ICFF NYC 2018

Federico Negro
Founder and CEO
Canoa


Federico Negro is the founder and CEO of Canoa. Technology and design have been an early interest of his, and getting involved with disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina shifted his outlook on the industry’s contribution to climate change. Federico first began his architecture career at SHoP Architects then started his own company, CASE, focused on developing design technologies for built environment businesses and was acquired by WeWork in 2015. During his time as Global Head of Design for WeWork, Federico Negro led the effort to launch into 30 countries, open 500+ locations, and build a 1,000-person design team. More than $250 million per year in FF&E design and procurement later, Federico had observed the end-to-end challenges businesses and design teams face when dealing with the FF&E industry. WeWork’s explosive expansion (the good and the bad) was what led Federico to shift his focus to what he felt was, and still is, the most problematic byproduct of the FF&E industry: inefficiency and waste. Specifically, how data silos and workflow discontinuity leads designers to waste time, money and generate real world waste. In 2019 Federico Negro started Canoa with a team of industry veterans, who saw an opportunity to amplify design by building a tool that finally connects and supports interior designers and helps drastically reduce waste in design work.

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