A lighter way forward

I've worked with tensile fabric structures since I was fifteen, and for the last twelve years it's been my job. I still love them (at least I hope so). Chances are you've passed one this week, a shade sail over a playground or a fabric facade on a building you see every day, without noticing it was there, or knowing it's one of the most efficient ways we can cover a space

That says a lot about our industry. The structures are everywhere, and the industry itself stays hidden in plain sight. Companies keep their work and their records, but someone on the outside sees almost none of it unless they start digging on their own. So with every request we start the same story again: explain, suggest, iterate, offer

Finding each other is no easier. You get a contractor's name because someone gave it to you, and you pass it on because someone once passed it to you. That works for the people already inside. It doesn't work for the architect specifying a fabric roof for the first time, or for a property owner who wants something other than the standard option. It doesn't work for small companies either. A small team rarely has time to write a post about a finished job. When it does, LinkedIn keeps the post alive for a couple of weeks at best. There has to be a record of trust, one that shows who built what and keeps it there after the post is gone, open at any time and handy when it's needed

We think this can be changed, because the way people find things is evolving. People ask an AI before they search, and agents and bots read whatever data they can reach and hand back an answer. Fewer people will ever open the page. The web is going headless, and good answers will cost money. An industry that keeps its knowledge in brochures and in people's heads won't be in those answers

Both problems come back to that missing record. membraneum is our attempt at it. The industry's knowledge in one registry, kept current by automated agents and written so people and AI can read it at the same time, properly and accurately. Someone describes what they need in their own words and gets back built examples, specifications, what's still missing, and the companies behind the work. When a request is clear enough, we want it to reach every company that can take it on. The more companies get real requests and real data, the more clients they can reach

For a small company, an entry here can be the website it never had time to build. And leads are only part of it. We want membraneum to be where companies in the industry talk to each other too, so suppliers, fabricators, engineers, and installers can sort out the business side of a project in the same place the work is recorded. That's a long way off. For now we're starting lean and taking the first steps

membraneum is still in development. Join the waitlist and tell me what you're working on. I'd especially like to hear which questions you're tired of answering, and which answers you still can't find. We also welcome associations, industry groups, and professional communities to join us along the way and find ways to work together