Built on one idea.
Senior engineers.
We started arkOne because we were tired of agencies that sold senior talent and delivered junior work. So we built the studio we always wished we could hire.
We're a small team that ships big things.
arkOne is a fourteen-person engineering studio. We build web platforms, workflow automations, and AI integrations for companies that need things done properly and on time.
We don't have account managers. Every project is staffed by 2–4 senior engineers. The person you talk to in the scoping call is the same person writing your code.
We work fixed-fee, fixed-scope. We quote before we start. We own anything that goes sideways. We hand you the source code on day one.
Four rules we
don't break.
Ownership, not output
We don't measure ourselves by hours billed or tickets closed. We measure by whether the thing we built works in production and makes your business better.
Fewer people, better work
A small team of seniors will outship a large team of juniors every time. We stay small on purpose so every engineer is someone you'd be proud to have on your team.
Honesty over comfort
We'll tell you if the scope is unrealistic, if the architecture is wrong, or if you're solving the wrong problem. You're hiring us for our judgment, not just our hands.
You own everything
Source code, credentials, infrastructure — all of it in your accounts from day one. We document everything. You can walk away any time.
How we got here.
Founded in Lahore
Zara Hashmi and Daniyal Khan left their jobs at a YC startup to build the kind of engineering studio they wished they could hire. First client: a logistics company that needed to stop copy-pasting data between five systems.
First AI projects
As LLMs went mainstream, clients started asking for AI integrations. Marcus Reeve joined as the first dedicated AI engineer. We shipped our first RAG system for a legal tech company.
Team grows to 8
Enough demand to bring on five more seniors across web, automation, design, and infrastructure. We turned down three times as many clients as we accepted — still do.
60+ projects shipped
Crossed 60 production projects. Launched the retainer model for clients who want the same team on call after launch. 98% of clients have come back for a second project.
Today
Fourteen engineers. Three disciplines. The same two rules: senior-only, and you own everything.
Fourteen engineers.
Zero juniors.
Zara founded arkOne after leading engineering teams at two YC-backed startups. She sets the technical direction and takes on the projects nobody else wants to touch.
Marcus spent five years at a top-tier AI lab before joining arkOne. He leads all LLM and RAG work and is obsessed with evaluation quality.
Anya bridges design and engineering. She prototypes in code and has shipped design systems used by teams of 200+.
Daniyal has built high-throughput data pipelines and backend systems serving millions of daily requests. He owns the hard infrastructure problems.
Sofie specialises in performance-first Next.js applications and has a thing for animations that feel genuinely physical.
Jules has replaced more Zapier workflows with clean code than anyone on the team. His test suites are legendary.
Rita connects ML research to production systems. She built the evaluation framework arkOne uses on every AI project.
Adam manages cloud infra across AWS and GCP, keeps costs low, and is the one on call when things go sideways at 2 AM.
Want to work together?
Let's talk.
Tell us about your project. We'll respond within one business day.