Build and scale
Founder-operator. Product from zero, full ownership, backend included.
Engineer · Founder · Builds and scales
Engineer and founder. I co-founded two companies, scaled one to 10,000+ users with no outside funding, and now bring that same bias for building and delivering to product, strategy, and sustainability.
I started building things before I studied how to. At 22 I co-founded Boxall, a hyperlocal delivery app in small-town Kerala, and grew it to over 10,000 users and $80k in sales in a year, bootstrapped, in a market everyone said was already locked up. Alongside it I ran Dodge 'n Burns, a studio that delivered more than 165 projects for clients in over 8 countries.
Five years of that taught me the part most people skip: an idea is worth nothing until it works in someone's hands. I came to Linköping for a master's in sustainability engineering to point that instinct at harder problems, decarbonisation and circularity inside real product development, where good intentions usually die in the gap between strategy and the engineers actually designing the thing.
I still build. During my thesis at Toyota Material Handling Europe I wrote a small internal web app just to capture the data we needed. That is the throughline: I turn messy problems into things that work.
Founder-operator. Product from zero, full ownership, backend included.
Turning messy data and stakeholder reality into decisions people can act on.
Engineering-grounded, from LCA to value retention, aimed at decisions rather than slideware.
Master's thesis
Problem When a forklift reaches end of life, almost nothing it could teach flows back to the people designing the next one.
What I did Ran an embedded case study across three TMH sites on three continents, conducted 23+ stakeholder interviews across R&D, operations, and compliance to map where circularity decisions actually get made, and built an internal web app to capture the inputs. Turned it into a decision framework for product engineers.
Result A circularity decision framework for product engineers, and a foundation for further research.
Public framing only. No internal data or figures.
Co-founder and CEO
Problem A small Kerala city had no delivery infrastructure and incumbents everyone assumed owned the market.
What I did Built and ran the platform end to end, product, operations, and a team of 8, fully bootstrapped.
Result 10,000+ users and $80k+ GMV in 12 months, churn down to 2.3%, costs down 20%, and the city's first tech startup, which opened a path for three more.
Co-founder
Problem Clients needed brand, web, and growth but could not stitch five freelancers into one outcome.
What I did Built a turnkey studio with a team of 18, owning delivery from scope to launch.
Result 165+ projects for 90+ clients across 8+ countries, including one funnel taken from $0 to $130k in 13 months at a $1.10 acquisition cost.
MSc Sustainability Engineering and Management, Linköping University, 2026.
BTech Mechanical Engineering, Mahatma Gandhi University, India.
President, Navitas Studentförening (35 people, SEK 50k budget).
Student board member, Linköping Science Park (1 of 8).
Startup mentor, Thodupuzha Development Forum Kerala (TDFK), 2022 to 2024. Three mentored ventures are now active businesses.
Incubated at Startup India and Kerala Startup Mission.
Top 3 finalist, Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS).
KSUM Market Acceleration Grant, awarded among 278 qualified applicants.
Python, SQL, HTML/CSS.
Excel and LCA modelling, GRANTA EduPack, Adobe.
English (C2), Malayalam (native), Hindi, Swedish (learning).
When I'm not building, I'm usually around people, music, a court, or a kitchen.
I'm happiest in a room full of people. Most weeks I end up at some kind of gathering.
Spotify clocked me at 200+ artists last year and top 1% listener for a good number of them, a record among my friends. Billy Joel and Sushin Shyam lead, with Peter Cat Recording Co. and Osho Jain close behind.
Less than I used to, but I still pick up a book here and there. The Kite Runner is my favourite so far. As a kid I worked through most of Jeffrey Archer.
Badminton and cricket when I play, cricket and football when I watch. I follow both closely.
I learnt to cook properly in 2025 and now pick up a new cuisine whenever I can.
A few countries in so far. The beach is where I feel most at home.
I'm after roles where strategy meets execution, in product, sustainability, or anything that needs someone who can think it through and then build it.
connect@jai-k.com