Agile Pods by Zemoso Labs
Agile Pods by Zemoso Labs

Zemoso Labs has played a significant role in shaping the success of startups and enterprises, contributing to billions in value creation across industries such as healthcare, financial services, retail, and manufacturing. The forward-thinking company, committed to innovation, uses design thinking and agile execution to empower organizations to build and scale disruptive solutions.

Demonstrating its dedication to providing added value, it's challenging the status quo by committing to outcome-based pricing. For decades, the information technology (IT) services industry relied on time-and-material contracts. Meanwhile, Software as a Service (SaaS) companies operated on licensing models. These business models are no longer sustainable, with AI and other emerging technologies rapidly reshaping the landscape. For instance, a customer service platform can no longer charge by seat when AI-driven automation handles most queries.

Similarly, in the services space, where innovation projects inherently involve shifting requirements or a "change in ask" and AI-augmented productivity, the question arises: Is time-and-material still a viable business model? What abstract productivity and output formula will be used to measure the impact of AI? Additionally, given that technology itself is changing every few months, how often do pricing structures need to change?

Founded in 2012, Zemoso initially partnered with startups, guiding them in navigating the high-risk world of innovation (where a single misstep could mean the difference between securing funding and shutting down). The difference between being the first to present an idea to investors versus the 15th could determine whether a startup secured funding or shut down in this fast-paced environment. Zemoso embraced this challenge by providing outcome-focused agile pods, committing to deliver prototypes in four weeks and minimum viable products (MVPs) in only four months.

"We acknowledge that by nature, startups thrive on uncertainty and move quickly to create net-new innovations. Through our collaborations, we witnessed firsthand how they evolved, moved into growth-stage territory, and eventually built their own teams," Founder and CEO Satish Madhira shares. This prompted Zemoso to combine technical expertise and design-led thinking.

As Zemoso scaled, it realized that large enterprises faced a similar problem with startups but with even higher stakes. Many enterprises rely on acquiring smaller startups to remain competitive, but advancements in AI and large language models (LLMs) made this strategy insufficient. Organizations from various industries started to recognize that they need to build digital solutions that can solve their unique challenges if they want to maintain or improve their market valuation.

Many attempted to bridge this gap by launching internal innovation labs or setting up venture arms, such as GE Ventures. However, these initiatives usually do not survive long-term because true innovation requires a fundamentally different operational DNA. "Innovation can't be outsourced or siloed. It should be embedded within the company itself," says Madhira. "The best innovations happen when it operates as small fenced functions within larger initiatives that are allowed to fail, iterate, and move quickly."

Zemoso, therefore, brought its outcome-driven approach to enterprises, offering a new way to drive measurable innovation. Partnering with the Texas-based firm has enabled enterprises to access a team that could work outside traditional constraints and move fast to turn ambiguous ideas into market-ready solutions.

In 2023, Zemoso introduced Accountability Driven Innovation (ADI) to further engage with enterprises. ADI focuses on and guarantees outcomes for enterprise customers, moving away from the traditional approach of billing for time and materials. Large enterprises have benefitted from Zemoso's commitment to delivering tangible results: launching an MVP and producing a functional prototype within a finite number of days, weeks, or months. To date, the company has successfully delivered over 35 functional design prototypes in under two weeks and launched multiple new initiatives with similar time-boxed commitments.

It's worth noting that the shift toward outcome-driven pricing is already underway in SaaS. AI-native companies are adopting new models, such as usage-based (pay for what you consume), outcome-based (pay for results), or hybrid models (a mix of both). IT services must follow suit. After all, as mentioned earlier, the old model of billing for the number of developers and hours worked is no longer relevant.

Interestingly, when Zemoso introduced its outcome-based model two years ago, procurement leaders were skeptical. "What's in it for you?" they asked. "Zemoso put its own skin in the game," says Madhira. "If we didn't deliver, clients wouldn't raise and our relations would be short-lived. Today, while other organizations are still trying to 'figure it out,' we have already built the internal muscle to execute this at scale. Those early days have taught us how to de-risk initiatives while still staying true to a committed outcome by bringing in the right folks, tools, and capabilities at the right time to execute."

Another outdated industry practice is the way IT services firms allocate talent. Clients usually request developers based on experience level, assuming that more years of experience equate to better results. However, Zemoso's blind tests have proven otherwise. When clients aren't aware of experience levels and are just going by performance and delivery, they are often surprised to find that candidates with half the expected years of experience perform as well, if not at a higher level, than experienced folks.

Zemoso addresses all such gaps. It caters to both startups and enterprises by offering services in Product Design and Product Engineering. The former maximizes return on design investment (ROI) by focusing on the user. The firm is proud to share that its product and design teams have successfully completed numerous functional design prototypes using their proprietary design sprint methodology. Procurement leaders, innovation leaders, and technology leaders in enterprises find this kind of outcome-based commitment incredibly enticing: lesser risk, and massive upsides (a sure winner in front of the board).

On the other hand, Zemoso's Product Engineering services enable businesses to launch new initiatives that will help discover revenue opportunities and improve their digital capabilities. The company has enabled the launch of over 80 innovation-led initiatives and generated $4 million in savings through DevOps adoption. Indeed, Zemoso stands as a leader in engineering solutions that drive the impact of businesses.

With this, Zemoso has earned the trust of clients across industries. The co-founder and chief product officer of a next-generation shared health data platform shares, "The Zemoso team has been a compelling partner from ideation through build and deployment. They co-facilitated a Design Sprint that resulted in a product prototype and demo that could be used for user research and recruitment of early customers."

The co-founder and CEO of a legal AI company also commends Zemoso's continuous design approach, saying: "Their [Zemoso's] approach ensures the integration of customer insights into every stage of product evolution, truly embedding the end-user's needs within each product's DNA."

Madhira shares one of Zemoso's success stories involving a partnership with a biotech company revolutionizing regenerative medicine to further highlight the company's impact. The company wanted to fully automate the manufacturing of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based cell therapies. The issue was that manual intervention in cell manufacturing introduced variability. This means it's difficult to produce therapies affordably. Zemoso deployed its self-organized pods to accelerate discovery and streamline processes. The result is an AIMS prototype that enabled the biotech firm to secure investor and advisory board buy-in before launching a clinical-grade platform.

Multiple achievements reflect Zemoso's contributions to innovation. It is estimated to have contributed billions in value creation, supporting innovation for Fortune 500 firms. Not only that, but startups working with Zemoso have collectively raised an estimated $1.2 billion in funding post-engagement. With these achievements, it's hardly surprising that Zemoso was featured three times in Deloitte's Fast 50 India (2016, 2018, 2019) and made it to Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific list in 2016 and 2018.

Zemoso Labs shows no signs of stopping from growing. The company expanded its global footprint, opening offices in Canada in 2022 and a near-shore digital center in Costa Rica in 2024. These expansions enable closer collaborations with clients globally. It promises to continue driving measurable impact by turning ambiguity into tangible products, time-boxing development cycles, and proving that outcome-driven engagement is the future.