A small architecture and interior design studio, a long table with material samples and a house model, two designers reviewing a floor plan

Every inquiry answered within the hour. Every client approval and invoice chased by morning.

A small crew of AI agents takes the office work off your studio: the reply to every prospective client who writes in, the follow-up on every design approval that's holding up the schedule, every consultant drawing that hasn't arrived, and every phase invoice that's late, and the permit dates, contractor deadlines, and proposal expirations nobody should have to carry in their head. All of it in your studio's voice, none of it sent until you say so, and your principals get back to the drawings.

Built for architecture, interior design, and landscape studios of one to fifteen people. Runs alongside Monograph, Studio Designer, Houzz Pro, and the tools you already use.

Book a free 45-minute assessment

Why this exists

Most small studios run on a principal or two, a few designers, and whoever is nearest the phone. The principal designs, meets clients, chases the contractor, and answers the inbox. The designers do the work and the project admin on the side. Every week the inbox fills with a prospect asking about a kitchen, a client who hasn't approved the schematic that the whole schedule waits on, a structural engineer whose drawings are a week late, a contractor with an RFI, a vendor with a quote, and a phase invoice that went out and hasn't been paid. All of it waits for whoever gets back from the site visit. Very few studios have the help the practice needs: someone on the inquiries, someone chasing the approvals and the consultants, someone watching the invoices and the dates. The reason is the math, almost never effort. That kind of help is a salary, and the fee on a residential project doesn't carry one.

A prospect writes about a renovation on Friday, hears back the following Thursday, and has already met two other studios. A client sits on a design-development approval for eleven days and the schedule, the contractor's start date, and the permit all slide. An engineer's drawings are late and nobody chased them until the deadline. An invoice for the construction-documents phase is at 70 days because the principal didn't want to ask during a hard week on site. A proposal expires and nobody noticed. None of it is hard. There's just too much of it, and all of it waits for the principal.

At some point we stopped thinking the answer was “find the fee for one more studio coordinator” and started thinking there had to be a better way for a small studio to support itself. That's what Second Unit is.

It isn't for every studio. If you have a studio manager, a project coordinator, and a bookkeeper, you don't need this. If you don't, and the same two people are designing the projects and running the office, we built this for you.

The client who sat on the schematic for eleven days cost the project a month. A note on day three would have done it. Nobody had the hour between site visits.

The same crew we run our own business on

Second Unit is built and run by Noettic Labs, a Los Angeles studio that builds with AI to solve real business problems. We build products that do real work, and we install crews that do it inside your business: the quotes, the follow-ups, the renewals, the records, the reports, the paperwork that keeps a company moving and keeps its best people from doing any of it.

The crew on this page is the system we use to run our own business. We sat down with the people doing the best work with agents, kept what held up under a real week, and wrote it into the job cards and rules every crew ships with. An install is that system, set up on your business, by hand, on a call.

Second Unit is one of several products from Noettic Labs. See what else we've built.

What we built for you

Job CardInquiry Desk
One Job
Job
Draft a reply to every prospective client, consultant, contractor, and vendor email within the hour, in the studio’s voice, and route the ones a principal must see.
Reads
The general inbox, the website form, your services and fee structure, your project list and phases, your calendar.
Writes
A draft reply, a contact record, a task for the right person.
Never
Sends. Quotes a fee or a construction cost that isn’t in your structure. Gives a design or code opinion. Commits a date the calendar can’t hold.
Reports to
Your Second Unit Lead, in the daily status.
Checked by
You, before anything goes out.

Second Unit is a service. There's no software for you to learn. We install a small crew of AI agents in your own accounts, one job each, and train each one on how your studio works: your voice, your services, your fee structure, your rules. An inquiry desk that drafts a reply to every prospect, consultant, contractor, and vendor email within the hour, asks the three questions that tell you whether a project fits, and routes anything about design, cost, or code to a principal. An approvals and deliverables follow-up agent that nudges every client approval holding up a phase, every consultant drawing that's late, and every contractor RFI that's unanswered, on a schedule, until each one lands. A phase and billing tracker that holds every phase deadline, permit date, proposal expiration, and invoice in one record and drafts the note before it's late. The crew works alongside Monograph, Studio Designer, Houzz Pro, Ivy, BQE, or whatever you already run; that stays your system of record. Between them they take hours of office work off every week, and you approve every one before it goes out.

