Architecture & Engineering Business Strategies

You can be fully booked and still feel like the numbers don't add up. The 2026 A&E Benchmark Report from Monograph shows exactly why, and which firms have figured it out.
Ashish Desai, CEO of Monograph, joins Mark LePage to walk through the data on what separates high-performing architecture firms from the rest. The gap isn't in design quality or demand. It's in how efficiently firms convert time into revenue, and revenue into cash.
What you'll learn:
→ Why AI-enabled firms earn $20K more per employee on $5K more in cost
→ The three levers every firm leaks value through: utilization, realization, and cash flow
→ How top firms hit 100% realization while the average firm loses 4 cents on every billable dollar
→ Why billing monthly is the single highest-impact change most firms can make
→ How enabling e-payments cuts time to get paid from 6 weeks to 8 days
Ashish Desai is CEO of Monograph, the firm management platform used by 2,200+ architecture and engineering firms to win more work, deliver projects profitably, and get paid faster. He previously served as CPO at Monograph and CPO at 99designs.
Download the 2026 A&E Benchmark Report at monograph.com/benchmark. Learn more at monograph.com.

Why don't Architects sketch with clients anymore? And why don't Engineers invest in teaching their Architect collaborators?
These two Austin firms have revolutionized collaboration by front-loading coordination, using paper to build trust, and aligning billing phases perfectly.
In this episode, you will learn:
→ Why front-loading structural knowledge eliminates late-stage coordination disasters
→ How paper sketching prevents "too precious" client paralysis in early phases
→ The transparent billing model that forces perfect architect-engineer phase alignment
→ Why trust reduces process steps and speeds project delivery
→ How to break the linear design-coordinate-redline cycle that burns months
Meet our guests:
Maggie Wylie, AIA, is founder of Point B Design Group in Austin, Texas, specializing in residential and commercial projects with a focus on collaborative efficiency.
Moises Cruz is principal structural engineer at A-1 Engineering, bringing military training and forensic expertise to prevent construction failures. Together, they've completed 6 projects with 4 more in progress.
Ready to monitor your business health and make smarter decisions about when to hire, find work, or pull back?
Join over 12,000+ Architects and Engineers on Monograph!  Get started at https://monograph.com

In this episode, two ex-corporate architects explain how running their own business actually meant less admin than being employees at a large company.

What you'll learn: 
→ Why small firms can now punch above their weight with the right tools 
→ How to set up professional operations in 30 days instead of months
→ The payment processing strategy that gets you paid in 27 days 
→ Why custom corporate tools often create more problems than they solve 
→ How to focus on design work instead of managing business systems

Danielle Elzahr and Bryan Anthony Alzati are the founding principals of Rescale Design Collab, a boutique architecture and interiors firm in Miami. They left successful careers at a large corporate firm to build a practice that prioritizes design over administrative overhead. With three people and a network of production partners, they work with commercial clients while maintaining the personal attention only small firms can provide.

Ready to build professional operations from day one? Learn more at monograph.com

Creating the perfect restaurant vibe requires controlling air temperature, velocity, day lighting, and acoustic quality all at once, but most architect-engineer teams can't coordinate at this level.
In this conversation, you'll hear how these Austin-based firms have sustained their decade-plus partnership working on everything from P. Terry's locations to the iconic Headliners Club renovation. They share their approach to early MEP integration, project selection criteria that protect both profitability and design ambition, and the trust investment required to learn each other's design language.
What you'll learn:
→ Framework for selecting projects that balance financial viability with design ambition
→ Why bringing MEP engineers into conceptualization prevents expensive redesigns
→ How to achieve precise technical coordination for hospitality experiences
→ Trust investment strategies for building decade-plus consultant partnerships
→ Real-time collaboration challenges and timing protocols that actually work
About the guests:
Michael Hsu, FAIA leads Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, a nationally award-winning practice in Austin focused on hospitality-driven projects. His design philosophy roots in empathy, storytelling, and aesthetic connection to culture and nature. 
Eric Zissman and Sujay Regmi co-founded APTUS Engineering, a performance-driven MEP firm known for service-oriented culture and collaborative approach across commercial, healthcare, and educational sectors.
Ready to improve your project coordination? Monograph helps architecture and engineering firms track projects, manage resources, and collaborate more effectively. Learn more at https://monograph.com/

Architecture firms often accept any project that comes their way, but what if you could use data to choose only the clients who value your expertise?
In this episode, you will learn:
→ How to replace fragmented spreadsheets with unified financial tracking systems
→ Why historical project data transforms proposal accuracy and profitability
→ How to identify profitable vs. unprofitable project types using past performance
→ Unexpected scheduling benefits for firms with mixed employment models
→ How financial clarity gives you confidence to price appropriately and choose better clients
Meet Wendy Klepcyk, AIA, Principal Architect at Envisage Architecture, a 8-person Cincinnati firm that evolved from reactive project acceptance to strategic client selection through three years of data-driven decision making.
Ready to gain financial clarity like this Architect? Learn more at https://monograph.com