How Archie’s Rebuild Drove a 2.2x Increase in ARR

Archie is a B2B SaaS platform that centralizes vendor and invoice management, making it easier for businesses to track, manage, and process payments. With features like real-time invoice tracking, in-app communication, and a detailed activity log, Archie reduces manual work and eliminates the need for scattered tools. Our clients use Archie to streamline financial operations, improve team collaboration, and ensure vendors get paid on time.

Imagine a world where businesses don’t have to fight with outdated, disconnected tools just to manage vendor payments. Where operations run smoothly, payments happen on time, and teams aren’t stuck in unnecessary complexity.

That’s what we set out to build with Archie. When this works well, businesses can manage their financial workflows in a way that actually fits how they operate. No forced structures, no inefficiencies—just seamless processes that keep things moving. And for Archie, this means becoming the go-to platform for vendor and invoice management, expanding beyond agencies into industries that urgently need better solutions, unlocking larger deals, and strengthening its position in the market.

As promising as that vision was, the reality was clear: Archie’s original system wasn’t built to handle this level of flexibility.

One of the biggest challenges was how rigid the workflows were. One example was how every user had to create a project (think folder) before doing anything else, but many businesses didn’t think in terms of projects—they just needed to pay invoices quickly and efficiently. That friction alone was enough to drive potential customers away.

There were also deep technical constraints. The initial architecture made it difficult to implement dynamic workflows, limiting our ability to expand into new industries and ultimately scale our revenue. As interest from non-agency businesses grew (specifically in the hospitality space), we found ourselves in a tough spot—companies wanted to adopt Archie, but our system simply couldn’t support their needs. If we didn’t act fast, we’d lose major opportunities.

Before making any big changes, we needed to validate our assumptions. I led the user research, conducting interviews with both existing and prospective customers within the hospitality space (hotels, event spaces, member clubs, venues). I then mapped out their workflows, so we could visualize patterns and pain points with a birds-eye view.

I then organized these clients by type (single-location, multi-location, hospitality management/investment companies, and wellness spaces) and mapped out the tools they use at each phase of the process. From there I did some competitive analysis to understand where we could compete in the market, and what features were required to do so.

I circled back with the Co-Founder and Head of Product to brainstorm how different businesses structured their operations and pinpoint exactly where Archie needed to be more adaptable. From there, we brought together the product, engineering, and sales teams for brainstorming sessions to break down the core issues and reimagine the platform in a way that made sense for all sides.

On top of that, I reviewed our customer feedback database (that I had created a few months prior) with the Head of Product to make sure Archie V2 could represent what our customers were asking for.

We then organized them by category and prioritized them based on impact and feasibility. This gave us a roadmap for what the next iteration of Archie needed to include.

It quickly became clear that small tweaks wouldn’t cut it. The best way forward wasn’t to patch the existing system—it was to rebuild it from the ground up. This was a full team decision–we talked and weighed the options and concluded that it would be significantly faster to rebuild given the infrastructure.

With Archie V2, we introduced a completely new architecture that allowed businesses to structure workflows in a way that actually made sense for them. We redesigned the entire invoice and project management experience, removing unnecessary constraints and optimizing for efficiency. At the same time, we built Archie’s first scalable design system alongside development to ensure consistency and adaptability as the platform grew.

To kick things off, I partnered with the Head of Product to align on business goals, design principles, and the high-level system structure.

I then visualized the entire Archie V2 ecosystem. This served as a high-level "north star" that would be subject to change, but was an available resource throughout the rebuild.

From there, I moved into design—sketching out different UI patterns and experimenting with workflows to find the clearest and most intuitive experience. Throughout the process, I worked iteratively with engineering and product, shifting priorities as needed while ensuring that no compromises were made on usability.

As I started to finalize each section of Archie, I kept a WIP design system going, as a reference and reminder of what patterns I was creating and how they could scale with other features. I partnered closely with our front-end engineers to build out these components, making sure they reflected flexibility and accessibility.

As features started coming together, we ran validation sessions with both customers and our internal customer success team, refining the designs based on real-world input.

After seven months of focused collaboration, we launched Archie V2—an entirely new platform with:
‍
✅ More flexible workflows tailored to different industries
✅ A revamped project and invoice management experience
✅ New design patterns and components
✅ A scalable design system to support future growth

Here are some before / after highlights that we were able to achieve in the rebuild of Archie V2.

Initially, invoices and payments were built as separate entities within the app, leading to confusion for users who viewed them as a single object. During the rebuild, we prioritized enhancing this experience, recognizing that it was not only a core feature of Archie but also essential for meeting the needs of our new target market. We merged invoices and payments into a unified object called a "payable", introduced detailed status indicators to clearly communicate the invoice's state, and significantly reduced the number of clicks required to find and track invoices.

One of the biggest wins was how well the entire team collaborated. We stayed aligned on both business needs and user goals, iterating continuously to get things right.

This was a major unlock for Archie’s long-term vision, setting the foundation for future larger SMB / enterprise adoption, and allowing Archie to scale it's revenue and become a solidified player in the space.