oblong or whatever, you know. Yeah. But my, my one red line was that our names couldn't be in the name and it couldn't be another. Oh, you didn't want to do that.

00:30:08:07 - 00:30:32:21
Unknown
And drew, Steve Havas associates. And there's nothing worse than the architecture firm that is a three letter acronym of three crusty white men. Like, that's as much as I'm probably a future cross. The white man that it's not. No. I think we have a very different kind of boats. Yeah. You know, we're youngish people running a young business.

00:30:32:21 - 00:30:50:38
Unknown
But let's not say that we don't know what we're doing. Yeah. Of course, you know, I've delivered over and over €1 billion worth of work since I moved to Ireland. 2 pounds, 1 or 2 niched because we are all housing extensions or couple of kids, you know, massive million, million pound airports and stuff. Yeah, yeah. I just done that bad as well.

00:30:50:40 - 00:31:18:07
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. So we know what we're doing. It's going to kill me. And what was important for us is that we just didn't necessarily need to fall into the rhythm of every other architect. Your architecture practices that have the black and white website that and three crossed the white man's. Then go to the door. Oh, I've got a black and white website that I care and it's or I'll show you the color in the blue.

00:31:18:12 - 00:31:36:45
Unknown
Yeah. Well, we went with Electric Indigo. Oh, yeah. You know, your calendar and you were doing the name and the colors. Yeah, I picked the colors, the script, them. What was it? What we mean then? So, I mean, a lot of what we do is, is interior fitter based. So there's, there's obviously the very basic thing of having a roomy design of.

00:31:36:48 - 00:32:00:04
Unknown
Yeah, a really lots of roomy base things. And Doris is also of Persian heritage and really means something to him in Persian. That then translates into what we do. So there's a very bit of a hidden double meaning there. And that's, that's going to land well in the future for those marketing conversations as well, isn't it? Yeah, there's got the purpose, but is the people that driver as well.

00:32:00:07 - 00:32:21:48
Unknown
So so exciting. It's all kicking off. Walk me through that. That initial bit of again. So you got the name. You got everything. Now we need to go to the next level. So you've got 1 or 2 projects in red. It's like no panic. Yeah. We were in Europe. In many ways. It was the perfect situation. On paper.

00:32:21:52 - 00:32:41:31
Unknown
The reality was different, and we'll probably not talk about that. It's never. And anyone who wants to do this. It's not easy. I enjoy it. But you have to be a bit insane to on the job. Run a business? Yeah. You have to be even more insane to have star. There you go. Yeah. So strange thing to come into.

00:32:41:36 - 00:33:05:40
Unknown
I mean, neither of us are starts of the business before. Yeah. You turn up on the business the first day you spend Christmas break setting up filing systems, you know, getting your cloud storage set up, pay an extortionate amount of licenses and Adobe licenses and everything else that we need. There's for us. I mean, it's the same cost for a large communist small company or slightly different.

00:33:05:48 - 00:33:30:19
Unknown
If anything, we're paying slightly more. That's insane. I'm never getting my Autodesk sponsorship, but come on. Really, for small applicant businesses, we need to support people who are contributing to the economy. Yeah. So I think we're spending probably about 1,000 pounds a month per person on software. And Nessus is a necessary. You're going to do it. You every pay for a couple of nice to have.

00:33:30:24 - 00:33:51:04
Unknown
You got to get a licenses. You can't, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You can't mess around. And then we're using some very interesting AI tools and things at the moment as well. But you turn up on day one and you've instantly got clients to service. And these are projects that we worked on the year prior. The whole stakes was that things were going to be reasonably consistent.

00:33:51:09 - 00:34:08:31
Unknown
Know we didn't have all of the old team, but the leadership team was there. Nice. And all of a sudden, the rest of the market was like, guys, you're not at that place anymore. Here, I've got a project for you. You want to look at this? Look at this. I mean, we're very lucky to have a very good start to the year.

