Jessica Mahoney’s name now shares space in the U.S. patent archives with Thomas Edison’s.
“Not bad,” she joked.
Mahoney, founder and CEO of Miami-based ImaageQ, earned that distinction after traveling to Washington, D.C., to defend the company’s patented technology. But while Edison helped illuminate physical spaces, Mahoney is tackling a more modern challenge: teaching artificial intelligence to understand them.
“Our mission is to help change how we interact with the built world, and we’re starting with interior design,” Mahoney [pictured above] told Refresh Miami.
ImaageQ’s spatial intelligence platform helps homebuyers see what an empty or poorly staged property could become. A broker scans a room to generate an AutoCAD-style model. The platform then uses a buyer’s preferences, budget and lifestyle to furnish the space virtually with products from participating brands, all through a phone, without virtual reality glasses.
The idea grew out of a career that began far from artificial intelligence. Born and raised in New York City, Mahoney’s first job after college involved selling copy machines door to door. It taught her “what it really meant to have professional salesmanship,” she recalled.
Mahoney later worked at Cushman & Wakefield, studied technology management at Columbia University and helped build multifamily real estate startup redIQ, which Berkshire Hathaway’s Berkadia eventually acquired.
Although redIQ produced sophisticated financial models, some properties still had vacancy rates around 10%. Mahoney began wondering whether prospective residents struggled to envision themselves inside those spaces.
After moving to Miami, she met veteran interior designer Geri Weiner, who would become her business partner, after offering a blunt initial review.
“She said, ‘If you’re building a design app, I don’t think it’s ever going to work,’” Mahoney recalled.
That skepticism sharpened the concept. Together, they began developing technology that could extend a designer’s expertise across markets and reach buyers as they considered a home.
ImaageQ is starting in luxury real estate, where buyers may dismiss multimillion-dollar properties because they are empty or badly staged. Furniture brands can reach customers at the beginning of a move, while brokers and developers get a tool intended to accelerate sales and reduce the carrying costs of unsold units.
The company was preparing to move from beta testing into a pilot, with plans to generate revenue by the end of the year. It had also raised more than $1 million and was finishing its fundraising round, according to Mahoney.
Its ambitions extend beyond interior design. Mahoney sees possible applications wherever technology needs to understand physical environments and plans to develop ImaageQ Labs to explore them.
Miami, where she has lived for three years, is central to that vision. Mahoney hopes to create local jobs, collaborate with educational institutions and give students access to emerging technology.
“I believe in Miami for Miami,” she said. “This is a city of innovation, and there’s no better city to curate that than here.”
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Get Smartsy! This Miami startup is making beautiful graphic design accessible to all
- How Miami startup Streann became part of the World Cup’s biggest screens
- Kind Designs just raised a star-studded $10 million round to change how America builds seawalls
- With Postr, the creator economy found a new home address
- ImaageQ wants to give homebuyers a better view of the future – August 11, 2026
- Commas is building the operating system for making money online – August 10, 2026
- HealthSnap raises $25M to turn its AI promise into a growth engine – August 6, 2026
