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01

Built for AEC

The selection committee reads your website before it reads your SOQ.

We build the digital side of pursuit for architects, engineers, and contractors: firm sites that survive a prequalification review, and per-market microsites that rank where you're actually chasing work. True Power Systems, a power systems engineering firm, runs exactly that with us: 34 microsites across 24 states behind its main one, and $1M in signed work it traces to leads from them. Advance E&C and ENE Contractors build with us too.

truepowersystems.com

Our work · True Power Systems, built by Upforge

Two plates of dark steel meeting at a glowing seam, like the project and pursuit systems that AEC websites and proposal software bring into line
02Sound familiar?

Why AEC firms lose pursuits before the interview

80.8%

of buyers go to a firm's website first to learn more about it

Hinge Research Institute's buyer research. In AEC, that visit happens during shortlisting: before the SOQ gets a serious read, and usually before anyone calls a reference. (Hinge Research Institute, 2016)

33 hours

go into a single RFP response, on average

Loopio's benchmark across 1,500+ response teams. Every hour spent re-typing the same project sheet, resume, and past-performance table is an hour not spent on win themes. (Loopio, 2026)

10.5%

median growth across AEC firms, the lowest in eight years

Hinge's 2026 High Growth Study. The firms still growing fast run marketing budgets twice the size of their peers: 10% of revenue against 5%. (Hinge Research Institute, 2026)

03The shift

The same AEC business. A different machine.

Shift 01

Today

A capabilities page that hasn't changed since the last rebrand

With Upforge

Market and sector pages that match the work you're chasing now

Shift 02

Today

One national site trying to rank in every metro you pursue

With Upforge

A microsite per market, each ranking on its own and funneling back to you

Shift 03

Today

Every SOQ rebuilt by hand from old PDFs and someone's inbox

With Upforge

Project sheets, resumes, and past performance assembled from one source

04What we build

Built for how AEC actually works.

01

Firm Sites Built for Prequalification

An owner's selection committee, a GC's prequal team, and a public agency's procurement office all land on the same site, and each one is checking something different. We build project pages that carry the details those readers look for (delivery method, scope, contract value range, role, dates), staff and discipline pages that read like the resumes in your SOQ, and credential blocks for licensure, bonding capacity, safety record, and certifications. Everything is CMS-managed, so a new project or a new PE goes live the week it closes instead of waiting for the next rebuild.

Learn more about Firm Sites Built for Prequalification
02

Per-Market Microsite Programs

One firm site can't rank in fifty states, and pretending it can is why AEC firms end up buying leads. We build market-specific sites, each with its own domain, local content, and search authority. They all feed a single lead pipeline, so business development sees one queue instead of dozens of inboxes. We run this at real scale today: 34 microsites behind truepowersystems.com, 24 for power studies (ohiopowerstudies.com, texaspowerstudies.com and the rest) and 10 for MEP design (mep-oh.com, mep-ky.com and the rest), each built to rank in its own state.

Learn more about Per-Market Microsite Programs
03

SOQ, RFQ & Proposal Tooling

Pursuit work is the same content reassembled under deadline. We build internal tools that hold your project sheets, staff resumes, past-performance tables, and boilerplate as structured records. Then they generate an SOQ or RFP response section against a specific solicitation, pulling only the projects that match the scope, the delivery method, and the geography. Go/no-go tracking, deadline reminders, and win/loss records live in the same system, so next year's pursuit starts from data instead of from a folder.

Learn more about SOQ, RFQ & Proposal Tooling
Free AEC audit

Want to know what your current setup is costing you?

The free audit checks your website the way your AEC customers experience it (speed, mobile, accessibility, and search visibility) and puts what's worth fixing in writing. It's automated and free, and the report is specific about what it finds.

06What changes

How the machine removes each problem.

01

Search visibility instead of one national site

A dedicated site per state or metro competes locally on its own domain and content, so you show up in the markets you pursue rather than ranking nowhere in all of them. Every lead still lands in one pipeline, tagged with the market it came from.

02

Project and staff records

Delivery method, contract value range, your role, licensure, bonding capacity, and safety record live as structured fields, not as prose in a PDF. The prequal team finds what it needs, and your SOQ pulls from the same records.

