From Architect to Founder: The story of ARki

This year - for International women's day I was asked by Apple to share a bit about my story—how I went from being an architect to building my own tech company around my passion for design and innovation. I wasnt sure how I would tell this story without being ruthlessly honest about the struggles, It seems like some of the high moments in my journey are possibly groundbreaking achievements for an app-prenuer, but in the midst of the highs, are often several lows, which are longer and more frequent than the successes….

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From Architect to Founder

Credit: ARTHUR 2001-2004, funded by European framework 7.

​After graduating from architecture school  in 2009, I was one the lucky few who got the opprtunity to work for Foster and Partners - the architects responsible for some of the most iconic buildings worldwide, including the Swiss Re and Apple Park! This job was a dream come true, and for a while, I thought I’d hit the jackpot in my career. I was secretly most excited to experience some of the cutting-edge innovations  being used in the studio.  Something most people don't know is that Foster and Partners were actually early pioneers in researching and trialing augmented reality solutions for architecture, which meant I got to experiment with some seriously futuristic tech while I was there.

But it didn’t take long for me to spot a major gap. All these incredible innovations weren’t exactly usable—at least not in a way that architects could easily integrate into their workflow. We were still stuck spending endless hours on 2D drawings when in actual fact i knew we could be working with more intuitive, immersive tools.

So I decided that that the pain of using outdated software was too extreme, and, I took a leap - or i should ay the first of many pivots. I went back to school to focus on computational design, and that kicked off a 15-year experimentation into augmented reality—exploring how it could bridge the gap between digital and physical spaces in a way that actually worked for architects.

Early prototype (PSES)

During my time back at uni, I came up with a really quick solution - I built an iOS prototype called ARki which was essentially an app that combined AR with architectural visualisation on an Iphone device.

This is Iphone 5 era - so you would be amazed at how difficult it was to run a complex 3d mesh on iphone 5 processor - it required alot of mesh optimisation - and at the time everyone who experienced the app was totally awestruck as it felt like complete digital magic.

After Uni ended I decided that instead of going back to Foster and Partners - I was going to pitch this app to all my architecture friends and get them to convince their bosses that they needed this visualisation in their firm. This was really the start of my company - and I used this prototype to sell my design services to architects who had absolutely no idea that they needed AR visualisations for their own projects.

But it worked - and I even convinced Foster and Partners to pay me to build them their own AR visualisations!

The Birth of ARki app

I bootstrapped ARki from the ground up, funding development of the app by working with industry partners - mainly - architecture and engineering firms that my friends introduced me to. That approach gave me the freedom to grow the business at my own pace - taking time out intermittently to have my 2 children and figure out how to juggle motherhood with entrepreneurship. It was in this juggle that I realised I needed to automate my design services, to give me more time to spend with my family.

By 2018, I was finally able to hire my first developer, who helped transform my prototype into a fully functioning platform, which we could sell to a wider audience of architects via the app store.

Early traction ​

Luckily the platform gained some early traction, winning best tool for architects and being featured in industry publications, which helped us reach our first users within the architecture community

Soon our work caught the attention of the App Store, and ARki was featured across multiple categories—including a dedicated app Story profile. This was a huge milestone for us, as it gave ARki global visibility and introduced the app to a much wider audience. I have to admit - an app store feature was a dream come true for me - as many aspiring app developers will agree, a feature on the app store is a great motivation to keep working on the product, especially when you have just spent the last 6 years prototyping and failing multiple AR experiments. But that kind of validation from the app store makes you even more determined to continue innovating.

Industry collaborators

We continued collaborating with companies during our development, One of our most exciting collaborations was with Network Rail. We got to experiment with architectural scale visualisations at various stations across the uk. In these projects we got to test how AR could help stakeholders design footbridges for UK stations and improve way-finding at busy railway hubs.We did this by using ARkit and testing out different solutions for persistent AR, using world objects and images as anchors to give the best results for large scale Augmented Reality experiences.

We even developed a system that allowed users to visualise modular station buildings in location. In this project users could assemble kit of parts models and test different station layouts in AR before anything was built.

​These large-scale experiments were immensely exciting, I spent most of my second pregnancy at paddington station mapping out real-world objects and images to use as anchors for our tests.  But unfortunately for me, my efforts at Paddington were seriously unsuccsesful - and it wasnt because I was 8 months pregnant!

During this time I learned that most public spaces have too many moving vehicles and people which obstructs the camera view, spoiling the AR experience. And although achieving architectural scale AR is do-able -  rush hour at Paddington station is the worst possible time to get accurate results.

Although disappointing, these failures were so important. They gave us a deep understanding of both the limitations and the huge potential of AR in architectural design, and allowed us to iterate the platform to gain a better understanding of what our users needed.

Apple Keynote ​

in 2020 -  after we had spent months doing footbridge experiments, ARki was featured during Apple’s iPad PRO launch keynote,  It was showcased to highlight the power of the new M1 chip on the iPad Pro, showing how ARki uses ARKit to create interactive and immersive full-scale AR experiences.
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Seeing ARki on such a global stage was a surreal moment. It was a another huge milestone that really validated our work and put us alongside some of the most innovative apps out there. I remember celebrating this event from my living room with my family and friends, it was a total pinch me moment!

App updates….

But in entrepreneurship, the lows are often longer and more frequent than the highs, although we were doing some amazing work pushing the limits of mobile based AR, bootstrapping a company isn't easy, it can feel very overwhelming, especially when you are a small team. The constant cycles of debugging, iterating, and updating the app can feel endless. For any aspiring app developers I would say be ready for the bug reporting and debugging process of app development to become your new life. One of the hardest parts for me has been managing both product development and making sure you have enough sales to keep innovating - is not for the faint hearted.

