Patrick Chopson is co-founder and chief product officer of cove.tool, software for energy and carbon analysis in building design. He studied mechanical engineering and architecture, holds a master's in high performance buildings, and still designs and stamps a few projects a year. Years of selling software to architecture firms taught him where their money goes, and why so little of it reaches a software vendor.

Patrick Chopson, Chief Product Officer, Cove Tool

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In this conversation

How a library book on drawing sent Patrick, from a working-class Indianapolis family, into mechanical engineering and then architecture.

Architecture's pendulum between computation and art, from 1700s proportion systems to Christopher Alexander and today.

Why Patrick thinks the Inflation Reduction Act, more than architects, will drive building decarbonization.

The firm that found a $20,000 cove.tool subscription really cost about $370,000 a year, then signed a $250,000 service deal in weeks.

Why AEC software fails for the same reason scooter rentals did: its value exists only when a project is in front of you.

The best, most green building is the one that's already built.

Patrick Chopson

Chapters

From a library book to buildings

Why an engineering degree came first, and why he still designs.

Art versus computation

The swing between rational systems and style, and where the 2020s sit.

What decarbonization needs

A business model that treats innovation as overhead, and the law that changes the incentives.

By the numbers

Inflation Reduction Act funds for low-carbon materials and energy codes, in billions of dollars

GSA low-carbon building materials2.15 $

FHWA low-carbon transportation materials2 $

Adoption of new building energy codes1 $

Patrick calls the Inflation Reduction Act one of the most transformative things to happen to the building industry: federal purchasing now favors low-carbon materials, and money is set aside for states and cities to adopt new codes.

Source: Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (H.R. 5376), Sections 60503, 60506 and 50131 ↗

Delivering the result, not the software

Why AI moves companies from software as a service to value as a service.

Lessons from a big round

Execution, and helping AEC experts work at startup speed.

Selling the 90 percent

Where a firm's budget goes, and why project-billed services close in weeks.

SaaS just doesn't really work for AEC.

Patrick Chopson

Takeaways

Patrick says architecture firms spend about 5 percent of their budget on software, and 4 points of that go to Autodesk, while about 90 percent goes to delivering projects. A tool that bills to projects competes for the 90 percent, not the 1 percent left over.

Count training time as part of the price. One firm's $20,000 subscription cost about $370,000 a year once ten people had to learn it, so a $250,000 service that did the work was an easy yes.

Much of the carbon progress will come from outside architecture: federal buy-clean purchasing, cheaper low-carbon materials, a cleaner grid, and renovating buildings that already exist.

People learn software to get value, but you can use AI to get to the value without using the software.

Patrick Chopson