Stop Waiting in Line: Lisa Sauve on Owning the Risk

How can architects move away from billable hours, trade traditional fees for equity, and step into the role of initiators rather than waiting for client calls?

In this episode of Practice Disrupted, host Evelyn Lee speaks with Lisa Sauve, co-founder of Synecdoche, a design-make practice based in Detroit. Lisa’s entrance into practice bypassed traditional firm hierarchies entirely. Her firm’s first project came off Craigslist before she finished undergrad, a 110-square-foot office interior for $1,500 that she skipped graduation to build, which ultimately won Architizer and Inc. Magazine's World's Coolest Offices in 2009.

As a 22-year-old single mother balancing parenthood and education, Lisa built her business out of necessity. The flexibility of working asynchronously on small projects was the only path forward that allowed her to parent while earning three degrees. For eight years, Synecdoche operated in partnership with architects of record who stamped their drawings. Lisa intentionally delayed licensure to serve as a model for alternative practice, sitting for exams only when defending her model to traditional peers became a distraction from the work itself.

The conversation explores how Synecdoche operates without billing time or tracking billable hours. Instead, Lisa focuses on outcome-driven, value-based compensation, taking equity in client ventures, receiving distributions, and structuring creative deals like exchanging formal rent credits for tenant sweat equity during building renovations. She also breaks down her approach to client intake, including asking the fundamental question that most architects overlook: "How did you arrive at that budget?"

"We don't track time. We've never billed time. Because the client doesn't care about how much time I spend on things, they care about if they're getting the outcome." - Lisa Sauve

This episode offers a fresh perspective on firm ownership, risk, and value creation. By challenging the profession's reliance on time-based billing and rigid operational norms, Lisa demonstrates how architects can expand their agency, align with client goals, and build resilient, multi-stream business models.

Guests:

Lisa Sauve is the co-founder and CEO of Synecdoche, a Detroit-based architecture and design-make studio working across commercial design, development feasibility, branding, and fabrication. Balancing practice and academia, she serves as an educator and advocate for alternative licensure pathways, code reform, and non-traditional business models in AEC.

This episode is especially for you if:

You want to learn how to transition away from billable hours toward value-based pricing and equity-driven compensation models.

You are curious about non-traditional career paths, alternative pathways to firm ownership, and navigating practice as a parent.

You want to understand how to structure creative real estate deals, tenant sweat equity, and passive income streams for your practice.

You are interested in how asking deeper financial questions during client onboarding can align design solutions with business metrics.

You believe architects should act as proactive initiators and instigators rather than passive service providers.