“Finished products are for decadent minds.”
— Bail Channis, Second Foundation
Hi! 👋
I’m Rohit — an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and product builder. I graduated in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, spent time around the LHC at CERN (even published a small paper), and today I split my energy between shipping valuable software and understanding how systems scale behind it — from product reasoning to quantum information.
Have a look at my timeline for a detailed walk through of what I’ve built and where I’ve worked.
Where I come from
I grew up in Bangalore, India — informally the “Silicon Valley of India.” Watching tiny shops become national and then global companies hard-wired me to care about bottom-up momentum: ideas → prototypes → customers → compounding results.1 That early exposure nudged me into computing and the craft of turning ideas into running systems.
What I’m doing now
- Senior/founding engineering. I like zero-to-one problems and the unglamorous glue that makes v1 actually work in production. I’ve built data-heavy features, event/workflow systems, and product analytics dashboards across scrappy startups and mid-stage orgs.
- AI for product context. I’m exploring an AI-powered “context engine” that becomes the system of record for why teams make decisions — stitching signals across docs, issues, designs, and feedback to keep leaders aligned.
- Hands-on consulting & app improvements. I’ve tuned React/React Native apps, integrated external AI APIs, and shipped paywalled features on Firebase/GCP when teams need momentum more than ceremony.
- Deep-interest lane. I keep my toes in quantum information, mostly for the joy of first-principles thinking and understading.
How I like to build
- Taste: ship the smallest thing that proves value; delete complexity when possible.
- Stack I reach for: TypeScript, tRPC, Drizzle/Prisma + Postgres/Neon, Temporal/queues for workflows, good observability tools (Datadog, Mixpanel).
- Engineering habits: typed contracts, reproducible environments, versioned prompts/configs, and honest metrics. 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration — if I work the hardest, I’ll either succeed or learn quickly that no one can on the given terms.
Reading, writing, and side quests
I read widely and write when I have something to say. You can find essays, notes, and publications here.
I’ve also been known to:
- build questionable hardware (I once resurrected an old Tesla coil),
- host my own music server, and
- tinker with a custom PC for gaming and development.
Sports & play
I’m happiest outdoors — tennis, basketball, or just staring at a dark, quiet sky. (Stargazing > light pollution. 💡)
I also enjoy playing the guitar, and I follow:
| Sport | Team/Player |
|---|
| 🏀 | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 🎾 | Rafael Nadal |
| 🎱 | A soft spot for physics (hi, Coriolis) |
| ⚽ | Manchester United |
> "Finished products are for decadent minds."
> — Bail Channis, [*Second Foundation*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Foundation)
Hi! 👋
I'm Rohit — an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and product builder. I graduated in Computer Science from the [University of Waterloo](https://uwaterloo.ca/), spent time around the LHC at CERN (even published a small paper), and today I split my energy between shipping valuable software and understanding how systems scale behind it — from product reasoning to quantum information.
Have a look at my *[timeline](https://rkaushik29.github.io/work)* for a detailed walk through of what I've built and where I've worked.
### Where I come from
I grew up in [Bangalore, India](https://goo.gl/maps/TZLVzy6jBxneBGMZ7) — informally the "Silicon Valley of India." Watching tiny shops become national and then global companies hard-wired me to care about bottom-up momentum: ideas → prototypes → customers → compounding results.[^1] That early exposure nudged me into computing and the craft of turning ideas into running systems.
### What I'm doing now
- **Senior/founding engineering.** I like zero-to-one problems and the unglamorous glue that makes v1 actually work in production. I've built data-heavy features, event/workflow systems, and product analytics dashboards across scrappy startups and mid-stage orgs.
- **AI for product context.** I'm exploring an AI-powered "context engine" that becomes the system of record for *why* teams make decisions — stitching signals across docs, issues, designs, and feedback to keep leaders aligned.
- **Hands-on consulting & app improvements.** I've tuned React/React Native apps, integrated external AI APIs, and shipped paywalled features on Firebase/GCP when teams need momentum more than ceremony.
- **Deep-interest lane.** I keep my toes in quantum information, mostly for the joy of first-principles thinking and understading.
### How I like to build
- **Taste:** ship the smallest thing that proves value; delete complexity when possible.
- **Stack I reach for:** TypeScript, tRPC, Drizzle/Prisma + Postgres/Neon, Temporal/queues for workflows, good observability tools (Datadog, Mixpanel).
- **Engineering habits:** typed contracts, reproducible environments, versioned prompts/configs, and honest metrics. 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration — if I work the hardest, I'll either succeed or learn quickly that no one can on the given terms.
### Reading, writing, and side quests
I read widely and write when I have something to say. You can find essays, notes, and publications *[here](https://rkaushik29.github.io/library)*.
I've also been known to:
- build questionable hardware (I once resurrected an old Tesla coil),
- host my own music server, and
- tinker with a custom PC for gaming and development.
### Sports & play
I'm happiest outdoors — tennis, basketball, or just staring at a dark, quiet sky. (Stargazing > light pollution. 💡)
I also enjoy playing the guitar, and I follow:
| Sport | Team/Player |
| :---: | :---: |
| 🏀 | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 🎾 | Rafael Nadal |
| 🎱 | A soft spot for physics (hi, Coriolis) |
| ⚽ | Manchester United |
---
[^1]: In 2008, a friend's uncle started an adtech company and spoke about it with wild conviction. Four years later, I opened the paper to see it valued at $1B and moving operations to San Francisco. The company was *[InMobi](https://www.inmobi.com/).* Moments like that imprinted the power of compounding execution.