The Lab
An app a month(ish)
One awesome idea, designed & shipped or failed, every month(ish). Some are useful. Most are not.
#05 ✓ Shipped
Cantrip ↗
An iOS app where on-device AI writes you tiny single-purpose tools from a plain-language description.
Learned: constraining what the model was allowed to write beat every attempt to prompt it better.
#04 ✓ Shipped
Ardhi ↗
An on-device AI that scores a product's environmental impact from a photo, and suggests greener alternatives.
Learned: tiny on-device models live or die by prompt discipline and a real eval harness.
#03 ✓ Shipped
Smack ↗
A desktop app that runs diverse AI personas against any URL, then debates and reports the UX problems they hit.
Learned: personas are only useful if they genuinely behave differently from each other.
#02 ✗ Failed
Somnus ↗
Type a soundscape, like "tropical birds in a rainforest", and on-device AI would generate it, for as long as you liked.
Learned: generative audio on-device just isn't there yet. Too slow, and the quality was rubbish.
Work
Startups I've worked with
15+ years of shipping real products and building startups - from social intelligence to climate tech.
Klim
klim.eco
Agritech platform helping farmers transition to regenerative practices - improving biodiversity and capturing CO₂ in the soil.
Continuon
continuon.co
Martech platform using ML and adaptive algorithms to analyse influence across large social media communities.
Calabash
calabash.courses
Edutech platform giving healthcare professionals quality video talks online to earn their annual CPD points.
Knack
knackbusiness.com
Fintech platform and mobile app helping SMBs improve their processes, finances and team collaboration.
Newlytics
newlytics.com
Martech tool helping SMBs and marketers understand the ROI of their digital marketing and ad spend.
PangoPay
pangopay
Fintech payment gateway letting businesses pay each other through a simple link added to their invoices.
Lif
The good stuff
Bits of life from outside the matrix.
FAQs
All the answers
Who are you?
My name is Adiv. Nice to meet you...
Why am I here?
I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that you Googled "shmadiv" and I came up.
Why do you have a website?
Mostly because I can.
You spelled life wrong!
Correct. Lif is too short.
How do I contact you?
If you know me, then you already have a way to do that. Otherwise you're a sales person and I spurn you.
What should I do next?
You should make yourself a cup of tea, read a book, and start a list of ways to be kinder to people.