This month's Startup! An interview with Gold magazine.

In this month's Gold Magazine, Marios Messios, CEO had the honor to discuss Studio 3DX with a great reporter!

"𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 Adonis Adoni! 𝑾𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑪𝒚𝒑𝒓𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘. " Marios Messios

As published in Gold Magazine, Cyprus

Studio 3DX is a cloud-based 3D modelling platform for construction projects with a social twist: users can interact with each other in real-time through virtual meetings. "We focus on bringing people together to collaborate and coordinate in the design phase but we go beyond that. We bring them into the 3D space - we gamify the interactions," says Marios Messios, the startup's co-founder and CEO.

The startup should bring joy to Building Information Modelling (BIM) professionals across the entire construction sector. Its platform overlays 3D models (architec-tural, engineering, mechanical, plumbing, etc.) in one environment and a spherical avatar allows users to zoom in, isolate elements and orbit within the model. This visualisation has one obvious benefit: it eliminates expensive corrective actions during construction. "Most projects," Messios explains, "go 20-30% over budget trying to correct design mistakes. We are talking about trillions of dollars lost every year in errors, materials and postponements!"

There's also a not-so-obvious benefit, in that the platform can pinpoint with dependable accuracy the chain of causation, should liability issues arise. The platform's engine was also built to import and troubleshoot issues generated or recorded on other software, such as Solibri but even on something as simple as Excel, while issue reporting can be carried out within the platform or be imported from another software.

With BIM modelling practices having a 40-year history of development, the startup is not reinventing the wheel. The real value it offers rests in its coordination capa-bilities. There is video and audio chat, screen sharing, an option to keep tweaking the model while still in a meeting, to name just a few of the features.

According to case studies, a coordination meeting that would have taken four hours to complete in a physical office can be wrapped up in two or one-and-a-half hours inside the platform. "Multiply that time with the cost of having all those people sitting in the office, and we're talking about thousands of euros being saved," Messios notes. The startup pursues a subscriptions-based model with various pricing packages that release more storage space and customer support. It currently has 400 reg-istered users, as well as 22 ambassadors, and has partnered with large offices in Argentina, Brazil and Spain.

In Messios' view, the industry in Cyprus lags behind in the use of BIM software. "We still have to educate - it's really expensive and it takes up a lot of our time but we enjoy doing it," he says. The startup is currently in discussions with international investors across the US and Europe to raise seed money to expand its team. However, Messios does not want Studio 3DX to be another startup that overpromises and under-delivers. "We are looking at software people, marketing and sales but we will see how the market responds and act accordingly," he notes.