Founding engineer turned founder. Building at the intersection of manufacturing and AI. https://nipunj.com/ Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:21:02 +0000 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:21:02 +0000 Jekyll v4.4.1 <p>After four years at LaunchDarkly — and before that, the wild ride of building Houseware from the ground up as a founding engineer and watching it get acquired — I decided to step away. Not because I was burned out, but because something else had grabbed my attention completely.</p> <p>During a consulting engagement with the Sankar Group, I got a close look at how manufacturing actually works in India. And honestly, it shocked me. Here are companies doing serious business, competing globally, and their technology stack is decades behind. Excel spreadsheets running production planning. Manual quality processes. ERPs that feel like they belong in a museum.</p> <p>The more I dug in, the more I realized this isn’t a niche problem. India has over four million factories, and the vast majority run on some version of this setup. Meanwhile, the country is positioned for a once-in-a-generation manufacturing boom — PLI schemes, China+1 shifts, massive government push.</p> <p>I took a deliberate career break to think about what I wanted to build next. The answer became obvious: the software and AI layer that Indian manufacturing desperately needs. Not the enterprise sales, million-dollar-implementation kind. The kind that actually works on the shop floor.</p> <p>I’m early. I’m figuring things out. But I’ve never been more convinced about a problem space. More to come.</p> <p>After four years at LaunchDarkly — and before that, the wild ride of building Houseware from the ground up as a founding engineer and watching it get acquired — I decided to step away. Not because I was burned out, but because something else had grabbed my attention completely.</p> Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nipunj.com/blog/starting-up/ https://nipunj.com/blog/starting-up/