Richman Neumann from Modumate and Yelp on podcast ”One the Come UP”

For the 16th episode of “One the Come Up,” it was a pleasure to have Mr Richman Neumann as my guest. An architect, a businessman, an acapella singer, a mathematician, a man of many hats – some have been led to call him a human podcast. Mr Neumann got his start at Carnegie Mellon University where he studied architecture – the art of “frozen music” that perfectly blended his interests in math and design. Upon graduating in 2013, he worked for Solomon Cordwell Benz, a large multi-family firm where he designed high rises in San. Fran., Honolulu, and Seattle. Larger (and limitless) than the skyscrapers he was building, “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,” so what had he to do but build a software that would revolutionize the world of Architecture? And so the idea of Modumate was born. A little beyond me to explain, it attempted to streamline the design process for blueprints by eliminating the translation requirement from architect language to builder language. By having a software that understood the individual facets of a design, and its interrelated role to the surrounding components, it would reduce the redundancy architects go through when explaining their architecture. A child of its time, Modumate benefited from the ZIRP environment of the late 2010s- early 2020s. But when interest rates started to creep, and investors started to get cold feet, development was still short of some capital and unfortunately Modumate had to either go back to the drawing board or disband. “What the caterpillar calls the end, the world calls a butterfly” – and so Mr Neumann left Modumate, only to exit a better man than he could have anywhere else. Currently working at Yelp in the advertising department, Mr Neumann’s architecture is more internal processes of algorithms. It is my belief though – and I do not mean to overstep my bounds as a mere podcaster – that Mr Neumann still has that architect spirit alive in him. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty for hope and liberty for a rebuilding America; Gustave Eiffel designed the Eiffel tower for the prosperity that occured after the successful French Revolution; Richman Neuman shall build… for… Time will only tell.