“You should focus on talking to customers and making a great product” The wide availability of AI tools and APIs has changed the landscape of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Small companies and independent programmers can now deliver more value to their customers than ever before, and solve problems that not so long ago belonged in big research labs. Rishabh Srivastava is the founder and CEO of Loki.ai - a Singapore based Data Science company. Rishabh describes himself as an independent, sustainable programmer. His work has recently been featured in the Times of India, and his research showing how Indian names may be linked to affluence and success has been widely covered. Right out of college, Rishabh only had 21 cents left in his bank account. After starting a first job as an A.I. engineer, he decided to go the freelance route and soon invested his savings to start Loki.ai, which has been profitable from day one. In this conversation, we talk about what it takes to be an independent A.I. developer, and how Rishabh’s values have been key in shaping the success of his company. We also discuss why companies rely on third parties to help them solve their machine learning / data science problems, why rent-seeking behavior is a bad thing, how to attract A.I. talent - and why everyone should have their own tribe of superheroes!