Building products from 0 to 1, as a founding engineer and solo builder
I'm Ramkumar. I specialize in taking raw ideas and turning them into production-ready products—whether that's building core risk platforms at Oscilar, scaling databases at Yugabyte, or launching my own AI tools like CoachMyChess and OfferPro.
I believe engineers should be product-minded. I don't just write code; I build solutions for real-world problems—whether it's managing real estate offers or helping my kid improve at chess.
Featured Projects
From parking lot prototypes to enterprise-scale platforms
Oscilar: Founding Engineer (0 to 1)
Modern fintechs need sophisticated, real-time risk and fraud management that can scale without a massive team.
My full-time work, and where most of my energy goes. As a founding team member I've built Oscilar's AI Risk Decisioning platform from an empty repo—leading the agentic AI team and owning the foundations that make it enterprise-ready.
CoachMyChess: AI for Chess Parents & Kids
Parents in tournament parking lots have no idea how their kids are actually progressing or what they should practice next.
A pet project at the intersection of two things I love: coaching my kids and building with AI. It turns their real games from Chess.com and Lichess into coaching a kid—and a non-chess-playing parent—can actually use.
OfferPro.ai: AI-Powered Real Estate Offer Management
Real estate agents are drowning in PDF offers and manual data entry, making it hard to compare deals quickly.
A pet project born from my own real-estate investing. An AI tool that reads messy PDF offers, extracts the terms, and does the tedious comparison work for agents—so they can get back to their clients.
The Product-Minded Engineer
My approach to building software
Focus on 'Why', not just 'How'
Technology is a means to an end. I start with the user's problem and work backwards to the stack.
Building 0-1 requires ruthlessly prioritizing the 'must-haves' over the 'nice-to-haves'. I focus on delivering value fast and iterating based on real feedback.
The Solo Builder Mindset
Owning the full stack from infrastructure to UI allows for faster cycles and tighter feedback loops.
Projects like OfferPro and CoachMyChess were built end-to-end solo. This experience allows me to make better technical trade-offs that align with business goals.
Scale with Precision
Experience scaling systems at Facebook and Yugabyte ensures that fast builds don't become fragile ones.
I know when to build for the millionth user and when to build for the first one. Reliability is built into the foundation, not bolted on later.