Francis Field

Architect building with AI | ex-Chipperfield ex-Heatherwick | 📸 PhotoCAD.ai (image to CAD) ✨Tooliverse.ai (curated AI tools) 🧬SearoLabs.com (materials design)

Greater Cambridge Area

About

|| Currently building PhotoCAD (turns any photo into CAD drawing) || and Tooliverse (AI Tools for professionals) also, Co-Founder @ Searo Labs (materials design research) RCA trained Architect, ex-Chipperfield, ex-Heatherwick Cambridge, UK francisfield.com

Experience

  • Founder at PhotoCAD
    Mar 2026 - Present · 4 mos

    PhotoCAD turns any photo into a CAD drawing in under two minutes. I spent a decade in architectural practice at Chipperfield, Heatherwick and others, and a surprising amount of that time was spent redrawing things that already exist. So I built the tool I always wanted: drop in an image, get clean vector line work — DXF, SVG, PDF — ready for drafting, fabrication or illustration. Built solo: AI pipeline, product, now growth. Used by architects, illustrators and the laser-cutting/CNC crowd. Every drawing I make becomes a public before/after gallery page, so the product markets itself while I sleep. Free to try at photocad.ai

  • Founder & Editor-in-Chief at Tooliverse
    Oct 2025 - Present · 9 mos

    Founded Tooliverse, a curated directory providing rigorous, independent analysis of AI tools for professionals. -> Designed the 'Consensus Score' methodology: a system that aggregates and analyses real user reviews across multiple platforms, producing ratings free from commercial influence or sponsorship. -> Editor-in-Chief: lead content strategy, curation guidelines and editorial standards across all listed tools and reviews. -> Built for professionals frustrated with affiliate-driven lists and volume-over-quality directories seeking reliable, independent evaluations. -> Applied a decade of founding and scaling investor-backed deep-tech companies to product evaluation and platform design.

  • Co-Founder | Co-CEO at Searo Labs
    Jul 2022 - Present · 4 yrs

    Material technology company developing replacements for plastic using nature’s polymers, for multiple global industries, markets and product applications.

  • Founder | Director at Field Ventures
    Nov 2014 - Oct 2024 · 10 yrs

    Operating at the intersection of innovation and enterprise. Co-founded by Ayca Dundar Field and Francis Field in 2014, we combine design-thinking with specialist technical and strategic expertise, with an emphasis on sustainability and the environment.

  • Founder | Director at SoluBlue
    Dec 2018 - Aug 2022 · 3 yrs 9 mos

    Biomaterial research and development Multi-award winning venture investigating food security and sustainable materials