Building it was the easy part: Groundbreaking, our new London incubator for construction software

Software has become cheap to build. With today's tools a small team ships a working product for architects, planners or developers in a matter of weeks. The hard part now arrives after the product works: getting the people who build cities to see it, trust it and buy it.

Groundbreaking is our answer to that gap. It is a free three month incubator in London for founders building software for architecture, planning and construction, run together by the London architecture practice Ackroyd Lowrie and SKALA. The programme runs under one line, "Building it was the easy part."

Why we started it

Technology is about to change how cities get built, and the bottleneck has moved. For years the difficulty was building the software. Now the difficulty is distribution, because this industry buys on trust. A planner adopts a new tool after seeing a peer use it. A developer signs after a recommendation from someone whose judgement they rely on. New tools in architecture and construction spread through people who have watched them work, which is slow, personal and hard to fake.

So a founder with a strong product still faces two walls: an audience that has never heard of them, and buyers they cannot get in a room. Groundbreaking exists to take both walls down at once. It finds early tools, helps launch them as real businesses, puts their founders in front of the architects, planners, developers and investors who make the decisions, and films the whole thing so the audience builds season after season.

An incubator that runs like a show

What makes Groundbreaking different from a normal incubator is the camera. Every session, supper and pitch is filmed and edited into episodes and clips, and published across the podcast, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn. Every founder reposts what the group puts out, so the reach of the whole cohort compounds each week rather than starting from zero at every launch.

That turns the usual order on its head. A traditional incubator teaches founders in private and hopes they can find an audience afterwards. Groundbreaking builds the audience while the season runs, so by the time a founder pitches at the finale, the room already knows the name.

How Cohort 001 works

The first cohort runs from the end of September 2026 to the end of January 2027, with live sessions starting on 21 October. Founders pay nothing to take part and keep all of their equity. Over four months the season holds eleven live events: seven half day sessions, three suppers and five online pitches, ending in a finale.

• Sessions run every other Wednesday in Bethnal Green, east London, at Ackroyd Lowrie's studio.
• Suppers seat sixteen people around one table at Marrons in The Shard. Each dinner pairs one group of buyers with investors: architects with VCs, then planning with VCs, then developers with VCs.
• Online pitches put founders live in front of a developer, a planner or an investor who questions them in real time, published through The Urban Forecast Podcast or on LinkedIn.
• The finale, Topping Out, gathers 150 selected guests on 28 January 2027, where every founder pitches from the stage. "Topping out" is the British building tradition of marking the moment a structure reaches its highest point, which is a fitting name for the evening a founder's company reaches the top of its first season.

The whole run is promoted from day one and filmed for a final episode, so the finale is the peak of a story the audience has followed for four months.

Why Ackroyd Lowrie and SKALA

Groundbreaking works because each side brings a half that the other cannot.

Ackroyd Lowrie is a London architecture practice founded in 2014, running out of its studio on Vyner Street in Bethnal Green. It has hosted The Urban Forecast Podcast since 2019, with co-founder Oliver Lowrie interviewing the people shaping cities. Ackroyd Lowrie brings the programme, the venue, the podcast and a deep network across architecture, planning, development and investment. That network is what fills the rooms.

SKALA brings the audience and the content engine. We are a social media agency for architecture and construction, founded by Maria Ulashchenko, an architect who built the largest architecture account in the German speaking market, and Vladislav Akhmetov. Our channels reach more than 166,000 followers and over three million views a month, and we film, edit and publish every session, supper and finale.

This is the same work we already do through our own events. With Architecture After Hours we have run two editions so far, a Berlin evening for around 150 guests and a London edition in collaboration with Bentley for 85, and we are growing the series from there. Groundbreaking takes that approach from a single evening to a full season, which we wrote about the mechanics of in organising architecture events.

For founders and for partners

Applications for Cohort 001 are open until 21 October 2026. Founders building software for architecture, planning or construction can apply through Groundbreaking on Instagram and LinkedIn, where the season is also documented as it runs.

Groundbreaking is also looking for partners for Cohort 001. Companies can host a supper, set a challenge for the founders to work on across the season, run a workshop, name the finale or back the whole run. It suits software companies in the built environment, building material manufacturers, developers, investors and consultancies who want early sight of the founders and products coming through, and a seat at the table with the buyers and investors in the room. Decisions on the lead partnerships are open until 31 October 2026. To talk about partnering, reach us through Groundbreaking's channels above or through SKALA.

Common questions

What is Groundbreaking? A free three month incubator in London for founders building software for architecture, planning and construction, run by the architecture practice Ackroyd Lowrie and the social media agency SKALA. Every session is filmed and published, so the cohort builds an audience across the season.

What does it cost founders, and does it take equity? Taking part is free, and founders keep all of their equity. Groundbreaking earns through partnerships rather than from the founders.

Who is it for? Founders with early software for architects, planners, developers or the wider construction and real estate industry, who have a product that works and need an audience and buyers.

When does Cohort 001 run? From the end of September 2026 to the finale, Topping Out, on 28 January 2027, with live sessions from 21 October.

How do founders apply? Applications for Cohort 001 are open until 21 October 2026, through Groundbreaking on Instagram and LinkedIn.

How can a company get involved? As a partner for Cohort 001, through options that range from hosting a supper to backing the whole season. The lead partnership decisions are open until 31 October 2026.

The season starts now

The tools to build construction software have never been easier to reach. The audience and the trust to sell it are still the hard part, and that is the part Groundbreaking is built to supply. Applications for Cohort 001 are open until 21 October 2026 through Groundbreaking on Instagram and LinkedIn, where you can also follow the season and read more about the events behind it on our events page.