Try to download this Excel file (not a virus, I promise). The file is a standard worksheet used by interior designers to manage clients, suppliers and purchase orders. I use the word “try” because this Excel file and most like it, are so convoluted that they usually crash even high-end PCs. To Excel junkies like yours truly, scrolling through the file evokes a sense of dread deep in the gut.
Filled with photos of sofas, drawings, designs, plans and minute details on thousands of products, this file is what’s known as a “schedule” in the interior design and architecture industries. Designers use these schedules to plan projects, seek client approvals, execute purchases, and capture details on the materials, dimensions, wholesale prices, markups, supplier information and photos for each door handle, couch foot, ceiling light and carpet square. Imagine a design project for a hotel, office building or university, and you can understand how Excel files buckle under the weight of the data captured. And that’s before even considering version control as files are sent between designers, consumers, and suppliers.
These schedules were the inspiration for the creation of Programa.
As co-founder Traviss Orr watched co-founder Zoe Lowres cobble schedules together in Excel on the weekends while trying to run her interior design projects, they knew there had to be a better way. Zoe, and designers and architects alike, typically spend tens of hours a week stuck in these schedules working on the administrative side of their businesses, leaving little time for the creative work that attracted them to the industry.
The third co-founder, Claudio Oyarce, came to the business having previously owned Denfair, Australia’s largest interior design, architecture and furniture trade show. Claudio deeply understood the architecture and design industry, and in particular, the challenges of streamlining the connection between designers and suppliers. The co-founders’ combined set of skills and deep industry experience proved an excellent foundation for the growth to come.
Together they’ve built software by designers, for designers, representing the epitome of the “spreadsheet to cloud” software transition some thousands of founders have talked us through at EVP. Alongside workflow software for designers (think specification, purchasing, mood boards, product approvals, time sheets, requests for quote, purchase orders), the business is now rolling-out solutions to connect and digitise the industry from end-to-end; from brand, to designer, to client. Bringing designers and brands together under unified software, Programa is looking to not just bring existing ways of working online, but fundamentally change the way the industry operates.
And the reception from the market has been phenomenal.
Having launched in September 2021, several thousand design studios in more than 70 countries have come to trust Programa to manage their projects; from small apartment renovations, homes, apartments buildings, office towers, restaurants and universities, through to luxury yachts and private jets. Designers desperate for a solution to the spreadsheet woes are enthusiastically referring Programa throughout industry Facebook groups globally. Users are literally begging their colleagues to join the Programa revolution.
Impressively, the business continues to grow 15-20% per month. With billions of dollars worth of products already being specified inside Programa’s software and millions of dollars of purchase orders being sent every month, brands are seeing the future and are clamoring to onboard. These brands are joyfully embracing the future of product specification. They’re moving beyond magazine advertising and video house tours, and ending the endless cycles of replying to spreadsheets with even more spreadsheets.
We’re often asked what product-market-fit looks like. Some have taken a numerical approach, while some point to anecdotes of customers so in love with their software provider that they send them cakes and poems as they do at Hnry. For Programa, it was a little more simple. On the one side, we had explosive designer growth driven by exceptional referral rates and influencers voluntarily sharing the product with their followers. On the other side, we saw some 200 brands sign up, pay and renew just to be at the front of the queue as the product was developed, with mounting pressure from their designer clients. When we also had international brands calling the Programa team unprompted to sign up without even a dedicated landing page, we knew we were onto something special.
This combination of a powerful call to market, top founder-market fit and a disruptive vision to improve an industry was irresistible. And that’s why we invested in Programa.
Thank you team Programa for having us along for the ride.
Try to download this Excel file (not a virus, I promise). The file is a standard worksheet used by interior designers to manage clients, suppliers and purchase orders. I use the word “try” because this Excel file and most like it, are so convoluted that they usually crash even high-end PCs. To Excel junkies like yours truly, scrolling through the file evokes a sense of dread deep in the gut.
Filled with photos of sofas, drawings, designs, plans and minute details on thousands of products, this file is what’s known as a “schedule” in the interior design and architecture industries. Designers use these schedules to plan projects, seek client approvals, execute purchases, and capture details on the materials, dimensions, wholesale prices, markups, supplier information and photos for each door handle, couch foot, ceiling light and carpet square. Imagine a design project for a hotel, office building or university, and you can understand how Excel files buckle under the weight of the data captured. And that’s before even considering version control as files are sent between designers, consumers, and suppliers.
These schedules were the inspiration for the creation of Programa.
As co-founder Traviss Orr watched co-founder Zoe Lowres cobble schedules together in Excel on the weekends while trying to run her interior design projects, they knew there had to be a better way. Zoe, and designers and architects alike, typically spend tens of hours a week stuck in these schedules working on the administrative side of their businesses, leaving little time for the creative work that attracted them to the industry.
The third co-founder, Claudio Oyarce, came to the business having previously owned Denfair, Australia’s largest interior design, architecture and furniture trade show. Claudio deeply understood the architecture and design industry, and in particular, the challenges of streamlining the connection between designers and suppliers. The co-founders’ combined set of skills and deep industry experience proved an excellent foundation for the growth to come.
Together they’ve built software by designers, for designers, representing the epitome of the “spreadsheet to cloud” software transition some thousands of founders have talked us through at EVP. Alongside workflow software for designers (think specification, purchasing, mood boards, product approvals, time sheets, requests for quote, purchase orders), the business is now rolling-out solutions to connect and digitise the industry from end-to-end; from brand, to designer, to client. Bringing designers and brands together under unified software, Programa is looking to not just bring existing ways of working online, but fundamentally change the way the industry operates.
And the reception from the market has been phenomenal.
Having launched in September 2021, several thousand design studios in more than 70 countries have come to trust Programa to manage their projects; from small apartment renovations, homes, apartments buildings, office towers, restaurants and universities, through to luxury yachts and private jets. Designers desperate for a solution to the spreadsheet woes are enthusiastically referring Programa throughout industry Facebook groups globally. Users are literally begging their colleagues to join the Programa revolution.
Impressively, the business continues to grow 15-20% per month. With billions of dollars worth of products already being specified inside Programa’s software and millions of dollars of purchase orders being sent every month, brands are seeing the future and are clamoring to onboard. These brands are joyfully embracing the future of product specification. They’re moving beyond magazine advertising and video house tours, and ending the endless cycles of replying to spreadsheets with even more spreadsheets.
We’re often asked what product-market-fit looks like. Some have taken a numerical approach, while some point to anecdotes of customers so in love with their software provider that they send them cakes and poems as they do at Hnry. For Programa, it was a little more simple. On the one side, we had explosive designer growth driven by exceptional referral rates and influencers voluntarily sharing the product with their followers. On the other side, we saw some 200 brands sign up, pay and renew just to be at the front of the queue as the product was developed, with mounting pressure from their designer clients. When we also had international brands calling the Programa team unprompted to sign up without even a dedicated landing page, we knew we were onto something special.
This combination of a powerful call to market, top founder-market fit and a disruptive vision to improve an industry was irresistible. And that’s why we invested in Programa.
Thank you team Programa for having us along for the ride.