Interactive Chat Response

Founder
Jan 2017 – Oct 2017

Driven by a passion for solving real-world problems, I founded Whydesk Technologies to reimagine customer support through programmable, predictable, and future-proof chat interfaces. The venture stemmed from a common frustration — how outdated technologies like Touch Tone IVR continue to frustrate customers, despite the rise of smartphones and modern communication platforms.

Whydesk’s solution, Interactive Chat Response (ICR) as a Service, provided enterprises with a simple, extensible platform to create static, programmable bots that serve as reliable customer support agents. Designed without the complexity of AI, the platform prioritized predictability, ease of integration, and seamless adoption — while remaining future-ready with extension capabilities to support AI-driven enhancements.

Key contributions:

  • Identified and validated a customer pain point — transforming legacy support models by building accessible, programmable chatbot solutions.
  • Architected and developed a cloud-based platform that empowered businesses to create customer support bots without relying on AI, ensuring consistent interactions.
  • Enabled extensibility for future integrations with AI platforms, helping enterprises scale customer support use cases while preserving control and reliability.
  • Led the company through product development, business outreach, and technical strategy, gaining invaluable experience in entrepreneurship and cross-functional execution.

Learnings & impact:

  • Solving real customer problems requires deep empathy, willingness to prototype fast, and resilience in the face of uncertainty.
  • Building for scale begins with simplifying complexity — a principle that carries over into architecture and leadership decisions.
  • Entrepreneurship accelerated my understanding of product-market fit, user experience, and how technology can bridge operational gaps.

This experience broadened my perspective on customer-centric innovation, technical design, and business strategy — lessons that continue to shape my approach to engineering leadership and scalable product development.