00:34:08:36 - 00:34:30:36
Unknown
Yeah. We were, I think, in January, River winning a job on average, every five days or so. Congratulations. Which sounds great, but then I don't do that by the word. Yeah, absolutely. You can deliver the work. But a fantastic problem to have. Yeah. You know, it's not lost on me that we're we're credibly lucky to have the support that they have.

00:34:30:40 - 00:34:51:48
Unknown
And I was thinking about it coming over here today, actually. I said to engineer that, do a lot of work with RSP. Request my professor price on a part two for you. I mean, I've learned as I go. Goes back up. We'll get you ready for your factory. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. I can do it again.

00:34:51:50 - 00:35:12:14
Unknown
I think I'll cost you more. Maybe that without the business was doing really well. Then I came and hemorrhage it to the glen. It may be architecture social consultant salary. Yeah, we got, And this is I've worked with for years. Said something like, that's not really our kind of thing. But if you want to do it.

00:35:12:15 - 00:35:35:50
Unknown
But back to 100% the way we're hoping it. And that's one of maybe that had been like that with us this year, which we never would have had in the last place. Yeah. And that's been lovely. That's really it's been a tough start to the year and that's having that support. It's been really nice. Yeah. And we're very fortunate to have a network of people around us that on our, supporting us and tragic matters from the rooftops.

00:35:35:52 - 00:35:52:50
Unknown
Yeah. We're doing some work with a contractor who knows that cashflow is is a killer for a new business. Yeah. So they've been paying some of our invoices straight away. That's very nice to them, by the way. Absolutely. It doesn't always work like that. If you find a client like that, hold on to them with buildings. Because that's the thing.

00:35:52:50 - 00:36:19:57
Unknown
When your business owner, the star, you are the the recruiter, the debt collector, the janitor, the everything. Yeah. It's. And you call it the orchestra? Yeah. Because. And that's to be paid for. Yep. And it's the stuff that you don't get paid for, which takes up all of your time. Correct. So, you know, and I were funding everything out for our current accounts for the first couple of months.

00:36:20:02 - 00:36:39:07
Unknown
As said, software licenses are expensive. Yeah. It's expensive. So to have a client of ours or collaborator or partner of ours understand that without us saying anything. Understanding that that's what we were doing. That's very nice to them as we go. Client. Like you take one of them if you could find it. Yeah. And then they'll get a bit of extra.

00:36:39:11 - 00:37:01:24
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's everything's very personal. But the industry in Ireland. This is a place that's big, brother. Everyone knows everyone who's. What kind of looks out for everyone. To sort of a reasonably friendly place to business. And that shows. And the people that were working with. But, yeah, as I say, new business.

00:37:01:28 - 00:37:29:01
Unknown
Your financier, HR, you're the cleaner, you're the website guy, you're the graphic designer. Yeah. You're the everything else. And, it's it's a wild right. Yeah. And so but it's great that you've had people join you in the journey, but you've also had to hire externally. Ryan and. Yeah. And have you tried to. Yeah. Of course. And then and so you've had someone through who did not work with you before.

00:37:29:02 - 00:37:55:45
Unknown
Now work a roomie. Right. Or is that the next step? That's what we're searching for at the board. Okay. So that's going to be the next one. Yeah. Because it's someone you've never met before. You get in the contract ready. Got to get all that perfect. Get all the up. Get everything. Yeah. And we were talking because you were writing the job ads the moment, which I thought was really cool because he thought openly and honest about what it's like to be a startup, which is amazing for me, I love it.

00:37:55:48 - 00:38:19:26
Unknown
It's not for everyone, though, because if someone wants to enjoy working in their 200 people practicing, great, well. But if hiding the kitchen like you used. Yeah. How do you remember that? That's what the forecast. Yeah I will. Yeah. That's true. There was. And I always used to go around then. But I feel alive in the startup. And there's something magic about because these people are joining the journey.