Meeting Tim Cook

Great advice is another difficult part of entrepreneurship, which you can’t always get from your friends and family. So when I received an invitation from Apple to meet Tim Cook, in 2022 I couldn’t wait to pick the brains of the worlds most prolific CEO.

Honestly I went to this event - ready to discuss how cool AR was with Tim cook and hoping he would drop some secrets on the long awaited AR headset, but I came out of that meeting with a whole new outlook on my business.

Everyone wants to know whats it like to meet tim cook? and my honest answer is -
he knows exactly how to find the issue and get the to heart of the problem. We only spent a few minutes discussing arki but he was quick to highlight the pain points that I had experienced for over the last 6 years.  I had underestimated that Tim Cook would come armed with incredible insights into markets, and the first thing he highlighted about my app was that I was tackling a tough industry selling to only architects.
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This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to get 1 on 1 feedback from an icon, and the advice he gave me was a really difficult truth - that I knew i had to take on if i wanted to grow the app.

Following that meeting, I realised that ARki had the potential to reach beyond professionals in the industry. I made the decision to - pivot once again - from a niche architectural tool to a consumer-facing app, allowing anyone to visualise and design architecture and interior projects. This shift was significant—it meant rethinking the user experience, redesigning the product features, the monetisation, and making ARki more intuitive for everyday users. But I knew that if we wanted to grow this app we needed to take that leap.

Vision Pro

Just as we are pivoting to our B2C release - Apple drops a totally new device. The Vision Pro announcement came just as I was giving up on AR headsets. This headset was  something I had been anticipating for the last 10 years, and although we were mid development on our upcoming B2C iOS release, I couldn't pass on this opportunity to build our app for the vision pro device.

As an AR fanatic, I was desperate to get my hands on this hardware, so we stopped work on iOS and my whole team jumped on Vision OS - attending apple labs to test out how ARki would look and feel on a vision pro device. I was so excited to get a prototype working that we decided to launch our B2C version on Vision Pro before IOS to showcase the potential of spatial computing in architecture and interior design. Thankfully We managed to ship as one of the first spatial apps on Vision Pro, making ARki a day one launch partner for the vision pro USA release.

I was beyond excited to have made this deadline, we worked on this launch for just under 6 months. By now we have grown to team of 4 - but 6 months is actually not alot of time to learn a totally new OS & framework. We basically had to relearn everything, from USDZ to new UI designs, and an entirely new operating system with a bunch of new apis. It was chaos.

To make things worse, midway through development, I made the bold (some might say slightly insane) decision to re-platform from Unity to Swift. It was yet another PIVOT -  something I deliberated on for several weeks, but it had to be done. From past experience working with apple’s new api’s I knew that we would struggle massively to make our vision pro debut with a buggy unity version.So convincing the team to switch to swift was the only way we would get a prototype ready in time for the vision pro launch. My team were not thrilled—my lead developer even threatened to quit. I had to pull out my best negotiation skills and convinced him to give me one week on RealityKit. luckily that week was enough to convince the team to switch to RealityKit, and we soon realised working with swift was the only way to get the best performance and seamless integration on Vision pro.

Despite all the chaos, we pulled it off 2 months earlier that we originally anticipated!
It was a next milestone for us, proving not just our technical skills but our ability to pivot under pressure!

The Recent B2C Relaunch

As if that excitement wasnt enough, off the back of our Vision Pro launch, late last year we finally made the release of our B2C room planner update on IOS. This relaunch is all about making architecture and interior design more accessible, fun, and user-friendly. Weather you are a home owner, or a just redesigning your living space, we wanted to create a tool that will make that experience easy and enjoyable.

We packed in new features to make designing and visualising spaces in 3D and AR even easier. The room planner update was 18 month in production, and we spent countless hours building our 3d furniture library to be as lifelike and accurate as possible for every room in your house.

Download ARki: Room planner on ios

What’s Next for ARki?

Looking ahead, we’re definitely not slowing down—we are excited to keep pushing the limits of innovation in architecture and interior design.

The AI conversation is just as significant in the Architecture world as any other,
im especially excited to see how AI can be used in architectural space planning for both professionals and everyday users.We’re also going to be teaming up with furniture brands  interior design  practical, letting users visualise with real-world products that actually fit their space.
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And of course, On vision pro - we’re just getting started. The possibilities of Ai and augmented reality space planning are endless.Augmented reality is the digital interface for Ai, so I believe that when we collide these 2 worlds - magic can really happen.

Reflections on the Journey

I want to conclude my story by highlighting one of the biggest parts of my journey as a female founder, Innovation is a big part of what I do - it keeps me creative, and it allows us to have fun building stuff,

but another big aspect of my story has been finding innovative ways of balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. I started the journey over 15 years ago when working remotely wasn't really an option for anyone. The app store was my solution to carving a career from home, which gave me the flexibility to write code around my kids nap times.

The biggest challenge wasn’t just launching a business or building a product—it was designing a way of working that allowed me to grow as both a founder and a parent. This journey has reinforced my belief that innovation isn’t just about what we build—it’s about how we build it. It’s about creating a system that work for us, rather than trying to fit into outdated models. I hope that the future of work continues to empower more women to create, lead, and redefine success on their own terms.




This blog was written by Sahar Fikouhi 
Founder and CEO of ARki iOS app 
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