A word about AI, because in a design studio the work is the point. These agents stay on the office side. They answer the email, chase the approval, and remind you of the date. They never give a design opinion, never answer a code or structural question, never quote a fee or a construction cost that isn't in your structure, and never touch a drawing. The design, and the judgment, stays with the principals. Every draft is read by a person at the studio before it leaves.

The name comes from film. On a set, the second unit shoots everything that doesn't need the director: the establishing shots, the inserts, the driving scenes. The director keeps the scenes that need them. Same deal here. The agents take the replies, the chasing, and the dates. You keep the clients, the site, and the work.

An architect in a hard hat walking a residential renovation site with a client and a contractor
Monday morning, every project in a phase. Every client approval that's open, every consultant deliverable that's late, and every contractor question that's unanswered has a drafted nudge, in your voice, with the date the schedule needs it by.

Three jobs, one studio

Draft · not sent
ToHannah and Will OseiSubjectRe: Kitchen and rear addition, Silver Lake

Hannah and Will, thank you for writing, and for the photos. A kitchen and rear addition on a 1920s house is right in the middle of what we do, and the light in that back room is worth building around.

Three quick questions so our first conversation is useful: do you have a rough budget range in mind for construction, is there a timeline driving this, and have you spoken with the city about the lot yet?

We have a studio visit open Tuesday at 4 or Thursday at 10. Our fee structure for residential work is attached so there are no surprises later.

Looking forward to it.

Warmly,
Mara, for Field + Vane Studio

Inquiry Desk

Every email from a prospective client, a consultant, a contractor, a vendor, or a past client gets a drafted reply within the hour, in your voice, from your rules: what kind of projects you take, what the fee structure says, what the three qualifying questions are, what goes to a principal. It never gives a design or code opinion and never quotes a construction cost. Prospects who hear back the same day book the studio visit.

Reads: the inbox, the form, your fee structure, your calendar. Writes: a draft, a contact, a task. Never: sends, quotes a fee or a cost off the structure, gives a design or code opinion.

Monday morning, in your drafts

Hannah and Will, the schematic · what a yes unlocks, date needed by
Dan at Keystone, the drawings · the date, one line
Ms. Lindqvist, the selections · three choices, link to the board
RFI 14, the answer from Mara · drafted from her site notes
Novak permit, Friday · what the city asked for, listed
1 approval received, phase closed
Five rows read, five drafts, one phase closed, nothing lost.
Approvals and Deliverables Follow-up

Every client approval that's open, schematic, design development, selections, change order, gets a nudge on day 3 and day 7, in your voice, with what a yes unlocks and the date the schedule needs it by. Every consultant drawing that's due gets a reminder two days before and a chase the day after. Every contractor RFI gets a drafted answer from the principal's notes for the principal to approve, and a nudge if the principal hasn't. It tells you every Monday which projects are at risk of sliding. Slow approvals are where a studio loses months, and the fix is a note that gets sent on day three.

Reads: your project list, the phase schedule, the inbox. Writes: follow-up drafts, a status per approval and per deliverable. Never: changes a design, a date, or a scope, answers an RFI on its own, sends.
Draft · 30 days past due
ToPeter NovakSubjectConstruction documents invoice and the permit set

Hi Peter,

A quick one on the business side: the invoice for the construction-documents phase was due on the 2nd and I don't see it on our side yet. I've attached it again in case it went astray.

The permit set is back from the city with two comments, both minor, and we'll have the revisions in by Friday as planned. Let me know if the invoice needs anything from us to move through.

Best,
Mara

Phase and Billing Tracker

Every project's phases, permit dates, consultant deadlines, proposal expiration, and invoice schedule goes into one record. The agent watches the dates and drafts the note before it's late: the reminder to you a week before a phase ends, the phase invoice the day the phase is complete, the reminder at 15, 30, and 45 days, the proposal follow-up three days before it expires, the thank-you when it's paid. You stop finding out from the contractor, the client, or the bookkeeper.

