The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2023–2026
Anukari ships 1.0: solo bet that 3D physics make a musical instrument
Evan Mezeske left Google to build Anukari, a $99 synth where 3D masses and springs make sound; 1.0 shipped June 2026.
Anukari (Anukari LLC)
What the business is
Anukari LLC sells Anukari, a $99 software synthesizer and effects processor for Mac, Windows and Linux (VST3, AU, AAX, LV2) built on a real-time 3D physics simulation in which users wire masses, springs, exciters and mics and play them with MIDI, audio or the mouse.
How it started
Evan Mezeske, a Google employee, spent most of 2022 on leave caring for his mother, who died that October; back in November he interviewed for new internal teams while sketching business ideas on weekends — the first documents he had fun writing in years. He decided to take the risk: leave Google, rest for a couple of months, and start Anukari. Full-time work began in February 2023; days later a dirt-bike crash dislocated and fractured his shoulder, leaving months in which typing with a split keyboard in his lap was his main activity — by the time he healed, he had a working prototype.
What happened
Polyphony — the feature a buyer would expect — took until mid-2024 and was cracked by a simple realization: change the rate at which time passes in the simulation, shifting pitch without changing timbre. He shipped a pre-alpha to about ten Discord testers in August 2024, and his open letter on Apple GPU power management hit #1 on Hacker News, leading to direct work with Apple GPU engineers on low-latency Metal 4 APIs; Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's lead sound designer joined as a tester. In April 2025 he set up the LLC, wrote a EULA and launched a paid beta — but journalists who covered the pre-alpha ignored the launch emails, so day-one attention was mostly a mailing list of a few hundred.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Anukari is a software synthesizer and effects processor built on a fully interactive 3D physics simulation: users wire masses and springs in 3D space, add mallets, bows or their own audio, and hear the structure ring, vibrate and feed back. Anukari LLC sells it for $99 as a standalone app and as VST3, AU, AAX and LV2 plugins for Mac, Windows and Linux. The founding idea, stated on the site, was the bet itself: "what if you could build instruments out of simulated physical masses and springs in 3D space... and just hear what happens?"
Evan Mezeske, then a Google employee, spent most of 2022 on leave caring for his mother, who died that October; returning in November, he interviewed for internal teams while sketching business ideas on weekends — the first writing he had enjoyed in years. He left Google and started full-time in February 2023; days later a dirt-bike crash broke his shoulder, and months of immobility turned into his first real momentum, since coding was the one thing he could do. He released a pre-alpha to about ten Discord testers in August 2024.
Development was a solo marathon: polyphony took until mid-2024 (solved by changing the speed of time in each simulation), an open letter about Apple GPU power management hit #1 on Hacker News and led to work with Apple engineers on Metal 4, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's lead sound designer became a tester. The paid beta launched in April 2025 with little press splash — journalists ignored the emails — before the Show HN on 2025-05-02 drew 512 points and 123 comments.
The founder kept building for another year, adding an FX object with 27 effects, and released Anukari 1.0 on 2026-06-23 — three years and four months after the first line of code. As of 2026-09-05 the site is live at $99 with endorsements from musicians Mick Gordon, Benn Jordan and Cylob; the material discloses no funding, and the bet remains live but niche.
What has to be true
- A real commercial startup: an LLC selling paid software, built full-time for more than three years by a founder who left Google — not a hobby repo.
- The bet is explicit and falsifiable: that an interactive 3D physics sandbox is itself an instrument people will pay for, in a market the founder calls "super niche."
- Documented public attention: Show HN on 2025-05-02 drew 512 points and 123 comments; an open letter about Apple GPUs hit #1 on HN; the site displays working musicians' endorsements.
- The distribution lesson is sharp: the paid beta launch that depended on journalists flopped, while direct channels — Discord testers, a mailing list and HN — carried the product.
What can be applied
For a niche product, own the audience before launch: Anukari's press-dependent beta launch fell flat, while its Discord testers, mailing list and Hacker News posts were what actually found buyers.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05 Anukari 1.0 (released 2026-06-23) is on sale for $99 at anukari.com for Mac, Windows and Linux in VST3, AU, AAX and LV2 formats, with the site's newsletter and devlog still active — a June 2026 post recounts the full arc and introduces a new FX object. The founder reports paying freelance collaborators (Jason Clark for tutorials and presets, Amfivolia for 3D models) and lawyers to set up the LLC; no funding, revenue or user numbers are disclosed in the material.
Sources
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