00:38:19:33 - 00:38:41:26
Unknown
I mean, in theory, they can go all the way with you. Yeah. They can. They can be. The directors are the ones you hand the back of them, isn't it? Absolutely. We're very awkward and honest and straight up as a business. We are who we are. We're kind of unapologetically us. Which then to really be only.

00:38:41:31 - 00:39:05:14
Unknown
And it probably is really corny, but, there's no fish on that. There's no false pretense. Working at the startup is a little bit, but. Yeah. We have I'd say our heart is in the right place. Everything that we want to do is focused on our people. You can't be perfect, though. Yeah. I'm learning. You know, we were doing 94.

00:39:05:19 - 00:39:24:07
Unknown
Or at least the guys aren't. I can't say, and I think we're doing that 16 day for the last 40. When I saw you, I, you know well and I said welcome to the punching bag because, because the, the unfair money is you have it is time. And like, there is something I do believe in a work life balance.

00:39:24:07 - 00:39:42:52
Unknown
However, as a business owner, the dynamic the more hours meaning you put in, the more we can go. Yeah. And if you have people come in, then, like you said, if you're going to hire someone that's new and join, they'll be ready to go back to you. It's got to work that the license got a pie in. They gotta know where the files are.

00:39:42:57 - 00:40:05:07
Unknown
You've got to train them a little bit. Of what? That. Absolutely. And I guess more importantly than that, they can't walk into the business on day one and go, Christ, what the hell is there? Where's the balance? You want them understanding, but this isn't roomy in the future. In 20 years. I'll be fine. Yeah, but there's a trade off.

00:40:05:09 - 00:40:24:02
Unknown
Yeah. And there's a personality that's okay with that. And I think it also, it might happen that some people just aren't the right fit naturally. Yeah. Because it could be overwhelming for some people. I was really I mean, you know, my mother likes to tell me, remind me from time to time that I have a bit of a marmite personality.

00:40:24:07 - 00:40:40:24
Unknown
I wasn't being you in the way you. Which was probably right. But I think the role that rabbits is at the moment is definitely Marmite. Yeah. I am the people that appeals to. They will really peel to them. Like if I saw like this six of years ago, it would be the only role I've been pushing. Yeah.

00:40:40:26 - 00:41:01:04
Unknown
And I joke around, but there is something in there can be days when someone's in the room with the alien and you co-founders and your group, so they've got to be in it for the adventure. Can we expand on that? Because some of the listener, I mean, this is like the perfect way, the hack to get a job at the studio.

00:41:01:16 - 00:41:20:21
Unknown
Maybe you can give a little tip of what I'm saying. Like what in the applications that you're seeing now and what you've hired in the future? What kind of things resonate with you? What grabs your attention? You touched upon you like a go getter, and if they've worked in a restaurant or something, that might be an unfair advantage.

00:41:20:24 - 00:41:42:43
Unknown
Yeah, but what other kinds of things do you see in a CV or a portfolio that might jump out, or personality per se? Yeah, I think I'm probably more interested in personality. So this job ad that we're referring to. We've written it in a particular way to be able to particular to people, and it has a bit of personality, as I said, probably not to everyone's taste.

00:41:42:48 - 00:42:05:40
Unknown
There are certain avenues that don't want to publish it because they're calling us unprofessional at the moment, and that's wild. And maybe we can, like most people, think it below. And yeah, but I mean, in terms of recruitment, what I do, I feel like your ad is very honest to what it actually is, which I think is very important because then people know what they walk into.

00:42:05:43 - 00:42:24:14
Unknown
I think it's very insincere to paint a picture of one thing, and then people come in and go, oh, it's a little bit of new for me. I didn't think you would be like that unless I got to see what you are then. No. Absolutely not. So and, you know, if I wanted to craft a private application, that will be.

00:42:24:14 - 00:42:43:12
Unknown
We proceed. Know, I think you did a poll and then last year in terms of is the is the cover letter dead? Yeah. The cover letter format that everything else. Probably it. When you're sending us an email, send us a few lines and just show us your personality. Personality? Our job is packed full of personality.

