How it feels like to work @ BotSupply

It’s 2017 and geography should be irrelevant, and so it is.

We are a team scattered across the globe and the way we work , it does not matter at all. It’s 2017 and geography should be irrelevant, and so it is. We complete 1 year today, 7th of December, and on our first birthday, here I write about my wonderful journey with BotSupply so far.

Beginning of 2017 : I was looking for some antidote for my restless mind and my good friend Rahul Kumar approached me for a freelancing work, which he described as something related to AI. That was enough to get me going. He called it SupplyBot. (His local folder is still named like that 😃). Soon enough I had a call with three people, on the different side of the globe and by the end of the call I was not even able to pronounce their names properly but what kicked was the idea. (The Founding Fathers 😂: Asser Traberg Smidt, Giovanni Toschi, Francesco Stasi).Of all the freelancing works that I have done till now, all of them had a plan and an end result, here it was just an idea that could grow endlessly. I jotted down some keywords on my notepad and stared at it after the call. I was happy because things had just started and I had an opportunity to craft things from the scratch with the team.

Since then there has been no turning back. I have been doing what I love and making some lifetime friends and memories along the way. In the picture below you can see me (with the beard and better smile 😂) playing with my toys (my mac and my guitar) and working on BS AI stuff along with Rahul.

Do what you love and you will never have to work again.

Here is how my first idea of the things looked like on paper

And here is how it gradually took shape after continuous efforts of few people scattered across the globe.

Screenshots from the early days of BotSupply Motherbot

Mid Year 2017 : By July we had a system in place with some amazing bots already in market and a larger and stronger team. The whole dashboard I coded was a quick and dirty hack and had scope of lot of improvements, we decided to let go off it in July for a far better and stronger system which now is live and was created by some of the amazing folks at BS.(Kosvo Firepower ! 🔥. Mendim Mestani, Ekrem and Jura). I moved from dashboard to bots and enjoyed working on a fantastic framework, Mbot, built by another champ(Carlito from Venezuela) in the team. I got to wear all the hats from dashboard to bots to finally AI since September. Moving from one domain to another doesn’t mean leaving the previous behind but adding a new one to the feather. This is how we work at BS, everyone helping everyone, at everything.

This is how we work at BS, everyone helping everyone, at everything.

Its been almost a couple of months for me at the cognitive team and we have released a stable system for our NLP called Pachamama, improved the efficiency and improvised the feedback system. While our dashboard has evolved into a beast with features like analytics and broadcasting in place. And our environment expert Animesh has created remarkable system like Jatana and internal tools like Gogo for monitoring.(No one can beat him in naming things 😂).

Looking back, it appears to be one hell of a year. And I can only be proud of what we have been able to achieve together.

Although I have not met any one except Rahul from the team, it never feels so. We discuss all the stuff from code to comedy on our Slack channels and are always aware of what we all are upto.

We don’t work by the clock, but we work by the work

My work table has changed a lot this year. I have worked from the comfort of my room to all sort of places. From StarBucks and CCD’s to mountains and deserts. From lonely drives to crowded yards , from silent shacks to chaotic junctions and many more.

From the comfort of my bed 😃

Mostly I have spent my weekends and evenings sipping coffee and coding for BS all across Delhi, all alone.

Hacking alone one afternoon in #Social, Hauz Khas , New Delhi

Sometimes when Rahul is here, we make sure we speed up things and move around Delhi while do it.

Woking on feedback mechanism one fine evening at a CCD

I took this picture below right in the middle of a call with the team, in early June. I bet you, no conference room call can beat this view and place. This is some kilometres above Nainital

Random point some kilometres above Nainital, where I sat for hours and did some coding and attended the call with the team

and below is where I completed the code for Netto bot and took the team call.

Zostel, Udaipur on my birthday and alone.

and like this, Drinks, Live Music and talks about AI. It was hell of an experience to optimise the accuracy of our NLP engine and set up feed back system with live music . 😎

I spent a weekend in the hills of Mussoorie to dive deep into AI and know the machines more closely.

Picturesque view, silence and exciting problems to solve . Somewhere above Mussoorie😃

Apart from NLP we have a crazy Computer Vision system that powers our bots and makes our bots smart enough to identify objects 😱 Kumar Shridhar and team are building crazy stuff in this domain and are powering our “Visionary” bots.

Our marketing and design is in great hands with Simon Morel, Troels and Grasia taking the lead and team is bigger than ever.

Today: Our NLP beast Pachamama, is smarter, faster and filled with new surprise features. (New announcements soon ! 🍿 🚀 🎉)

Sneak Peek to the magic that is coming ! 😎

Its already a year since we started and we have come a long way . We have made some amazing bots, some crazy AI powered solutions and have a bigger and stronger team. (Many new people on board). This journey has just started and I believe we have a long way to go. I would like to end this with Francesco Stasi’s quote.

The world is full of exciting and meaningful stories, and I feel ours could be one of them too.

PS : To everyone in the team, It’s a pleasure working with all you amazing folks, let’s roll up our sleeves and push for the next level, let’s make history. Cheers to the first year and many more to come 💐 🎉 🔥 💪 👊