Hi, I'm Ali.
Glad you are here.
Early Days
Born in the beautiful city of Pune. I was packed off to Dubai at a few months of age.
Dubai in the 80s wasn't the shining showroom you see today. It was hot and sandy. The 16 years I spent there were amazing. I saw the city transform right in front of me from a desert to a place that the world wants to call home. Even though it will never really be their home.
Middle Days
I moved back to Pune at the age of 16. Moving back was a huge change. India felt like a maze of tight circles and inside jokes I didn't know yet.
I finished high school, did the engineering thing, and got a computer science degree from PICT. Everyone else in my family went back to Dubai. I didn't. I didn't want a life that depended on visas and stamps.
Work Experience
I've been working for 15 years (and counting) and have either worked with a startup or built my own. I like the chaos of 0 to 1. And the discipline of 1 to 10. Travel tech, consumer tech, gaming, and consulting is where I've spent my working life.
Somewhere in between, I wrote two books on iOS development. So I'm also a published author.
Now
Outsourced product engineering is what I'm obsessed with right now. It's a trillion-dollar market sitting wide open because AI has changed the rules.
For years this space has survived on offshore staffing billed by the hour. Time and material. It turns great product leaders into project managers. And in a world where competitors are shipping faster, and building is easy, that model just doesn't hold up anymore.
The service model needs a reset. The business model needs a reset.
I'm spending a lot of my time figuring out how to break this and rebuild it.
Links
- Craft Theorys: Essays on the creative art of building products, modern work, and outsourced product engineering.
- Company Newsletter: A monthly note on product engineering from the eyes of a service provider. And yes, I will try to sell you our services. You've been warned.
- LinkedIn: I mostly write about product engineering and the problems no one wants to talk about. It also builds pipeline for the agency, so don't expect memes.
- Wednesday: A product engineering studio for the AI age. McKinsey-level experience with a business model that actually makes sense today.
- Tuesday: A Webflow studio. Clean builds, fast delivery, subscription pricing.
Family