AI in the work. Humans behind it.
A group of focused ventures based in Johannesburg. We build software with AI as the engine, and humans as the soul. Some of these ventures will work. Some won't. We ship them anyway, and tell you which is which.
If any of these trigger a trauma response we mean: sound familiar get in touch.
"I need to schedule my boss's calendar with AI but I don't know where to start, and I'm going to get fired if I don't."
"I need cold lead data so our team can hit their numbers. None of us are using AI. We're losing to teams who do."
"I run a small lawnmower service and I do more paperwork than cutting grass. I'd actually like to mow lawns again."
"I have 40 ideas in a Notion doc and zero shipped products. I need someone to help me pick one and actually finish it."
"My team copies the same data between four systems every day. It eats half their week. IT says it's on the roadmap. It's been on the roadmap for a year."
"I want to use AI for my newsletter, but I'm scared it'll sound like every other AI newsletter. Which is to say, like nothing."
"I have 200 leads in my inbox from open days. I have not replied to most of them. I am about to lose half of them to faster agents."
"Every new client onboarding takes me four hours. I do the same thing forty times a year. There must be a better way and I don't have time to find it."
"We get 300 CVs per role. We screen maybe 30. We're definitely missing good people. I cannot read 300 CVs by Friday."
"I'd rather build the AI agency than hire one. Where do I send my work?"
Most agencies promise speed, scale, or innovation. We promise the opposite of all three. Slowly. Carefully. With taste.
AI does the heavy lifting. The thinking, the listening, and the reply emails are still ours. When you contact IKI HQ, a person answers. Slowly enough to read what you wrote. Carefully enough to mean it.
No abandoned MVPs. No "coming soon" pages that stay coming for two years. Every venture in the index ships, gets used, and either earns its keep or gets retired. We don't pivot. We finish.
No bloat. No outsourced contractors who ghost. Operators, AI as collaborator, trusted humans for the parts that need them. Tighter scope. Better work. Less noise.
We're not hiring through job boards. We're not posting roles. We're keeping a list. Builders, designers, operators, the rare ones who finish. If that's you, send us your work and we'll keep your name when something opens up.
Side projects, weekend builds, half-finished tools you actually use. We care less about your CV than what you've made. Show us a repo, a portfolio, a Notion doc.
You use Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, n8n, whatever. You can tell when AI helps and when it gets in the way. You're not here to evangelise it.
You've shipped something this year. Not "started", shipped. Even if no one used it. The discipline matters more than the outcome.
The company already has the IQ. We need humans who can read a room, take a joke, and tell when the answer isn't in the spreadsheet.
No discovery calls. No 47-question intake forms. Just send a message describing what you're trying to do, and a real human will reply within two days. Usually faster, occasionally slower, never a bot depends on power outages.
If you've built something good, want to collaborate, or have a problem worth solving, I'd like to hear about it.