about.md
About
Founder and technologist building AI-native products that change how businesses operate, from restaurant tech to habit-building apps to enterprise AI.
Hi, I'm Subodh
I'm a founder and technologist who builds things that work. Over 14+ years, I've gone from building mobile and IoT products at Philips to architecting AI systems that serve millions of users. I care about software that adapts to humans, not the other way around.
I'm based in Bangalore and work with teams globally.
What I'm working on
Today I run four ventures, each tackling a different slice of the same philosophy.
Spoon is an AI-native restaurant back-office platform. As Founding Engineer and CTO, I built the technical foundation from scratch, including deep Toast POS integration, voice AI for hands-free operations management, and real-time analytics for cost optimization, sales forecasting, and staffing. We are helping restaurant operators run smarter, leaner businesses.
OneNeural is my own company, a consulting practice for AI thought leadership and agentic product development. We advise teams on applied-AI strategy and design, build and ship agentic products end to end (RecruitIQ for agentic hiring is one of them), and share patterns for agent orchestration, multi-modal interfaces, and RAG with private knowledge bases.
Atoms is the official Atomic Habits app by James Clear. As Principal Engineer, I help drive the technical architecture behind a product that reached 600K+ organic installs in its first year, maintains 120K+ monthly active users, and earned a Webby Award nomination. Our AI-driven habit nudging system increased streak completions by 2.4x, and we hold 35-40% thirty-day retention, which is 5-6x the consumer app industry average.
Ayrin Digital is an AI integration and system modernization consultancy. As CTO, I have led 50+ client engagements with companies like Google, Nike, Clorox, AccuWeather, Pearson, and Royal Caribbean. We help enterprises adopt AI, modernize their architectures, and build scalable products.
How I got here
My career started in mobile and IoT. At Philips Healthcare, I built iOS and Android apps, developed wearable solutions, and did R&D on IoT infrastructure. At HARMAN International, I led iOS and Android development, cross-platform work with Xamarin and React Native, Node.js and .NET services, and cloud setup on AWS and Azure for connected-device products. That early work gave me a deep respect for device constraints, connectivity, and shipping to real users on real hardware.
From there, I moved into mobile and cloud. At Mutual Mobile, I spent five years building products for clients across healthcare, logistics, field operations, and consumer apps, growing from an engineer into a technical lead, then into an architect responsible for system design and client delivery. At Symbl.ai, I worked on real-time conversation intelligence, building APIs for voice, video, and text understanding at scale.
Those experiences shaped how I think about systems: start with the user, design for scale, and never lose sight of the business problem you are solving. The full timeline is on the experience page.
What I believe
Software should adapt to humans, not the other way around. This is not a tagline; it is the filter I run every product decision through. If the user has to change their behavior to fit the tool, the tool is wrong.
- On product design: AI-native means AI is a first-class citizen in the product, not a feature bolted on after the fact.
- On architecture: Great systems are designed to evolve. The hardest part is building the first version in a way that does not trap you when requirements change.
- On engineering culture: A builder mindset beats theory. Good fundamentals are what make fast execution sustainable.
- On business impact: I measure success by outcomes, not activity. Lines of code, number of PRs, hours worked; none of these are metrics I care about.
How I lead
I lead through context, not control. My job is to make sure my team understands the problem deeply enough to solve it better than I could alone: sharing the "why" behind decisions, being transparent about constraints and trade-offs, and getting out of the way once direction is clear.
- Servant leadership is not soft leadership. Supporting your team means having hard conversations early, clearly, and with respect.
- Ownership scales better than oversight. I hire for judgment and then trust that judgment.
- Diverse perspectives produce better systems. Homogeneous thinking leads to blind spots, in code and in product.
- Speed and quality are not opposites. Good fundamentals let you move fast without accumulating debt.
Outside work
My curiosity extends well beyond technology, and it shapes how I think about problems, design products, and relate to people.
Nature, farming, and animals. I spend time on my farmhouse whenever I can. I am building a permaculture setup there, growing trees, working with plants, and paying attention to how natural systems sustain themselves. Animals are part of that picture. The patience required to grow something from the ground up is not that different from building a company.
Science, art, and spirituality. I am drawn to how things work at every scale, from quantum mechanics to ecosystems to questions about meaning and purpose. Art and aesthetics shape how I design products, and I think about the big questions more than most engineers admit to.
Travel, culture, and music. Different cultures challenge assumptions. I have worked and traveled across multiple continents, and those experiences changed how I think about building for diverse users. My playlist is rarely mainstream; independent artists pushing creative boundaries keep things interesting.
A personal note
Trying hard to get a hold of my life.
That is my honest state, most of the time. Running four ventures, staying technically sharp, being present for the people I care about, and still finding time to think clearly about what matters. I am not pretending to have it figured out. I am just trying to do good work, learn from the process, and leave things a little better than I found them.
Kind words
What clients have said about working with Ayrin Digital, the consultancy I lead as CTO.
“I wasn't expecting such a high level of commitment from a third-party partner. The development work had a very positive impact on the business, helping the business gain more clients and users. The team's efforts played a role in internal success, and their end-to-end product management was an advantage. They were a devoted partner who offered valuable suggestions.”
“With good ideas, contact, and feedback, Ayrin's team has been able to save almost half an hour per day per person, by the use of biometrics, which is a lot of money for a company of our size. A completely new code written without bugs took about a third of the time as the first attempt for around a third of the price.”
“Our experience with Ayrin's team has been phenomenal. We were up against some pretty overwhelming problems in the CRE space, and with the team's help we've built incredibly powerful, intuitive software to enable our brokers to win more business and while delivering an unforgettable client experience. The team was consistent, reliable and transparent with their process and deliverables. I'm always impressed at their ability to interpret our needs and provide a simple, beautiful solution.”
“The team is competent and are very flexible and engage with each other and with my team. Their drive to be part of long-standing solutions means that they work collaboratively from day one with a vision that goes beyond on-trend products. Their work has solidified a positive brand opinion.”
“The team worked with us to integrate the power of real-time connectivity and the cloud into more than a million ESCORT and Beltronics models on the road today.”
“After working with this team for years, I fully trust them to drive the execution of Flexdrive's vision. Thanks to their partnership, we've expanded from a fleet of 35 vehicles in one market to almost 600 vehicles in four major metros; and that was just the beginning.”
“Great design, terrific code quality: a really talented team.”
“The team delivered an intuitive platform that received positive feedback from its more than 24,000 active users. The product generated more than $1 million in gross revenue within a year. The team is responsive, adapting practices according to feedback, which supports ongoing collaboration.”
“Our business is driven by our network of skilled Style Advisors, and we created Style Kit to help deliver a more effective, customized shopping experience at the point of sale. The impact on transaction metrics affirms that the platform is an effective way to further enhance the J.Hilburn experience through digital commerce.”
“They fired on all cylinders in every single function. We're very thankful for such a positive experience and well-executed delivery.”
“I was particularly excited about the ways that elementary teachers will be able to take advantage of the platform to collect more and better data about their students and progress. Careful progress monitoring and intervention during children's formative years is so critical to their future success, and with our platform, teachers will have the ability to record assessments and share results with their colleagues and parents anytime, anywhere, in real time.”
“It is exciting to find a team like Ayrin's. As an innovator, we are seeking passionate driven partners without the typical limitations in their heads.”
“I really appreciated their dedication and their willingness to accommodate based on our needs. The team provided the best communication methods and the highest level of availability that I've experienced.”