03

Pursuit content, not retyped

Project sheets, resumes, and past-performance tables are stored once and assembled against a specific solicitation. The hours your team currently spends reformatting go back into win themes and interview prep.

04

Inquiries with technical detail attached

Conditional forms ask what the pursuit actually turns on (facility type, voltage class, delivery method, building count), so an inquiry reaches your engineer with enough detail to price or decline it without a discovery call.

AEC FAQs

Common Questions From AEC

It has to survive a technical read. A homeowner skims; an owner's rep, a GC prequal team, and an agency procurement officer are checking specifics: delivery method, contract value range, your actual role on a project, licensure by state, bonding capacity, EMR. We structure project and staff pages so those answers are on the page rather than buried in a PDF nobody downloads. See our web development services.

Yes, and it's the thing we do most. True Power Systems runs 34 microsites across 24 states with us behind its main site, and we run per-market programs outside AEC at a larger scale still. Each one is a real site with its own domain and its own local content, so it ranks on its own merits, and every lead routes back to one pipeline with the originating market attached. You see which markets are producing and which are quiet.

Both. Most of our shipped AEC work is sites and per-market programs, but the pursuit tooling is where the hours are, and we scope it as custom software: projects, resumes, and past performance held as structured records, then assembled against a specific solicitation instead of copy-pasted from last year's. See our application development services.

We give each study type its own service page (arc-flash hazard analysis, short-circuit, protective device coordination, load flow). That's how engineers and facility managers search, and NFPA 70E and NEC compliance drives real search volume. Each page explains scope, deliverables, and what triggers the requirement, then converts into a scoped inquiry rather than a generic contact form.

Yes. Delivery method is a first-class field on every project record, so you can filter and present your portfolio by design-build, design-bid-build, CM at risk, IPD, or progressive design-build. It matters, because a shortlist for a design-build pursuit wants to see design-build past performance specifically, not your whole project list.

We use multi-step forms with conditional logic. A facility asking about an arc-flash study answers different questions than a GC prequalifying a subconsultant. We capture facility type, voltage class, number of buildings, delivery method, or whatever the pursuit actually turns on, and route the submission to your CRM with all of it attached. See our landing page services.

A firm site costs $4,000 to $15,000, depending on how many sectors, service lines, and project pages you need. A microsite program is priced per market on top of that, and it gets cheaper per site as the program grows because they share one platform. Proposal and SOQ tooling is scoped separately as custom software. See our web development pricing.

A firm site with sector pages, a project library, and staff profiles takes 2 to 8 weeks. Microsite programs roll out in waves after the platform is built. The first market takes the longest, and the rest come out in batches of five or so. Proposal tooling runs on its own track alongside the site.

We use Next.js for the sites, so pages server-render fast and index cleanly. Projects, staff, and credentials live in a headless CMS your marketing coordinator can edit. Forms route to your CRM, and proposal tooling is built as a real application with a database behind it. See our web development services.

We offer ongoing maintenance and support that fits how AEC firms actually operate: new project sheets as jobs close out, new staff pages as you hire, new market sites as you expand, and search monitoring per market so you know where you're visible and where you aren't.

AEC: key facts (with sources)

  • 80.8% of buyers go to a firm's website first to learn more about it (source: Hinge Research Institute, 2016)
  • 33 hours go into a single RFP response, on average (source: Loopio, 2026)
  • 10.5% median growth across AEC firms, the lowest in eight years (source: Hinge Research Institute, 2026)

Sources

Each source opened and verified · last checked
  1. · 80.8% of buyers say the firm's website is the first place they go to learn more about a firm.
  2. · Teams spend an average of 33 hours preparing a single RFP response, and winning teams (50%+ win rates) spend 35, per Loopio's benchmark data from 1,500+ response teams worldwide.
  3. · Median growth across AEC firms fell to 10.5%, the lowest in eight years, while high-growth AEC firms grew 40.7%, 4.6x the average group's 8.9%, and ran marketing budgets twice the size of their slower-growing peers (10% of revenue against 5%).

Your AEC business, running on your terms.

Tell us where the hours are going, and we’ll show you what a system built for your operation looks like, with a fixed price before any work starts.