Operational AI
- ──Agents that read, write, file and chase — with human-in-the-loop
- ──Eval harnesses so they can’t drift in silence
Vol. 01 — Issue 04 · A working agency, not a sales floor
EST. 2026 — REMOTE / BENGALURU
We build the quiet software
that runs your company.
A three-person studio. We sit with one founder at a time and quietly automate the dull machinery of their company — so the team gets the next quarter back.
The house rule
One client. One problem. One quarter. We don’t take the second.
03
Engineers
All you get, every project
04
Clients a year
One per quarter
12
Weeks each
Ship, then leave
—
Retainers
We don't do them
§ 01 — Manifesto
Most agencies sell hours. We sell a finished thing — scoped, shipped in 90 days, handed over with the keys.
- i.
Sit beside the founder
Two days on-site at kickoff. Butcher paper before laptops.
- ii.
Ship in 12 weeks
Diagnose, build in the open, handover. Then we leave.
- iii.
AI where it earns its keep
Otherwise: a cron, a queue, a clean schema. Boring is a compliment.
§ 02 — Capabilities
Four shapes the work usually takes, depending on what’s leaking.
Internal tools
- ──Admin panels, approval flows, audit trails — not another Retool
- ──Built on your stack: Postgres, Next, the boring-good ones
Data plumbing
- ──ETL from the four SaaS tools your ops team lives inside
- ──One source of truth your CFO opens on Mondays
Document intelligence
- ──Invoices, contracts, KYC, returns — structured with citations
- ──RAG only when retrieval beats a well-named column
§ 03 — Process
A quarter, sliced four ways.
- 01Week 0
The conversation
A 90-minute call. We tell you which of the four shapes you are — or that you’re not for us.
- 02Week 1
Diagnosis on-site
Two of us fly in. We shadow ops, finance, the founder’s inbox. Leave with a one-pager and a fixed price.
- 03Weeks 2–10
Build, in your Slack
Daily standup. Friday demo. Live Linear. Your team reads the code as it’s written.
- 04Weeks 11–12
Handover & withdraw
We train two of your people, hand over the runbook, leave the Slack. Six-week warranty. Then truly gone.
§ 04 — The four we picked
Read all field notes →Proof of work, written like a journal.
01
Q1 · 20269 min read
OpenIntervue — HR Tech
HR Tech · AI Interview Automation
OpenIntervue positions hiring as a scale problem solved through ‘human-less’ AI interviews. Their landing experience centers on PIHU, an AI interviewer that automates job description generation, bulk resume intake, interview creation, coding assessments, scheduling, and reporting while keeping decisions structured and audit-friendly.
Read the field note- 97.05%claimed tech & non-tech accuracy
- 80%up to cost savings highlighted
- 10+hiring workflow modules on landing
02
Q4 · 202512 min read
Pihu.ai — Recruitment Infrastructure
Recruitment Infrastructure · API-first
Pihu.ai frames itself as a composable recruitment platform: AI interviews, code evaluation, pre-screening, written assessments, aptitude testing, resume parsing, candidate engagement, and HR co-pilot workflows. The landing page emphasizes plug-in APIs, token-based pricing, and direct ATS/HRMS interoperability rather than a closed dashboard-only model.
Read the field note- 50%up to hiring-time reduction claim
- 9core AI offerings on homepage
- 4pricing tiers (Starter→Enterprise)
03
Q3 · 20257 min read
Nudge — Learning Experience Platform
Learning Experience Platform · In-tool Agent
heynudge.in rethinks software learning by running instruction directly inside real tools (instead of passive videos). Their three-phase loop—Guided, Assisted, Solo—moves users from observing cursor-led steps to independent execution, with contextual hints and progression logic built for transfer to real project work.
Read the field note- 3learning phases on core flow
- 4featured tool ecosystems showcased
- v0.1product release stage on landing
04
Q2 · 202510 min read
Stacy IDE — Web3 DevTooling
Web3 DevTooling · Stellar/Soroban
stacyide.xyz presents a zero-setup AI IDE focused on Soroban development: intent-to-contract generation, cloud compilation/testing/deployment, and one-click launch to Stellar networks. The messaging combines accessibility (no local Rust/CLI setup) with advanced workflows like generated client bindings and integrated wallet/dev infrastructure.
Read the field note- 3build-to-deploy steps highlighted
- 4language/runtime surfaces called out
- 0local setup required (positioning)
§ 05 — Field notes
All essays →Things we wrote down, so we wouldn’t forget.
On AIEngineering
When a cron beats a model
We rewrote a $40k/month inference pipeline as a 60-line scheduled job. The decision tree we run before reaching for an LLM.
On scopeFounders
How to fire your agency in week one
The questions to ask any vendor by Friday of kickoff. If they can’t answer them — fire them. We’ll wait.
On craftEngineering
Boring software, sharp edges
Our internal style guide for ops tools. Why every form is a server action. Why we don’t ship without an undo.
§ 06 — The three of us
We are three people. The same three every time.
KPortrait pending
Kartik Shukla
Founding engineer
Ten years shipping at fintechs and consumer apps. Will rewrite a SQL query at 1 a.m. for sport.
Prev. Finrep, Razorpay
VPortrait pending
Vichitra Attri
Design & systems
Designs the tools we put in your team’s hands. Lived inside an enterprise admin panel so you don’t have to.
Prev. Notion, Atlas
GPortrait pending
Gautam Sharma
Infra & data
Pipelines, queues, queries — and the dignity of a clean schema.
Prev. Stripe, Zerodha
§ 07 — Why “cafe”
One table at a time. The owner knows your order. Espresso, short and on time.
House menu
- Espresso90-minute teardown call · free
- Pour-over1-week paid diagnosis · ₹2.5L
- Tasting menu12-week build · fixed
- Off the menuWe’ll politely decline
House rules
- 01We’ll tell you not to hire us if your problem is a hiring problem.
- 02We don’t start what we can’t finish in a quarter.
- 03No junior team copies our work for the next client.
- 04Keys, docs, on-call — then we leave.
§ 08 — Book a table
Tell us what’s eating your week.
One paragraph is enough. We reply within 48 hours with a yes, a no, or a referral. No deck. No discovery funnel.