00:42:43:14 - 00:43:00:50
Unknown
Like it? A lot of it. If you're responding to that job and you respond to it because you'd like to pass the answer of that, that's great. Buckley shows yours. So it's human first reading. That's what you care about. Yeah. And then that conversation. Because you gotta you gotta feel comfortable that that person is going to represent you into the room.

00:43:00:52 - 00:43:19:02
Unknown
Yeah. Right. Look, we're all business, right? So this is someone that's going to be working in fairly close quarters to the rest of us. Yeah. Everyone has to get along. It's not like a 200 person practice where if so-and-so and whoever don't get along, it's fine because he can hide and catch him. One, she can hide in kitchen, too.

00:43:19:04 - 00:43:40:26
Unknown
Yeah. If we're in office of 4 or 5 people, you're there. Yeah. And we are an office fast business. And it's really important to do what we do to be in a physical space because we create physical spin. And then I guess the next most important thing, I mean, generally in the job, what we said is have the right person outing, be able to use rabbit.

00:43:40:31 - 00:44:02:58
Unknown
We'll teach you the rest. Yeah. You can teach people technical things. You can't teach someone type of personality. Go in. The right attitude is really all we ask for, at least. Yeah. Because that's just the way the world works. No one's using my frustration anymore. Now don't worry. I've not had a job description with that for years.

00:44:03:00 - 00:44:33:07
Unknown
I am the time of this. We're like, six months in and out. Oh, and this is going to be the perfect snapshot for any entrepreneurial architecture setting up at the moment, because you you've done the first 2 or 3 waves of getting excited, smacked in the face, pivoted, learning that there are any little lessons or tidbits or advice you have for someone who is to paint a picture of what that six months like, and maybe what you would do or don't do.

00:44:33:12 - 00:44:54:57
Unknown
Yeah, it's tricky, isn't it? I guess something that we didn't do early enough for that web came to do. It was a nightmare getting in the character royally. Yeah. But it was partly because we were straight into the thick of it. It was a case of just servicing our clients. Yeah. And I big believer that architecture is a service industry.

00:44:55:00 - 00:45:14:52
Unknown
A lot of people forget that. Yeah, we exist to serve our clients. And that was what we were focused on. Smaller. And then we go, oh, we got to pay that invoice. I had we did that. Oh, we got it. I said, well anyway, then they came to that. I've been there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then really the accountant ideally do two clubs.

00:45:15:04 - 00:45:31:33
Unknown
You know, we're running as stupid as it sounds like we're running an international company. No, but it's true. Yeah. You know, do get paid in the US or GBP or which borrow for which back account does it go in? And what's the IBM first soul code? Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. There's my back. Yeah. That's why they find.

00:45:31:39 - 00:45:55:16
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, something that I've realized, I guess probably on the last few weeks is taking time to enjoy the right now. It's stressful. It's tiring. I'd imagine most people are going to be doing what I've done it and be working seven days a week, 100 plus hours a week, because that's life is a startup.

00:45:55:24 - 00:46:21:04
Unknown
Yeah, I'd rather be redoing it than the team were doing. And and they do it. Just to be clear. And I think maybe me so more than diarist because of the way our personalities are, we are complete opposite. He's the big, friendly, fluffy, fuzzy one. And I can be upset. Hearts. Yeah. But we combat each other very well.

00:46:21:09 - 00:46:45:28
Unknown
And I was so focused on progress. Progress, progress more and more and more. We can't rest on laurels. Who knows who's paying the bills in November? Yeah. And it was push push push push push. And that's great. We're seeing the results of that. Don't get me wrong, pipeline. It's Prince at the moment. Touch it. But I, I can.

00:46:45:31 - 00:47:05:40
Unknown
Necessarily sort of embrace the journey. And, looking back, it. There were bits there that were fun bits there that are credibly stressful. Yeah. Of course. But I think if I taken the time to just look back at what we were doing as we were doing it, go absolutely correct this. Okay. I think sometimes we often focus on the ends.

