Fire By Design

What Fire By Design does

Fire By Design, Inc. is a privately held professional services firm based in Northbrook, Illinois, that provides engineering design services for fire alarm and life safety systems. The company is structured as a small operation with 1-10 employees, deliberately specializing in design rather than installation, and delivering code-compliant drawings to building owners, property managers, and fire alarm contractors. Its services span fire alarm system design, voice evacuation and communication systems (including Chicago-specific Class I, Class II, High Rise, and Voice Ordinance designs), life safety drawings, building surveys and floor plan recreation using AutoCAD, evacuation maps, and complete submittal packages with battery and voltage drop calculations. All work is performed by NICET Level 4 certified designers, the highest level of professional certification in the field.

The firm's go-to-market is direct enterprise field sales, engaging clients through estimates, consultations, on-site surveys, and code studies, with final deliverables provided as submittal packages for fire alarm contractor bidding. Pricing is project-based and quote-driven, with no publicly disclosed rate cards. Primary customers are commercial and institutional building owners and operators (with Willis Tower named as a marquee reference), supported by a secondary channel of fire alarm contractors requiring NICET-certified documentation for permitting. Geographically, the company anchors in the Chicago metropolitan area and serves Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, while handling corporate accounts across the rest of the United States.

The business model is straightforward project-based professional services revenue, with the firm acting as a specialized upstream design partner to fire alarm installation contractors and as a direct engineering resource to building owners. There is no disclosed SaaS, subscription, or productized offering, no app or API surface, no external funding, and no parent company or subsidiary structure. Distribution is direct, with the company website (firebydesign.net) functioning as the primary information hub and contact channel.

Name

Fire By Design

Legal name

Fire By Design, Inc.

Website

https://firebydesign.net

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Fire By Design is a NICET Level 4 certified, design-only fire alarm and life safety engineering firm based in Northbrook, Illinois, serving commercial and institutional building owners, property managers, and fire alarm contractors across the Midwest and US.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fire Protection Engineering Services

NAICS

Other Specialized Design Services (54149)

akta.pro primary industry

Fire Alarm Systems (Design/Install/Service/Monitoring) (BPABAHAA)

Keywords

• Fire alarm design
• Life safety engineering
• Evacuation maps
• Fire protection consulting
• NICET certified design

Headquarters

HQ city

Northbrook

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Fire Alarm System Design Services: Professional engineering design services for fire alarm systems, voice evacuation systems, and life safety drawings. Services are rendered on a project basis including estimates, consultations, surveys, code studies, and full design drawings delivered as submittal packages to fire alarm contractors for bidding.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Fire By Design provides professional engineering design services for fire alarm systems, voice evacuation systems, and life safety drawings. Deliverables include NFPA-compliant fire alarm system designs, on-site building surveys and floor plan recreation, evacuation maps, code studies, and complete submittal packages (working plans, specification packets, battery and voltage drop calculations) prepared by NICET Level 4 certified designers for fire alarm contractors and building owners.

Product overview

Fire By Design is a specialized fire alarm and life safety engineering services company. The company offers a comprehensive suite of services centered around fire protection design: Fire Alarm System Design (including voice evacuation systems), Life Safety Consulting and Design, Building Surveys and Evaluations, Evacuation Maps, and Submittal Packages. These services are designed to work together as a complete offering—from initial building surveys and code compliance studies through to final engineering drawings and contractor submittals. All designs comply with NFPA codes and are engineered by NICET Level 4 certified professionals, primarily serving the Chicago metropolitan area and the broader Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin region.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fire Alarm System Design NFPA-compliant fire alarm system engineering designs delivered by NICET Level 4 certified designers for building owners, property managers, and general contractors. Includes estimates, consultations, surveys, code studies, and full engineering drawings covering jurisdictions across the United States.
• Voice Evacuation and Communication Systems Design Design of voice evacuation and emergency communication systems for buildings, including City of Chicago Class I, Class II, High Rise, Non-Jurisdictional, and One-Way and Two-Way Voice Ordinance systems.
• Life Safety Consulting and Design NFPA-compliant life safety drawings covering emergency lights, egress signage, egress planning, fire extinguisher layouts, and mass notification systems for commercial and institutional buildings.
• Building Surveys and Evaluations On-site building surveys using AutoCAD software and measuring devices to map buildings and determine required fire protection scope when existing floor plans are not available.
• Evacuation Maps Simplified building schematics showing rooms, doors, exits, hallways, stairwells, 'You are here' locations, primary and secondary egress routes, assembly areas, fire alarm pull stations, fire extinguishers, and AED locations to meet municipal code requirements.
• Submittal Packages Complete design submittal packages assembled for fire alarm contractors for bidding purposes, including a working set of plans, specification packets, cover pages, cut sheets, battery calculations, voltage drop calculations, and detector and module point lists.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% NFPA code compliance on all designs with NICET Level 4 certified documentation

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Telgian: National fire protection engineering and life safety consulting firm offering NICET-certified fire alarm design, testing, and inspection services — directly comparable in services, customer base, and design-led business model.
• Harrington Group: Fire protection engineering and life safety consulting firm providing fire alarm design, code consulting, and risk analysis for commercial buildings — directly comparable in service scope and customer type.
• Code Consultants, Inc. Specialty fire protection and life safety code consulting firm that serves architects, developers, and building owners with building code analysis and fire alarm system design — closely aligned with Fire By Design's design-only, code-compliance focus.
• Jensen Hughes: The largest dedicated fire protection engineering and consulting firm globally, providing fire alarm system design, code consulting, and life safety engineering across virtually all commercial building types — the most direct enterprise-scale comparable to Fire By Design's niche.
• Coffman Engineers: Multi-discipline engineering firm with a fire protection engineering division that provides code consulting, life safety design, and fire alarm system design for commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings — a directly comparable scope of fire alarm design services.
• Senez & Associates Ltd. Specialty fire protection engineering consultancy with strong NICET-certified design expertise, providing code consulting and fire alarm engineering for commercial properties — comparable boutique-scale firm with a similar design-led delivery model.

Broad incumbents

• Aon: Global professional services firm whose Fire Protection Engineering practice (formerly Schirmer Engineering) provides enterprise-scale code consulting and fire alarm design services — a much larger incumbent operating in the same fire protection engineering space.
• Siemens Smart Infrastructure: Global building technologies division of Siemens offering fire alarm system design as part of an integrated smart building portfolio — competes with Fire By Design on the design scope for large commercial and high-rise projects while bundling installation and ongoing service.
• Honeywell Building Technologies: Provides NOTIFIER fire alarm systems and integrated life safety design services for commercial buildings through its Building Technologies segment — a broad incumbent offering overlapping design capability within a much larger building systems portfolio.
• Johnson Controls: Includes the Simplex fire alarm systems business and provides end-to-end fire alarm design, installation, and service across commercial buildings — a broad incumbent that competes on the design work Fire By Design specializes in but bundles with installation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fire By Design