Reads: the project list, the calendar, the billing record. Writes: the record, a reminder, a draft. Never: changes a fee, a phase, or a date, sends.

Want a different agent first, or the whole crew at once? Vendor and Sample Desk, Contractor Desk, Past-Client Follow-up, and Marketing are all on the menu. Ask on the call.

Meet the crew

Each agent is set up for one job, the way you'd brief a new studio coordinator on day one: the instructions for that job, the rules it works inside, the skills it needs, and nothing else. Your inquiry desk knows your fee structure and your qualifying questions. Your follow-up agent knows every open approval and every late drawing. Your tracker knows every phase and every date.

Start with one. Add the next when you're ready. The Second Unit Lead comes with any setup and ties them together.

Needs youThe reply to Hannah and Will Osei about the kitchen and addition
ApproveNot now
Done today17 tasks · 4 agents
Daily status sent, one thing waiting on youSecond Unit Lead
Drafted 7 replies to prospects, consultants, and vendorsInquiry Desk
Nudged 3 open approvals, chased 2 late drawingsApprovals and Deliverables Follow-up
Novak CD invoice 30 days past due, reminder draftedPhase and Billing Tracker
  1. Second Unit LeadIncluded with any setup

    Your first agent. Runs the daily status, keeps your queue to one request at a time, and walks you through changes to the other agents so you never need us for a small tweak.

  2. Inquiry DeskLaunch agent

    Drafts a reply to every prospect, consultant, contractor, and vendor email within the hour, asks your qualifying questions, and routes anything about design, cost, or code to a principal.

  3. Approvals and Deliverables Follow-upLaunch agent

    Nudges every client approval holding up a phase, every consultant drawing that’s late, and every contractor RFI that’s unanswered, on your schedule, until each one lands.

  4. Phase and Billing TrackerLaunch agent

    Keeps every phase deadline, permit date, proposal expiration, and invoice in one record and drafts the note before it’s late.

  5. Vendor and Sample DeskOn the menu

    The sample and quote requests to vendors, the follow-up when they haven’t arrived, the lead-time check before a selection is presented, and the return of what wasn’t chosen.

  6. Contractor DeskOn the menu

    The bid-set distribution, the bid-question log, the site-visit confirmation, and the weekly note to the contractor on what the studio owes them.

  7. Past-Client Follow-upOn the menu

    The one-year check-in on every finished project, the request for photos and a review, and the note when a client’s neighborhood or building type comes up again.

  8. MarketingOn the menu

    The project write-up for the site and the awards submission when a project finishes, the quarterly studio note, and the page copy, from your own words.

Once you say yes: what you get in the first week

Nothing is left for you to figure out. This is what we set up, and when.

  1. Day 1Installed and Running.

    Your Second Unit Lead and your Inquiry Desk are set up on your own accounts, interviewed on your voice, your services, your fee structure, and your rules, and one real inquiry is answered before we end the call.

  2. Day 2The Inbox Stops Waiting on the Site Visit.

    Every new email has a drafted reply within about an hour, with your questions and the studio-visit times. Your team reads, edits if they like, and sends.

  3. Day 3First Check-in.

    We read the week's drafts together, note what you changed, and tighten the rules so the next ones need less of your hand.

  4. Day 7Your First Number.

    How many drafts went out untouched. It's the one figure we track from here, and it tells you whether this is keeping your principals at the drawings instead of in the inbox.

Three projects in construction in week one? Your Inquiry Desk drafts every reply the hour it comes in, and your follow-up agent chases the engineer and the client approval while you're on site.

How it works

  1. Assessment.

    A free 45-minute call. We find the tasks that are eating your studio's week and match them to the agent that can take them over.

  2. Install.

    Everything works from day one, and you don't set up a thing alone. We help you sign up for Grok Bot, and for Notion if you don't have it yet, both on your own accounts. Then, in one screen share, we install the agents, connect your email and calendar from your side, and run the interview that teaches them your voice, your services, your fee structure, and your rules. We walk you through the whole thing and check every piece before we hand them off to you.

    Runs on
  3. Two Weeks of Tuning.

    We read the drafts with you every few days and tighten the agent until most go out with no edits. Then a monthly check-in, and the next agent setup when you want it.

