
Peer Check #10 - How Two Engineers are Bridging The Gap Between CAD and PLM
Jul 14, 2022
Jeremy Andrews, Co-founder and Head of Product at CoLab, ex-Tesla mechanical designer. Adam Keating, Co-founder of CoLab, former Hyperloop and medical device engineer. They trace CoLab’s origin and pivot from on-campus projects to Silicon Valley. They discuss collaboration pain in CAD/PLM workflows, supplier review bottlenecks, and product plans like browser-based, secure multiplayer review tools.
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Hyperloop Team Sparked CoLab
- Adam joined a multi-university Hyperloop team from Newfoundland and helped it reach 2nd place worldwide.
- The intense remote co-design on Google Meet exposed severe collaboration pain that seeded CoLab's idea.
Late Night PowerPoint DFM At Tesla
- Jeremy interned on Tesla's Model 3 battery pack and saw DFM reviews done by sending PowerPoint decks back and forth with suppliers.
- He edited decks late at night in Yosemite, showing how poor tools bled into personal time.
Collaboration Failures Are Systemic
- The same offline, inbox-driven collaboration problems existed across startups and Fortune 500s, not just student teams.
- This repeated pattern showed the issue was systemic, not limited to one org or sector.


