Architecture practice → product company: a case study
📰 Escaping billable hours, productizing a flagship cabin, structuring rent-to-rent land deals, using physical models to win trust, designing ops to scale outcomes (not headcount), and leveraging prefab to cut cost, time, and risk.
What revenue would replace the billable hour if you weren’t allowed to sell time?
Summary
In episode 203, I sat down with architect-developer Peter Markos to unpack how a small studio can rethink the business model of practice by pairing bespoke client work with a repeatable, branded product: his exquisitely designed monocoque cabin. We explored escaping the billable-hour trap, structuring win-win “rent-to-rent” land deals, using physical models to accelerate trust and decisions, and treating fabrication, tolerances, and operations as design problems. Along the way, we connected lessons from product companies (think Brompton’s or Porsche’s decades-long iteration on flagship designs) to a resilient AEC practice that scales outcomes, not headcount.
“The question I wanted to answer was, can architects break free from the billable hour?
– Peter Markos
Key Takeaways
Here are my top takeaways from the podcast episode. Then we'll get into the deeper analysis.
