Mode Studio
An architecture studio's intake, automated end-to-end with custom AI.
01
— They came to us with
The challenge.
A 30-person studio losing 8+ hours per week per principal to qualifying inbound RFPs. Most leads were unqualified; the few that mattered were getting buried. Principals were the bottleneck — and the cost.
02
— So we scoped out
The approach.
Three phases, one team. No handoffs between strategy, creative, and execution.
A — Map the workflow
Shadowed three principals through their intake routines, inventoried every disqualifier, and modeled a scoring rubric they trusted.
B — Build the agent
Custom intake agent that triages email, asks clarifying questions, scores against the rubric, and writes the first draft of a response.
C — Wire into CRM
Integrated with HubSpot — scored leads route to the right principal with a context brief; unqualified ones get a polite, branded decline.
03
— And we transformed
Their business.
Principals got their week back. Response times went from days to minutes. The studio started winning bids it would have missed entirely because the right principal saw the right brief at the right time.
New revenue in the first quarter alone paid for the build six times over.
— What we set out to do
- Automate inbound RFP triage and scoring
- Cut principal time spent on unqualified leads
- Improve win rate on qualified bids
04
— Here are
The results.
ROI
5.8x return on build cost in the first 6 months.
Agency fees
$120k
Multiple
5.8x
Return (ROI)
$696k
Technology $72k + Growth $8k/mo × 6 mo = $120k.
-83%
Principal hours on intake
+27%
Bid win rate
<4 min
Avg. response time
$340k
New revenue, first quarter
05
— And we're still
Working together.
Quarterly model tuning as the studio's bid criteria evolve, plus a second agent in development to draft RFP responses from precedent projects.
— You may have seen this work on
— More work
Start a project