PRATHMESH TOKEKAR / the operator's desk
00The desk2:07 AM · Nagpur, IN
AD CREATIVE · 9:16
Sponsored₹4 / leadVERIFY

Prathmesh
Tokekar.

build the thing that builds the thing.
- 2am me
REEL · 0:14Prathmesh talking to camera at his desk₹4 per lead.
no, really.

I build companies that run themselves.

CEO and co-founder of Salk AI. BITS Pilani engineer, ex-performance marketer, still writes the code. Most of my org chart is agents.

Salk AI · CEONagpur → Dubai$30M+ Meta spendVERIFY
start here ↓
~/status.loglive
$ whoami --now
currently_buildingsalk.ai performance creative enginecurrently_inNagpur, IN (Dubai, often)currently_reading[BOOK TITLE]last_shipped[THING] · [DATE]agents_online14 VERIFY
$
01
Chapter 01 / 06

The route
so far

8 stops. one exit. the line keeps going. (hover a stop)

Grew up in the geographic center of the country, far from every startup scene. Lesson one: if the action is somewhere else, build your own. [ADD A PERSONAL DETAIL]
ADMIT ONE
NGP → ?
ZERO MILE · CENTRAL INDIA
PASSENGER: P. TOKEKAR
Signals & Systems, wk 6
∫ caffeine dt = 1 semester
get a placement
startup idea #14: ???
Went in for engineering, came out thinking every business is just a system with bad documentation. [ADD WHAT YOU STUDIED / BUILT THERE]
Watched AI optimise budgets while creative stayed the bottleneck. Every account said the same thing: the winning variable is the ad itself. [VERIFY]
Ads Manager · CampaignsLifetime
Amount spent$30M+VERIFYAccounts[X]Best CPA drop[X]%VERIFY
managed, not wasted. mostly.
CREW · RUBIX AGENCY
Alex Realmuto (lead)
Noah
Trevor
+ me, on Misfits Market
the ad is the product. the product is the ad.
Ran performance marketing for Misfits Market through Rubix Agency. An amazing team: Noah, Trevor, led by Alex Realmuto. Ugly produce, beautiful unit economics. This is where ads became a math problem wearing a creative costume. Then ChatGPT launched and AI got better every month. I couldn't sit it out, so I left to start Salk AI.
Built voice infra on LiveKit and Sarvam AI. Agents picked up calls across India and the Middle East, in the languages people actually speak. [X] calls handled.VERIFY
call_0193.wav · dealershipBOOKED
SALK AI PVT LTD
NAGPUR · [DATE]
AI CALLING VERTICALx1
CUSTOMERS, TEAM, IPincl.
TOTAL[UNDISCLOSED]
SOLD
It worked. Just not as the thing we wanted to spend ten years on. Selling it funded the next bet and freed the team. [ADD BUYER / TIMING IF PUBLIC]
sold it. best decision.
Back to the bottleneck I saw at Pixis: the ad itself. Models generate, humans direct, data decides. Now moving to getting paid on performance.
Frame from an AI-generated talking-head video of Prathmesh
shipped in [X] hrsVERIFY
STOP 08 · [TBD]
Next →
still figuring this out.

some live, one sold, a few in the lab, at least one dead.

Chapter 02 / 06

Things
I've built

02
Project · the main thing

salk.ai

● LIVE

A canvas-based AI ad studio. Veo, Kling, HeyGen and ElevenLabs on one board, with human editors steered by Creative Intelligence.

competitor ads
(scraped)your brand + offer
CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE
01 price shock92
02 founder face87
03 before / after81
VeoKlingHeyGenElevenLabshuman editor
₹4 per leadVERIFY₹5 per leadVERIFY
SCORES ABOVE ARE ILLUSTRATIVE
@yourbusinessDAY 47Sample AIReel talking-head reelआपका बिज़नेस, हर दिन ऑनलाइनHIARTAEN+26

AIReel.co

● LIVE

Done-for-you talking-head reels for camera-shy business owners. 30+ languagesVERIFY, auto-posted daily.