  4. Most studios are running within a week of the assessment.

Everything that comes with a crew

One price, once. Beside each piece is what the same work costs when you buy it as a person's time. Rough US figures, so you can see what you're getting.

We start four new businesses a month.By hand, on a call, so each one gets the tune-up it needs.
What's in the BoxThe Three-Agent Crew
  1. The Assessment45 minutes with us to find the tasks eating your week and the agent for each.
    $250
  2. Install DayOne screen share. Agents installed in your own accounts, email and calendar connected from your side.
    about $1,200
  3. The InterviewYour voice, your prices, your rules, written into every agent before it drafts a word.
    about $600
  4. Three Launch AgentsInquiry Desk, Approvals and Deliverables Follow-up, Phase and Billing Tracker. The same three jobs as hires.
    $5,000 to $12,500 a month
  5. Your Second Unit LeadDaily status, one request at a time, and the walkthrough for every small change.
    included
  6. Two Weeks of TuningWe read the drafts with you on days 3, 7, 10, and 14, and tighten the rules each time.
    about $1,000
  7. Job Cards and Rules, Yours to KeepEvery agent's instructions on paper, in your Notion, so the crew stays with you.
    about $500
Bought as people and consultants, the first month aloneabout $8,500 to $16,000
Your crew, once$2,500 to $6,000
Then about $50 a month in software, paid to Grok Bot and Notion.
The Tune-up Guarantee.

If most of your drafts aren't going out untouched by the end of the two-week tune-up, we keep tuning at no charge until they are.

What it costs

Priced to the size of your studio, and settled on the assessment call, not before. A sole-practitioner studio sits at the low end of each range. A studio of fifteen sits at the high end.

Setup, per agentRange
One Agent, Set Up and Tuned
The assessment, the install, the interview, and two weeks of tuning.		$1,000 to $2,500
The Three Launch Agents Together
Inquiry Desk, Approvals and Deliverables Follow-up, Phase and Billing Tracker.		$2,500 to $6,000
The Whole Crew
All eight agents, installed a week apart so each gets its tuning.		$6,500 to $16,000

Then Pick One of Two Paths

Ongoing Care

$100 to $750 a month per agent, scaled the same way. A monthly check-in, tuning as your studio changes, support when something's off, and the next agent when you want it. Ninety days minimum, then month to month with 30 days' notice.

Setup Only

No monthly fee. Your Second Unit Lead agent walks you through changes to the other agents yourself, and when you'd rather we did it, we're on call by the hour.

The assessment call is free, and there's nothing to decide until it's done. You pay for your own software: about $30 a month for Grok Bot and about $10 a month per seat for Notion, paid to them, not to us.

What the Same Help Costs as People

Rough US figures for hiring the equivalent, so you can see what you're getting. These are estimates.

If You Hired People$60,000 to $150,000a year
  • Studio coordinator$48,000 to $62,000 / yr
  • Project administrator$50,000 to $68,000 / yr
  • Office manager and bookkeeping$52,000 to $70,000 / yr
  • Part-time bookkeeper$1,500 to $3,000 / mo
  • Marketing coordinator$48,000 to $65,000 / yr

Before payroll taxes, before benefits, and before they've learned how you like things done.

Your Second Unit Crew$2,500 to $6,000once, the three launch agents$6,500 to $16,000once, the whole crew
  • Works every day, deadline week and construction included
  • Trained on your voice, your fee structure, your phases
  • About $50 a month in software, paid to Grok Bot and Notion
  • Ongoing care from $100 a month per agent, or setup only with support on call
  • Yours to keep. If we part ways, the crew stays with you

Three agents for about one month of one salary.

What the agents won't do

What changes

The prospect who wrote on Friday has a reply in your drafts within the hour, with your three questions and two studio-visit times. The schematic the client sat on gets a nudge on day three, not day eleven, and the contractor's start date holds. The phase invoice goes out the day the phase closes, with the reminder already queued.

You still write the important emails. You just stop writing all of them.

Book a free 45-minute assessment Not ready? Read what the agents won't do and see exactly what they read, write, and never touch.
An interior designer presenting a sample board to a client couple at a studio table
Every open approval is a month of the schedule someone has to protect.