# Sandip Gangakhedkar

> Sandip Gangakhedkar is a technologist, AI systems builder and founder in London, designing and shipping production AI systems with founders and teams.

Sandip Gangakhedkar is based in London, UK, and works with teams worldwide. Now: Building a new venture at the intersection of AI and institutional finance.

## 01 I build things

Section: https://sandip.live/#intro

- Headline: I build things.
- I'm Sandip Gangakhedkar, a technologist and founder in London, UK. I enjoy designing, building and shipping products that solve real problems.
- [About](https://sandip.live/about/): profile, portrait and links elsewhere.

## Projects

Page: https://sandip.live/projects/

- New venture (Founder, not public yet): Building a new venture at the intersection of AI and institutional finance.
- Imperium Drive (Co-founder & CTO, autonomous driving): Pioneered a human-in-the-loop approach to autonomous driving. Built an automotive-grade teleoperations system and integrated it onto 4+ vehicle platforms. Covered by Reuters. Sources: Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/technology/truly-autonomous-cars-may-be-impossible-without-helpful-human-touch-2022-09-12/). Link: http://imperiumdrive.com/.
- Fetch (Co-founder & CPO, Launched 2023): Launched Europe's first commercial tele-driven car hire service in Milton Keynes, UK Covered by BBC News. Sources: BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-65768717). Link: https://fetchcar.io/.
- Fractional CTO and CPO (AI and analytics startups and SMEs, UK and US): Technology and product leadership for teams building AI-native products: agentic AI workflows, AI solution architecture and evals. Link: https://sandip.live/services/.
- Meshh (Head of Product Engineering (acting CTO)): Led product engineering at a spatial analytics company that uses passive wifi sensing to understand visitor engagement at live events. Link: https://www.meshh.com/.
- Bell Labs, Nokia and Huawei (Applied research, about a decade): Developed novel communication systems and network protocols, including industry-first 5G demos and proofs of concept. 20+ patents filed. Papers at top-tier scientific conferences. Sources: Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=tboYBpIAAAAJ&hl=en). Link: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=tboYBpIAAAAJ&hl=en.

## 02 Ways to work together

Section: https://sandip.live/#work

- [Founders and scale-ups](https://sandip.live/services/#founders): Senior technology and product leadership that stays hands-on: architecture, roadmap, team scaling, and technical due diligence when you raise.
- [Companies adopting AI](https://sandip.live/services/#ai): Agentic workflows, solution architecture and evals, taken from prototype to a system your team can run.
- [Speaking and press](https://sandip.live/services/#speaking): AI systems in production, humans in the loop, and building deep tech, from first-hand experience.

### Founders and scale-ups
- Technology strategy and roadmap: Align technology with business goals and market opportunities.
- Architecture and scalability: Design systems that grow with the business.
- Product-market fit: Define and validate product strategy, MVP development and go-to-market.
- Roadmap and prioritisation: Balance new features against technical debt and scalability.
- Team scaling: Hire, onboard and structure high-performing engineering and product teams.
- Process: Agile delivery, DevOps and quality practices that fit how the team works.
- Innovation and R&D direction: Identify where to build IP and defensibility, and make it happen.

### Companies adopting AI
- Agentic AI workflows: Agents that take on real work inside your processes, with people in charge of the decisions that matter.
- AI solution architecture: Models, data, tools and infrastructure, chosen for the problem in front of you.
- Evals: Measure whether the system does what it should, before it ships and after.
- Prototype to production: Turn a working demo into a system your team can operate and improve.
- Data and analytics: Location intelligence, real-time processing and machine learning applications.

### Speaking topics
- AI systems in production: What it takes to move agentic workflows and evals from prototype to production.
- Humans in the loop: Building human-in-the-loop autonomous driving at Imperium Drive and Fetch, and what it teaches about AI systems.
- Building deep tech: Commercialising deep tech on limited resources, from research idea to product.

### Questions
- What is a fractional CTO? A fractional CTO is a part-time Chief Technology Officer who provides strategic technology leadership to companies that don't need, or can't yet justify, a full-time executive. The work covers technology strategy, architecture decisions, team building and technical due diligence, on a flexible basis.
- What is a fractional CPO? A fractional CPO is a part-time Chief Product Officer who helps with product strategy, roadmap development, product-market fit and user experience, bringing senior product expertise without the commitment of a full-time hire.
- When should a startup bring in a fractional CTO? When it needs senior technical leadership but isn't ready for a full-time hire: preparing to raise and needing technical due diligence support, scaling the engineering team and needing guidance on hiring and process, or making architecture decisions that will shape long-term growth.
- How is a fractional CTO different from a consultant? A fractional CTO works as an embedded member of the leadership team and takes ownership of technology decisions and outcomes: attending team meetings, making hiring decisions, and staying accountable for delivery. A consultant typically advises without taking on that operational responsibility.
- Do you help companies adopt AI? Yes. I design and ship AI systems with teams: agentic AI workflows, AI solution architecture and evals, taken from prototype to production.
- Can you help with fundraising or technical due diligence? Yes. I carry out technology assessments for fundraising and M&A covering architecture, code quality, team capability and technical risk, and help founders articulate their technology vision and align the technical roadmap with business milestones.
- Which industries do you have experience in? Autonomy and hardware, mobility and transportation, B2B SaaS and platforms, data and analytics, AI-native products, and telecoms and networks.
- Where are you based, and do you work remotely? I'm based in London, UK, and work with clients globally, remotely or in a hybrid way, and in person in and around London when needed.

## 03 Notes from the trenches

Section: https://sandip.live/#writing

- [The Harness Is Not the Product](https://sandip.live/writing/posts/the-harness-is-not-the-product/): The harness is where the hard engineering is. Adoption is where the value is. Why the product is the harness plus the path to adoption. (14 September 2026)
- [Building a strong documentation culture](https://sandip.live/writing/posts/building-an-effective-documentation-culture/): This article describes the why, what, how and when of documentation for engineering, product and operations teams (17 December 2023)
- [Approaches to building your startup's MVP](https://sandip.live/writing/posts/building-a-startup-mvp/): This article describes various approaches idea-stage startups can take to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). (13 December 2023)
- [Customizing and Deploying your Zola blog to GitHub Pages](https://sandip.live/writing/posts/deploying-zola-blog-on-github/): How I customized and deployed this blog. (15 September 2023)
- [Building a deep-tech startup on a shoestring budget](https://sandip.live/writing/posts/deeptech-budget/): It is 2023, venture funding is the lowest in a decade, amidst the global economic slowdown. Against this backdrop, what does it take to build a deep-tech startup with severely limited resources? (26 August 2023)

## 04 Get in touch

Section: https://sandip.live/#contact

- [Enquiry form](https://sandip.live/contact/): for founders and scale-ups, companies adopting AI, and speaking or press requests.
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandipg)
- [X (Twitter)](https://twitter.com/sandipg)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/sandman)
- [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=tboYBpIAAAAJ&hl=en)

## References

- [REUTERS-2022] Reuters. "Truly autonomous cars may be impossible without helpful human touch." 12 September 2022. https://www.reuters.com/technology/truly-autonomous-cars-may-be-impossible-without-helpful-human-touch-2022-09-12/
- [BBC-2023] BBC News. "Remote driver car rental service launches in Milton Keynes." 1 June 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-65768717
- [SCHOLAR] Google Scholar. "Sandip Gangakhedkar, author profile." https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=tboYBpIAAAAJ&hl=en

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