Founder • researcher • seeker

Sourya Kakarla

I am a seeker of truth and love grokking the universe through multi-disciplinary understanding. I love building things that are open and useful. I have a bias towards depth over noise.

That ethic runs through agent infrastructure, multilingual language systems, cryptography, civilizational study, philosophy/spirituality, with a preference for open source and positive-sum games.

Stylized portrait evoking calm, coded contemplation

In a universe this large, ego is cheap. Contribution is expensive. Significance, if it exists at all, has to be earned through action: build in the open, enlarge the commons, and choose games where more people gain capability than lose it. Depth matters when it produces calm, patient, durable action.

Working principles

Humility in scale. Seriousness in action.

01

Cosmic humility sharpens action.

Being a speck in the universe is not a reason to withdraw. It removes vanity and clarifies duty.

02

Patience is an operating advantage.

The work is approached without hurry or theatricality. Calm thinking tends to produce systems that survive reality.

03

Open source is applied optimism.

Share code, workflows, and notes so other builders can inspect, reuse, and extend the work.

04

Philosophy should survive contact with code.

Research, language, security, and civilizational study matter when they become useful, grounded action in the world.

Domains in dialogue

Different disciplines, one ethic of contribution.

01

Sovereign agent systems

Current work at Zone centers on provider-independent agent infrastructure for an open agent ecosystem: model portability, adaptation layers, trace memory, and the operational harness that makes real-world systems dependable.

Sovereignty • portability • open agent ecosystem

02

Language, linguistics, and multilingual intelligence

From speech-enabled commerce in rural India to enterprise travel agents and applied NLP research, language is treated as a living system that must meet people where they are, not where the product wishes they were.

Speech • NLP • multilingual systems • shared understanding

03

Cryptography and adversarial rigor

Research in AES cryptanalysis, key-recovery attacks, and applied security created a technical temperament that values integrity before convenience, and the discipline of thinking from failure modes inward.

AES • PAEQ • InfoSec research • adversarial integrity

04

Vedic science, puranic knowledge, and civilizational study

The deeper frame is not merely technical. Ongoing study of Hindu philosophical traditions, mythic structures, and civilizational memory informs the ethical and existential shape of the work.

Dharma • puranas • philosophy • meaning beyond ego

Selected work

Contribution is the natural state of being.

Shipped systems, foundational research, and open tooling intended to leave more capability in the commons than they extract from it.

2025 → now

Zone

Infrastructure for sovereign agent systems, centered on portability, adaptation, and trace memory.

2026

botfiles / Personal OS

Open-source work on coding agents, personal infrastructure, and reusable workflows that make autonomous tools more practical for other builders.

2023 → 2025

SkyLink

Led ML for an AI travel agent used by enterprise teams, serving 40k+ users across companies like McKinsey, Tesla, and Bain. Acquired by Amadeus.

2021 → 2022

Ladduu

Built multilingual voice and commerce products for rural India, including WhatsApp and mobile agents for real users in real linguistic contexts.

2019 → 2021

AES cryptanalysis research

Published practical key-recovery and impossible differential attacks on reduced-round AES and PAEQ ciphers.

2016

Stop Clickbait

Chrome extension and research project on clickbait detection; won Best Paper at ASONAM 2016.

Trajectory

A builder shaped by research, industry, and first-hand contact with users.

2025 —
Co-founder & CTO at Zone. Building agent infrastructure for sovereignty and operational intelligence — model portability, provider-independent adaptation, and trace memory that compounds. Read the thesis →
2023 – 2025
First ML hire, later ML lead at SkyLink (YC & Menlo-backed; acquired by Amadeus). Shipped a large-scale enterprise travel agent serving McKinsey, Tesla, Bain & Company, and others — over 40k users.
2022 – 2023
MS in Computer Science at Columbia University. Andrew P. Kosoresow Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service.
2021 – 2022
Co-founder & CTO at Ladduu. Voice-first commerce and multilingual agent experiences for India beyond the usual urban tech audience — WhatsApp and mobile agents for real users in real linguistic contexts.
2019 – 2021
PhD research in cryptanalysis at IIT Kharagpur — impossible differential attacks on AES. Left the program to build in the open world.
2017 – 2019
Software engineer at Microsoft. Worked on email engagement for Dynamics CRM at large scale, then decided research and startups were the real path.
2012 – 2017
BTech + MTech in Computer Science at IIT Kharagpur. Cryptanalysis research nominated for Best Master's Thesis. Best Paper Award at ASONAM 2016. Multiple hackathon wins.

Study and temperament

Literature, mythology, philosophy, and cosmology keep the technical work proportionate, patient, and inwardly quiet.

Reading

Started with fiction — ASOIAF, Hitchhiker's Guide, Stranger in a Strange Land, Catch-22. Drifted into a long non-fiction and "seeking" phase across Camus, Hesse, Dawkins, Harari, and the Sanatana Dharma, Buddhist, and Advaita traditions that still shape how duty, meaning, and moral consequence show up. Currently: The Infinite Game. Goodreads →

Music

Taste runs in seasons. Eastern devotional (Shiva Tandava Stotram, Aigiri Nandini), western classic/soft rock (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin), and East–West fusion when the two meet cleanly. Can't sing, but have written a bit — a song in Telugu.

Writing

Scribbled poems as a cathartic pastime since school. "Holy Nature" — a favourite of mine — was featured in Poets of Columbia.

Soccer

Arsenal fan, Gooner for life. Receiving a Gold Medal through MS Hall in the IIT KGP General Championship is a highlight of the soccer life. FIFA is the one video game that stuck.

Full publications, awards, and the downloadable CV live on the resume page →