[X] reels postedVERIFYaireel.co ↗
System · runs our own company

Zero-Person Company OS

IN THE LAB

Temporal workflows orchestrating Claude agents. SEO and AEO on autopilot. An outreach engine that finds leads and drops them into the CRM.

Temporal
workflows, retries
Claude agents
research · write · route
SEO / AEO autopilot
outreach engine → CRM
[X] workflows · [X] hrs saved / weekVERIFYRead the architecture →
humans in the loop: 0
(ask me how this breaks)
Marketplace

RentCeleb

Licensing celebrity likeness and IP to brands, with consent baked in. Rent a face, legally.

[X] talent in talksVERIFY[LINK] ↗
IN THE LAB
SALK VOICE · side A[YEARS]

AI Voice Agents

SOLD

The first company. Calling agents and receptionists for dealerships, clinics and NBFCs in India and the Middle East.

[X]M call minutesVERIFYThe exit story →
this one almost killed us.
side quests ↘
OFFLINE CAFE · NAGPUR
phone-free, pay by the hour
1 HR AT A TABLE₹[PRICE]
PHONES CHECKED INALL
NOTIFICATIONS0
IN THE LAB
Ticket · hackathon
Kaggle run
rank [X] / [N]VERIFY
[STATUS]
[an experiment I'll admit to later]
KILLED
rip. learned a lot.
03
Chapter 03 / 06

On the desk
right now

last updated · [MON, DATE] · edited weekly
THIS WEEK this month
5 bets · marker % = how far along
1.
Salk goes performance-based
get paid when ads perform, not when files ship.
60%
2.
AI broker intelligence, Dubai
enrich, qualify, re-engage leads for real estate agencies.
25%
3.
Video retainers for Dubai businesses
starting with Gold Souq jewellers. monthly AI video packs.
40%
4.
A D2C wellness brand, India
testing Ayurveda products. name: [NAME] still deciding.
15%
5.
"How to AI" series
AI for Indian founders, every week on @prathmeshai.
70%
ALL % ARE PLACEHOLDERS · UPDATE WEEKLY
ship > perfect
call the Gold Souq guys back before Thursday
do not start a 6th thing.
start a 6th thing
04
Chapter 04 / 06

Notes from
the field

printed, argued with, annotated.

Pinned · Essay 006

Why your next company should have zero employees

Zero-Person Company · Oct 24, 2026 · 2 MIN

Not zero people. Zero headcount you hire before the system exists.

Read it →
← the one people argue with me about
INDEX OF NOTES5 OF 6
005Attention is all you needUAE is one of the fastest growing economies in the worldNotes
Feb 17, 2025 · 1 MIN004Power LawUAE is one of the fastest growing economies in the worldNotes
Feb 17, 2025 · 1 MIN003Why UAE is the best country to live ?UAE is one of the fastest growing economies in the worldNotes
Feb 17, 2025 · 1 MIN002The Future of AI in EnterpriseExploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping business landscapes and transforming enterprise operations in 2024 and beyond.Notes
April 1, 2024 · 1 MIN001Effective Tech Leadership in Modern OrganizationsInsights into the evolving role of technology leaders and the essential skills needed for success in modern organizations.Notes
March 15, 2024 · 1 MINAll notes →
05
Chapter 05 / 06 · prathmesh.net

The network

The best thing I've built isn't a product. It's the people.

[PERSON]
[name] · founder
[PERSON]
[name] · operator
[PERSON]
[name] · investor
met at [EVENT], 2am, building the same thing
[PERSON]
[name] · creator
Enter the network → prathmesh.net
[prathmesh.net logo]
palette hooks · --net-1/2/3
06
Chapter 06 / 06 · end of the line

Say hi

you made it to the X.
Prathmesh Tokekar
hi, it's me
Say hi.
building something AI-native? want ads that pay for themselves? or just want to argue about the barbell strategy?
Prathmesh
signed 2:07 am
zero-person co. · agents running: 14VERIFY · humans employed: 0
© 2026 Prathmesh Tokekar · VERIFY chips are placeholders · back to start ↑