My Journey
An Interview with Vaishnavi More

Q: Let's start at the beginning. Why architecture?

I grew up in a real estate and development family in India, so I was always surrounded by conversations about buildings, construction, and cities. At the same time, I was naturally drawn to creative work. Architecture felt like the perfect combination of creativity, problem-solving, and impact.

When I entered architecture school, my dream was simple—I wanted to design iconic buildings like Norman Foster or Zaha Hadid.

Q: What was architecture school like for you?

I completed my Bachelor of Architecture in Pune, where our education was rooted in traditional methods. We drafted everything by hand, relied on building code manuals and Neufert, used triangular scales instead of digital tools, and spent countless hours producing drawings manually.

Looking back, it was a very different era of architectural education.

I was a dedicated student throughout my B.Arch, consistently earning strong grades, but what excited me most wasn't the drawings—it was building physical models. I loved experimenting with materials, textures, and form. There was something incredibly satisfying about transforming an abstract concept into a tangible object. I would often begin by building a conceptual model and then work backwards to develop the drawings, rather than the other way around.

Q: At that point, did you imagine becoming an entrepreneur?

Not at all.

Like many architecture students, I imagined a traditional career. During my final year, I completed my internship at Christopher Charles Benninger Architects in Pune, and I always envisioned running my own architecture practice one day. Even then, however, I knew I wanted to build something of my own. The desire to create a business had always been there—it just hadn't yet taken the form of entrepreneurship.

Q: How did Michigan change your view of architecture?

Once I had mastered the fundamentals, I wanted to push even further. During my final year, I immersed myself in robotics and digital fabrication, learning to work with KUKA robotic arms, Arduino, and computational design. That experience fundamentally changed how I viewed the profession.

“For the first time, I realized architecture wasn't limited to designing buildings. Technology had the power to redefine how we design, build, and imagine the built environment. It opened my eyes to a much larger world—one centered on innovation rather than tradition.”

Q: Is that what led you to Harvard?

Absolutely.

If I wanted to understand innovation at the highest level, I knew I wanted to be at Harvard. The Harvard Graduate School of Design was one of the few schools offering a program that truly sat at the intersection of architecture, design, technology, and innovation.

I joined the Master in Design Studies (MDes) with a concentration in Technology. But I arrived with a much bigger goal than earning another degree. I wanted to understand innovation. More importantly, I wanted to understand business.

Q: How did entrepreneurship enter the picture?

While I was at Harvard, I discovered the Harvard Innovation Labs. At the time, I knew nothing about startups. I didn't know how companies were built, how fundraising worked, or what venture capital looked like. So I started learning. I took entrepreneurship classes, immersed myself in the startup ecosystem, and eventually got accepted into the Harvard Innovation Labs Venture Incubation Program with the early idea for Archslate.

That was the moment my journey shifted from studying innovation to building it.

Q: Was there a defining moment when you decided not to follow the traditional architecture path?

Not really.

By then, I had worked at one architecture firm in India and two architecture and design firms in San Francisco, including HDR. There wasn't a single moment where I consciously decided to leave architecture. Instead, entrepreneurship emerged naturally from everything I was experiencing.

Working in practice exposed me to the industry's challenges. Michigan expanded my view of what technology could do. Harvard introduced me to startups, innovation, and venture creation.

“Looking back, I didn't leave architecture. My definition of what an architect could become simply became much bigger.”

Q: Tell us about your first company, Archslate.

Archslate began while I was still at Harvard. The original idea started as an independent research project during my MDes program, exploring an AI-powered talent marketplace for the AEC industry. At the same time, I was developing the idea through the Harvard Innovation Labs, spending my days in class and my evenings building the foundations of what would become my first startup.

After graduating, I moved to Silicon Valley to immerse myself in the startup ecosystem and pursue venture funding. At the time, however, architecture technology was still a relatively small category, and the startup ecosystem was largely focused on mainstream software companies rather than AEC. That journey eventually led me to Tampa, Florida, where the innovation ecosystem around real estate and the built environment was rapidly growing.

I joined the TechWomen Accelerator, pitched at startup competitions, met investors, and began generating revenue with Archslate. The turning point wasn't raising money. It was getting paying customers. That was the moment I knew I wasn't just working on an interesting idea—I was solving a real problem. Archslate went on to become my first venture-backed startup and taught me the fundamentals of building a technology company.

Q: What led you to build Zenoya?

Building Archslate gave me something far more valuable than funding—it gave me years of experience working alongside architecture firms and understanding how they actually operate. The more firms I worked with, the more obvious one problem became. Architecture firms were still managing projects, teams, schedules, time tracking, documents, reporting, and studio operations across disconnected tools that were never designed for the way architects work.

I realized the industry didn't need another generic project management platform. It needed technology built by architects, specifically for architecture and design firms.

That realization became Zenoya.

