After the Sprint
Ongoing support
Direct access to Shekhar while your team or integrator builds: a monthly review, answers within two business days, and help with architecture, vendor, and cost questions.
€4,000Per month, cancel anytime
Independent AI advisory for CTOs, CIOs and engineering leaders
Know where AI pays off, and what it costs.
Sarthi is an independent advisory firm for CTOs, CIOs and engineering leaders. In ten days you’ll know which AI ideas to fund, what they will cost to run, and how your engineers should build them.
25+ yearsbuilding software, 10+ in AI
$1B+revenue from products he built at Meta, Coinbase, and eBay
$1.5M a yearsaved by an AI system he designed
Four questions, answered in ten days.
Clear answers before you commit budget to AI, from an adviser with no ties to any model, platform, or reseller.
- Worth it?
- A straight yes or no on each AI idea, with the reasons.
- Which?
- A ranked shortlist with value, cost to build, and payback.
- Cost?
- Build cost, monthly run cost, and token budget, up front.
- How?
- Architecture, frameworks, models, and policies for data and security.
How it works
The AI Blueprint Sprint
Ten business days on one business area. We look at every candidate use case, go deep on the one most worth building, and present the result to your leadership and engineering teams.
Already have a proposal? We can review a consultancy’s, integrator’s, or vendor’s build quote instead: real running cost, risks at scale, and whether to sign.
- Your time
- A sponsor, up to 8 interviews of 45 minutes, and two sessions with an engineer.
- Your data
- Walkthroughs and redacted samples, with access agreed up front.
- Not included
- Implementation and code review. Each extra business area is a separate Sprint.
€24,000Fixed fee per business area
Year-end offer: book by 31 December 2026 and two months of Ongoing support are included. Work can start in January.
What you take away
- A ranked shortlist
- Up to 10 use cases, scored, each with a go, buy, or not-yet call.
- A cost and ROI model
- Rough numbers for all. For the top one: build cost, run cost, token budget, and payback.
- Architecture for the top use case
- Frameworks, models, data flows, integrations, and the policies around them.
How the 10 days run
- Days 1–3: Discover
- Interviews, systems, and sample data.
- Days 4–5: Shortlist
- Score the candidates; agree on the one to design.
- Days 6–9: Design
- Architecture, models, token budget, cost model, and policies.
- Day 10: Readout
- You keep the memo, the architecture diagram, and the cost model.
How the Sprint compares
| Criteria | AI Blueprint Sprint | Large consultancy | Implementation partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to a decision | 10 business days | Months | Weeks, as a pre-sales step |
| Typical cost | €24,000 fixed | Six figures and up | Often discounted, recovered in the build |
| Who does the work | Shekhar Nirkhe, a leading AI expert, personally | Mixed team, senior oversight | Sales engineers and architects |
| Incentive | Vendor-neutral: no ties to any model or platform | Follow-on engagements | Selling their build |
| What you get | Use cases, cost model, architecture, and stop rules | Strategy and roadmap | A proposal for their build |
Other services
Stay close while you build.
Every engagement is led by Shekhar and priced up front. Your team or partner builds, and we stay on call, so you’re never left on your own.
While you build
Fractional AI adviser
Senior judgment every month while AI projects are under way, including oversight of your system integrator. Book within 90 days of a Sprint and half the Sprint fee is credited.
From €8,000Per month, 3-month minimum
Before you decide
Leadership AI briefing
A half-day with your executive team or board on the AI opportunities that matter in your industry and which bets to place first.
From €4,000Half-day session
Common question
Do you build it too?
No, on purpose. We design the system, then stay on to review the build, so our advice never depends on who writes the code. If you need a team, we introduce you to implementation partners we trust and oversee design and quality while they deliver.
Run an engineering or integration firm? Because we never build, we never compete with you. Talk to us about partnering.
Sample decision memo
One yes, one no, and the numbers behind both.
A fictional manufacturer’s finance team brought four AI proposals. The Sprint funded one and turned one down. Every assumption is labelled, so you can swap in your own figures.
Fictional example · Fund
Automate supplier invoice entry
- Value
- 400 hours a month of manual entry today. 70% processed with no human touch; 62 hours of review remain. About €15,200 a month of capacity recovered.
- Cost
- €84,000 one-time, including the Sprint. €2,260 a month to run: tokens, OCR, hosting, and upkeep.
- Payback
- About 6.5 months after go-live.
- Stop rule
- We project payback from the no-touch share and review time seen in shadow mode. Over 18 months, we’d tell you to stop.
Fictional example · Don’t build
Contract-review assistant
- Value
- 25 contracts a month × 0.8 hours saved at €90 an hour: €1,800 a month.
- Cost
- €70,000 to build, €1,200 a month to run.
- Verdict
- 117 months to pay back. Trial a vendor tool instead, and revisit above 70 contracts a month.
Founder-led advisory
Work with a leading AI expert.
Shekhar Nirkhe has spent more than 25 years building software, and over 10 of them in AI. He was Head of Engineering at Meta and Director of Engineering at Coinbase, and has built products at Meta, Coinbase, and eBay that earned more than $1B in revenue.
Recent result
At ZeeHub, where he is Founder and CEO, Shekhar led the design of an AI system that now runs production planning for a manufacturer.
$1.5Msaved for the client every year
Livein production, running the client’s planning, not a pilot
His focus is the hard part of business AI: multi-agent systems, retrieval over messy company data, and the evaluation that proves a system actually works.
He leads every Sarthi engagement himself. There is no hand-off to junior consultants. When an engagement needs more depth, he brings in senior specialists from a trusted network: data and platform engineering, AI security and EU AI Act compliance, and enterprise architecture.
Not sure AI is worth it yet?
Tell us what you’re considering. In 30 minutes you’ll know whether a Blueprint Sprint makes sense.
Prefer email? shekhar@asksarthi.ai · LinkedIn