00:47:05:43 - 00:47:25:26
Unknown
You know, it's like just focus on the final levels, but it's actually the journey. And and I agree because now three years in this and you've been very kind to me. You know, you were proper client. Put your mortgage for at least one month. Yeah, definitely paying and paying all the bills. So I don't know, but I really appreciate it.

00:47:25:31 - 00:47:46:28
Unknown
But you're always doing that. And I feel like that's the fun of it. And it is hard, though. Like, to get things going. Like you're creating. You're pushing yourself in there, and you have to push past that. But but clearly you are. And also I get from you a little twinkle in your eye and like, you're a bit optimistic on the future.

00:47:46:31 - 00:48:06:51
Unknown
It seems like it's going really well. Like how do you feel about the direction of maybe. Do you feel positive about waiting? Skype's meaning you were talking about AI. You'll get stressed about it. I'm crazy about it. But the architecture industry at the moment, people. I'm not too sure. I'm a little long since they're like, I love it.

00:48:06:55 - 00:48:25:23
Unknown
Like, yeah. I mean, we're in a very fortunate position where we started the business in 2026, where a lot of these tools, the reason that we're really just coming at me. Yeah. You know, Midjourney was fine if you go, but it's a bit not. I've still got one of them up from my personal. It's embarrassing.

00:48:25:24 - 00:48:45:48
Unknown
I've heard them now. You know the lens, Claude, and particularly in particular towards the end of 2025, was actually starting to become quite good. Yeah, yeah. He scored us 1% on a, on a bid last year, which was, was was a one holy like for real? Yeah. And there's a whole backstory to that that I'll tell you off camera.

00:48:45:52 - 00:49:09:31
Unknown
Yeah. So we built the practice from the ground up to be amplified by AI. Yeah. There comes back to our people, really. Like, we want to create a culture where our people can do their best work. No one does their best work when they're doing paperwork or when they're spending a data pulling together in design document, because that's what you got to do, because that's what everyone else does.

00:49:09:33 - 00:49:30:52
Unknown
Yeah. So know we use things like, wavy or Figma. This is called to help simplify things. Club does a lot of heavy lift interest and various other tools so that we're able to have our guys spend more time designing and less time doing the drudgery. Yeah. It's not AI, in my opinion. Replacing the human. It's human.

00:49:30:55 - 00:49:54:43
Unknown
Plus AI equals superhuman. Yeah. It's amplification is the word I like to use. We're doing things that we ordinarily we're not doing in service of our clients because we can. Yeah. And for you, as a growing studio, which is now out of to 4 or 5 life. Yeah. It's five plus ten clothes. Yeah. Can you get what I mean?

00:49:54:53 - 00:50:11:43
Unknown
See, how cool is that, though? Then you can punch your way. Have, like, 15 people if you smell. Yeah. And it's not necessarily the case of, having an AI tool do the work of someone else. There is a little bit of that, but not you already in interactions. Probably. Like what? Iris is really hard to won't let me spin too far.

00:50:11:45 - 00:50:37:57
Unknown
I might mess it out, but it's handy. It's a house, though. Somebody. Yeah, someone that's there because, I'll not say what I was going to say, but I'll tell you. Yeah. So. But I think some of the interesting things that we're doing. It's more a case of augmenting the service that we provide. So to give you an example, we're working for a major airline at the moment, which has been fun.

00:50:38:02 - 00:51:07:50
Unknown
We're we're doing their sort of cabin crew like group briefing spaces. Yes. You know, tricky. So it's always tricky. Tricky organization. These types of things always are. And we got the brief right. Your brief doesn't quite make sense to us. You asked for X briefing spaces for this white for this. Like these. So, for example, the cabin crew brief came from one person.

