thin·ker·ing (n.) equal parts thinking and tinkering

AI can write the code.
It can’t tell you what’s worth building.

Thinkering Studios is for founders who are experts in their business and are spending real money on technology without a technical partner they trust. We know B2B software and healthcare especially well. We’re a small team of senior engineers and partner engineering houses, led by the CTO of Simbe, an AI-powered CRM company that reached profitability within six months of live clients. We bring the same judgment to your product: what to build, what to skip and what it should cost, explained plainly at every step.

Tell us what you’re building or see how we’d work together ↓

6 months

from first live client to profitability at Simbe, the surrogacy-tech CRM our lead cofounded

2×

revenue since March 2026, by building less on purpose

venture rounds, just one small incubator check

10+ years

building software, from early startup to multinational

Where are you right now?

Every engagement starts with an honest conversation about where your company is and what it needs next. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so and point you toward who is. And we know our way around healthcare data and the compliance work that comes with it.

“We haven't found product-market fit yet.”

You have an idea, maybe a first version, and early customers who haven't fully bought in.

We help you get to product-market fit. We work out what to build first, which tools are worth paying for and what to skip, then help you ship small versions fast enough to learn from real customers. Building too much, too early sinks more young companies than any bug.

1 to 2 weeks · a build plan you can hand to any engineer

“Customers want it. Something's still broken.”

You have paying customers, and the software, the team or the bills aren't keeping up.

We find it and fix it. We look closely at the code, the systems it runs on and what you pay for them, then tell you in plain English what will break first, what can wait, and whether you're getting your money's worth. Then we fix what matters, on our own or alongside your team.

2 to 3 weeks to find it · a short list you can act on, then the fixes

“We're growing, just not fast enough.”

The business works, but the technology or the people building it have become the thing slowing you down.

We unblock growth. We find where the time and money go, sort out the team or vendor setup, and make the big technical calls with you: what to build or buy, who to hire, whether a quote is fair. A standing partner for the decisions that set your pace.

monthly retainer · (the industry calls this a fractional CTO)

“Is the tech what they say it is?”

You're a VC or angel, weighing a deal or backing a company you've already invested in.

Before you invest, we give you a quiet, fast and unconflicted read on the technology: is it sound, and is what they're building sane. After you invest, we stay on retainer as your technical second opinion across the portfolio, so problems surface before they get expensive.

per deal, or a monthly retainer for your portfolio

Not sure yet? Finding what’s broken comes in a one-week starter version, small enough to try us and real enough to be useful. And when the right next step is building, our senior engineers and partner engineering houses can build it or take over the build.

a note, before the professional stuff

Our favorite part of this work is watching a founder realize their instincts were right all along: the thing they suspected about their product, their vendor or their roadmap was true, and now they can say why. Our job is to make the technology make as much sense as the rest of your business, what it does, what it costs and why, so every technical decision is one you actually made, not one you signed off on.

Careful stewardship of your money and your attention. Technology that earns its keep. Answers in plain English. The rest we’ll figure out together.

Shraddha

Where this comes from.

The honest version: Simbe is the proof, the fintech decade is the training, and the rest is our lead being the technical person in another founder’s corner.

2025 to nowSimbeCTO & Cofounder
Built a conversational CRM for surrogacy agencies from scratch. Profitable within six months of live clients on a small incubator check; revenue has doubled since March 2026.
short engagementMind & MuscleTechnical Advisor
A solo founder in India building one platform for personal training and mental-health care. Shraddha was the second set of eyes between him and the team he'd hired, vetting their technical decisions, shaping the earliest architecture and flagging where the build drifted from the plan. The same work the studio now does on purpose.
before SimbeA decade in fintechEvery hat there is
Shraddha joined an early-stage company and rode it through two acquisitions into a multinational public one. Backend, machine learning, internal ops, devops and the occasional 3 a.m. disaster recovery. It's where she saw what technology looks like at every company size, and what actually matters at each.
2019 to 2020Umami FoodsFractional CTO
A taste-profile platform that matched people to groceries they'd love. Shraddha shaped the initial architecture and design, then ran the offshore development team so the founder could run the business. COVID ended the company, but this is where she learned to be the technical person between a founder and a remote team.

How we work.

Four standards we hold ourselves to. They sound obvious. Practicing them is the actual job, so hold us to them.

Plain English, always: If we can't explain a technical decision simply, we haven't finished thinking it through. Clear explanations aren't a courtesy. They're how good decisions get made together.
Complicated is a claim that needs proof: Jargon is usually camouflage. When something is genuinely hard, we'll say so and show you why. When it's simple, we won't dress it up to look like expertise.
We work toward being unnecessary: Our best engagements end with clients who need us less, sizing up the next engineer, the next vendor and the next roadmap on their own. If you leave every conversation a little more fluent, we're doing it right.
Evidence over opinion: Recommendations arrive with the data that produced them: what the system does, what it costs, where the time goes. Nobody should have to take our word for anything.

Led by Shraddha.

Thinkering Studios is led by Shraddha Jain, CTO and cofounder of Simbe. She leads every engagement, and brings in senior engineers and partner engineering houses as the work needs them.

Before Simbe: Welham Girls’ School in India, economics and history at the University of Michigan, a stint as an economic analyst, then an M.S. in Computer Science from Penn and a decade in fintech, joining an early-stage company and riding it through two acquisitions into a multinational public one. Along the way she wore every hat there is: backend, machine learning, internal ops, devops and the occasional 3 a.m. disaster recovery. That range is the point. She has seen what technology looks like at every size, and what actually matters at each one.

Thinkering Studios exists because the hardest part of a technology business usually isn’t the technology. It’s knowing which decisions matter, in what order, and having someone honest beside you when you make them.