Today, I am the Founder and CEO of Zenoya, an architecture management platform built for architecture, interior design, and landscape firms. Zenoya brings together project management, schedules, tasks, team planning, documentation, reporting, analytics, and AI-powered workflows into a single platform designed specifically for the AEC industry. My vision has always been much bigger than building software. I believe architects deserve tools that are as thoughtfully designed as the buildings they create.

More importantly, I believe technology will fundamentally redefine how architecture firms operate over the next decade, and I want Zenoya to help lead that transformation.

“Everything I experienced—from architecture school, to Michigan, to Harvard, to venture-backed entrepreneurship—ultimately led me here.”

Q: What has been the hardest part of becoming a founder?

Building a startup proved far more difficult than I had imagined. Like many first-time founders, I questioned myself constantly. There were moments when I wanted to quit, moments when I doubted the idea, and moments when it felt like nothing was moving forward.

Bootstrapping the company felt manageable. Building a venture-backed company was a completely different challenge. The investor rejections came one after another. Every conversation tested my conviction and confidence.

As a female founder building an ambitious technology company in the architecture industry: a space traditionally dominated by men, I often found myself having to prove not only the business, but also myself.

“Over time, I learned that resilience isn't something founders begin with. It's something entrepreneurship forces you to develop.”

Q: Beyond building companies, what is the mission driving your work today?

My mission has evolved beyond building startups.

I'm passionate about expanding what architects believe is possible. For decades, architecture has been viewed primarily as a profession. I believe it is also one of the world's greatest foundations for entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, leadership, and business.

Through my work, my writing, my speaking, and the companies I build, I want to encourage more architects to think beyond the traditional path. Whether that's building technology, launching a practice, raising venture capital, becoming investors, or creating entirely new businesses, I want architects to realize they already possess many of the skills required to build extraordinary companies.

The future of architecture won't just be designed. It will be built by founders.

Q: Looking back, do you still consider yourself an architect?

Absolutely. Architecture gave me the ability to think systematically, solve complex problems, and imagine things that didn't yet exist. Entrepreneurship taught me how to transform those ideas into products, companies, and real impact.

Today, I don't just design buildings. I build businesses, technology, and systems that I hope will shape the future of the architecture industry.

“I never really left architecture. I simply expanded my definition of what an architect can build.”

Q: What do you hope people remember after hearing your story?

I hope people realize that architecture is not a limitation—it's a launchpad. The skills we learn as architects extend far beyond designing buildings. We learn how to solve complex problems, think systematically, communicate ideas, and create things that don't yet exist.

Those same skills can be used to build products, companies, technologies, institutions, and entirely new industries. Architecture gave me the ability to imagine what doesn't exist. Entrepreneurship taught me how to build it. And I hope more architects realize they don't have to choose between being an architect and being a founder.

They can be both.

Q: What is architecture getting wrong about innovation today?

I think we’ve started using innovation and technology almost interchangeably, especially with the rise of AI. But innovation in architecture is much bigger than adopting the newest tool. It’s also about questioning how firms are built, how architects make money, how we create and own technology, how we access capital, and how we create entirely new business models around the built environment.

For a long time, architects have been incredible at innovating within design while remaining surprisingly traditional about the businesses surrounding design. I think the next wave of innovation in architecture won’t just change how we design buildings. It will change how architects build businesses, create value, and participate in the economy around the built environment.

Q: If you could change one thing about architecture education tomorrow, what would it be?

I wouldn’t change the foundation of architecture education. I would expand what we believe it is preparing students for. Architecture school taught me how to think critically, solve incredibly complex problems, communicate ideas, work across disciplines, and create something from nothing. Those are extraordinary skills for an entrepreneur.

But I had to go outside architecture school to learn about business, entrepreneurship, sales, venture capital, technology, and ownership. I would bring those worlds together much earlier. I want architecture students to graduate knowing not only how to design an extraordinary building, but also how to build a company, understand capital, commercialize an idea, create technology, and own the value they create.

“Architecture school shouldn’t only prepare people to become great architects. It should prepare them to do extraordinary things with an architectural education.”

Q: What do you want to change in architecture over the next 20 years?

I want to expand our definition of what an architect can become. Today, the path still feels relatively predictable: you graduate, join a firm, become a project architect, perhaps become a principal, or eventually start your own practice. I want the next generation to see a much larger landscape. I want architects building billion-dollar companies. Creating technology. Developing real estate. Starting investment funds. Becoming CEOs. Investing in other founders. Influencing policy. Building new materials, products, and business models.

I want architects sitting at more of the tables where decisions about the future of the built environment are actually being made. Because I don’t think architecture has a talent problem. I think we have an imagination problem when it comes to what architects themselves can become.

“Twenty years from now, I want architecture to produce more than great architects. I want it to produce founders, CEOs, investors, technologists, and leaders”