[029] – Taking the Leap from Architecture to Tech

How do you make a successful career transition from architecture to tech?

It all started with a simple request to go get coffee. Soon co-founders Leona Hudelson and Blake Hudelson were scheduling multiple coffee conversations around the same questions. From this realization, the idea of Architechie emerged. 

In 2016, Leona and Blake launched Architechie, an online community of thousands of people across the world who work at the intersection of technology and the built environment. Architechie has quickly become a global brain trust of creatives and builders who have been brought together by their shared excitement about the built world and the opportunity to improve it using technology.

Leona and Blake join us to share their story of launching this active community, and lessons learned from their multifaceted careers from architecture into technology, entrepreneurship, and the world of investing and startups.

Guest:

Leona Hudelson currently leads a team of Product and Design leaders at the Netflix Studio Innovation team – an innovation team responsible for Netflix’s multi-billion dollar investments into the expansive content offerings. Leona is also a serial entrepreneur and angel investor in both startup and creative communities. 

Blake Hudelson is an entrepreneur, design leader, and educator based in San Francisco. After studying architecture, Blake spent three years working as an architect at SOM and Studios Architecture before transitioning to becoming a User Experience Designer. 

Blake then went on to work at the design consultancies Matter and Method, where he designed products for some of the world’s leading technology companies. He later worked at Google’s Advanced Technology and Project Group, a skunkworks technology incubator at Google, where he helped design the world’s first smart garment platform called Jacquard.

Blake currently works at Atomic, a venture capital fund and startup incubator where he works launching new products and companies. He is an Adjunct Professor at California College of Arts where he teaches in the Graduate Design program.

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