Studio writing on building the brands that intend to last.
Field notes, founder reflections and plain answers from the studio, for contractors, founders and public-sector clients building with intention.
The $12,500 nobody signed
A made-up invoice, one unsigned change order, and what a record changes.
Con Edison, October 1: what a summit taught us about getting in
What Con Edison's executives, a supplier and a lender said from one stage about getting in, and what we did after.
Toyota, October 14: why we built Quote to Release
One day at Toyota's Opportunity Exchange, one idea from my sales years, and a demo built the day after.
October: the second contractor, and the product gets its own home
Ray and RCH go live, cold email stops, and AsBuilt moves to its own site.
September: one source of truth
A design and technology studio, the Tekion idea, and a new look.
Harlem, 2006: why the studio is where it is
Founded in Harlem 2006, incorporated 2016, studio practice rebuilt 2026: all three true, all three doing different work. Why the address is a decision, and what twenty years of disciplines from outside design actually bought.
The 472 Hours: what a studio engagement actually costs in labor
An opaque price invites the client to price the wrong thing. Why the studio publishes a labor figure, what the four phases hold, where most of the hours actually live, and what the number is not.
Takeoff from drawings: what AsBuilt reads, and what it refuses to guess
Scope and quantity are extracted. A price is never invented. Why the boundary between machine and estimator is a design rule rather than a limitation, and why citation, not coverage, is the feature that matters.
Why sealed bids don't reward MBE status, and what does
Sealed bidding rewards nothing but price, and that is the rule rather than an oversight. The five places certification does count, four of which are not the award decision, and what that means for where a certified firm should bid.
What supplier diversity officers are actually asked to do
A spend target, a reporting cycle, a verification burden, and almost no budget authority. How the role is structured, what that makes hard, and what a supplier can do that actually helps.
How to find certified MBE technology vendors in New York
The directories are full; the search method is what is scarce. Which registry to use for which certification, why searching one NAICS code returns the wrong firms, and the verification order that takes four minutes.
What an NMSDC MBE certificate actually proves
An MBE certificate is a narrow, third-party finding about one question (owned, operated and controlled), and it is useful precisely because it is narrow. What it proves, the longer list of what it does not, and how to verify one...
The Section 508 checklist for a comprehensive plan PDF
A comprehensive plan contains every structural failure Section 508 catches. The checklist in the order the work happens: source file, layout, export, and the manual pass automated tooling cannot do.
August: one client teaches you the product
What Integral taught us, the rule we build by, and the name AsBuilt.
July: certified, and the first contractor
Leaving HubSpot, NMSDC certification, and our first contractor two weeks later.
June: the code starts, and the store steps back
Version control, a public sector practice, and the clothing line leaves the front door.
May: the first intake that ran without me
The first intake questionnaire, the start of the Design DNA, and two full builds.
April: brand work, one client at a time
Small clients, one way of working, and all the follow-up done by hand.
March: a clothing company that kept getting asked for brands
A clothing company in Harlem, and the customers who kept asking for brands.