EA126: Successful Technologies for an Architect Startup with Architect Danny Cerezo [Podcast]

It's June and all month long we here at EntreArchitect are focusing our content on the category of Technology. On the blog, here on the podcast and inside EntreArchitect Academy we are diving deep into the many technologies we can use to make our architecture firms run more efficiently and more effectively.

This week Mark R. LePage invited the co-founder of a relatively new firm to join us to discuss the many technologies that he is using to launch his small firm.

Architect Danny Cerezo is on the show and he and Mark discussed Successful Technologies for an Architect StartUp.

Danny Cerezo is based in Los Angeles, CA and is the principal and co-founder at c|s design. After spending time in service with the Navy, Danny worked for a developer near Palm Springs. He attended Woodbury University in San Diego and graduated with a Masters in Real Estate Development geared for and taught by architects, following that up with working to earn his general contractor’s license. After finishing and selling some projects, creating relationships and getting requests for architecture work on the side, he and his wife, Pam, formed c|s design.

What technologies are you using in your firm?

• Design Software // Whatever’s best for the task at hand. For renovation and addition projects, Chief Architect. Primarily for design they use Revit, but are considering switching to ArchiCad as Mac users.
• Project Management // For overall project management, Trello for the big picture to create systems, project templates, and identify steps for each phase. For detailed task management, ToDoist. Evernote to easily scan documents, record audio, organize, search and share files for each project. “If anybody’s not using EverNote, I would say pause the podcast right now, go download it and then come back. It’s fantastic.“ Danny also uses a smart pen called Livescribe that’s digitally connected so that every page from the notebook automatically gets uploaded to Evernote.
• Accounting // FreshBooks for the ease of use and its robustness where clients can come in to check retainers, invoices received and paid, expenses and track time. QuickBooks as a preference for their accountant, who’s then able to check their work. In order to avoid doing the work twice, a Zapier account integrates the two softwares.
• Communication // Primarily using email but considering using Slack to capture all the information in one repository.
• Mobile Apps // Dropbox as a server. Social media apps like Morpholio to share creative ideas and SquareSpace to host their website.
• Website // CandSDesign.com and the blog are geared more towards clients. To share within the profession of architects, Danny uses Medium to blog on topics like “6 Things I Learned My First 2 Years Running Our Architecture Firm” and “Architect as Developer. You Can Do It Too.”

Connect with Danny on Facebook, Twitter @dcerezo_LA and @csdesignla, LinkedIn, Instagram and Medium @csdesignLA.

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