Materio was founded to address the fragmented and inefficient tools traditionally used in managing design-build projects. The founders experienced firsthand the chaos caused by scattered emails, texts, spreadsheets, and miscommunications during their own apartment remodel. This personal pain point led them to create Materio, a platform that reimagines collaboration and project management in this complex, creative industry. Materio’s approach is to replace the patchwork of software typically used with an integrated system that supports both design and construction professionals equally, emphasizing real-world workflows and scalability.
The company was co-founded by Mary Beth and Thomas Chau. Mary Beth comes from a family of builders and designers, giving her unique industry insight, and has a background in digital products and user experience research. Thomas brings technical leadership experience from his time leading the Commerce platform at Squarespace, where he helped scale services to hundreds of thousands of merchants. Since its launch in 2020, Materio has grown steadily to serve over 1,500 design professionals managing a wide range of projects, from small commercial spaces to large estates.
The company appears to be a private startup focused on organic growth driven by user feedback and iterative product development.
Their growth seems concentrated on organic feature development informed by customer feedback.
Materio’s development emphasizes continuous improvement through research and tight feedback loops with users. Recent innovations include transforming traditional material lists into interactive, location-based visual schedules on uploaded floor plans, significantly enhancing clarity and ease of use.
Materio’s culture is rooted in empathy for design-build professionals, a commitment to detailed user research, and a passion for building intuitive solutions that truly address industry challenges. The founders’ backgrounds—Mary Beth with deep personal ties to the industry and Thomas with experience scaling creative platforms—shape a culture that values collaboration, clarity, and innovation. The company sees itself as a partner to industry professionals, learning and evolving in step with their needs.
Since its 2020 launch, Materio has attracted over 1,500 design professionals as users, who manage diverse projects ranging from small commercial spaces to large, complex estates. Users report significant time savings—around 15 hours per week—and increased ease of managing multiple overlapping projects. Materio fosters a community of design-build professionals who contribute insights, helping guide ongoing product development to establish the platform as an industry standard.