00:51:07:55 - 00:51:30:40
Unknown
The flight crew brief came from another. Both of these people are on this. Or both? These teams are on the same flight. Therefore, the data should be set and they ask was completely different to that, right? We need to drill into this a little bit more. And and I did a rabbit hole as I sometimes do, and sent Claude off with the flight data schedule of a day in the summer.

00:51:30:45 - 00:51:56:19
Unknown
I was right, go look at this airline, fill all our flight data for the middle of July this summer, and then gave it the parameters of. This is how they brief. This is how the space works. We don't know how many briefing spaces they need. So can you build a dashboard that allows us to add in different numbers of these different types of briefing spaces and plot which flight is briefing where over the course of a day circle and real it.

00:51:56:26 - 00:52:14:00
Unknown
I don't know how it works, but it works. And we were able to play with the brief to get to something that spatially works. The client knew we were basically offered real data. They could see it on a timeline as a gadget or how each space was used. Yeah. And and they're like, oh, we did realize we didn't need twice as much as it would be reduced.

00:52:14:00 - 00:52:30:42
Unknown
A brief by half, which we needed to is the brief dashboard and fit and basically had it. And so, you know, that's the kind of thing that okay, yes, you could have done that manually two, three, four years ago. But you never a ballpark. Right. It's going to take you a couple of days and no architecture news Excel.

00:52:30:45 - 00:52:54:40
Unknown
But. Well, it certainly none of them or very few looking code. And so to have Claude be able to do that for us. You know, it's probably a little thing to work like that helps give them comfort. But for us, we know that we've amplified the service to be provided. We know that we've got the project going forward, and we've been able to do something that not a lot of our competitors are able to have.

00:52:54:46 - 00:53:20:43
Unknown
Yeah. Well then. Not bad. It's quite exciting. And so on that note, I'm really, really excited to see what's next. I already and I mean this well don't smoke. Could be asked to entice. I've never seen such a proper senior kickoff so quick. I'm sure it's while it's so it's also stressful, but it's amazing your life. Yeah. The way I'm describing it when I was.

00:53:20:43 - 00:53:41:33
Unknown
When it is like, be like Breaking Bad, I know that. Okay. I'm not sure. Navigate. I'm selling crack okay. Which I haven't, but I felt alive. I was doing something. So I really important that you're taking the risk. And it is a risk for anyone to put yourself head above the parapet and do it. Well done to you like, of course.

00:53:41:36 - 00:54:02:38
Unknown
But importantly, there might be someone with another airport that you're not working on and there might be someone that really makes your project. So how did you find you and where should they get in touch and what are you excited to be doing next? Yeah. So find us on I guess LinkedIn is the easiest thing. Yeah. We have a lot of that was made on Boxing Day last year, so let's check that out as well.

00:54:02:43 - 00:54:21:02
Unknown
You know, we we really like to have a diverse audiobook. So we're doing a couple of things for that airline. We're doing the New York we're doing and the stuff for the Trail Deep retrofit is a big level buying, and we're doing some of that. We're working on two different Art Deco buildings in Dublin at the moment, which, and they're pretty rare over there.

00:54:21:12 - 00:54:44:16
Unknown
So that's really special. And workplace and in commercial fits is a massive part of our business. Hopefully you'll see some of our stuff published over the next couple of months. Really nice stuff coming through the pipeline. But, you know, we we like to keep it interest and we'll do anything about it. Yeah, I find it super interesting.

00:54:44:19 - 00:55:02:43
Unknown
I can't wait to see what you do. Yeah, absolutely. Legend. Thank you so much. Thank you man. Appreciate you being here. I'm excited to see what next. And thank you for listening. Do follow me and get in touch and connect with Dominic on LinkedIn and all the other channels and drop him a note and tell him what you think of the website, which is done on Christmas and Boxing Day.

00:55:02:43 - 00:55:08:13
Unknown
I'm sure it's very, very good. Can't wait to see everything. Hang you so much for listening. Take care. Bye bye.