Business
Apr 2026
5 min readLaunching Akal AI Solutions: Build, Train, Venture
Why I started Akal AI Solutions — a three-pillar AI product studio that builds for clients, teaches professionals to vibe code, and launches its own ventures.
AI PRODUCT ENGINEER & STRATEGIST
Vimallnath Kathirasan
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Ex-Big 4 strategy consultant turned AI builder. I create AI-native products that solve real problems, and teach others how to do the same.
ABOUT
From Strategy to Building
I build custom AI products for clients, teach professionals how to build with AI, and launch my own AI-native ventures. My background is in business strategy and fintech — so everything I build starts with the problem, not the tech.
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AI Products Shipped
AI Product Builder
Building AI-native products — from Agentic Workflows and RAG architectures to real-time biometric systems.
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Years Industry Experience
Ex-Big 4 Consultant
5+ years of strategy consulting at PwC and EY across pricing, operations, go-to-market, and transformation.
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Ventures Launched
Fintech Entrepreneur
Co-founded Vespid, a Cradle & MOSTI-backed fintech startup — won a USD 10,000 grant at the University of Michigan optiMize Challenge.
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Workshop Rating
HRDC Certified Trainer
Teaching professionals how to leverage AI to ship software faster through AI-Driven Development workshops.
EXPERIENCE
Career Journey
May 2025 — Present
Founder & AI Product Engineer
Founded Akal AI Solutions, an AI product studio operating across three pillars: building custom AI products for SME clients, teaching HRDC-certified AI-Driven Development workshops, and launching AI-native ventures.
- Delivered EquipShare (RM 25K) — B2B SaaS for event equipment suppliers with real-time inventory overlap detection and costing engine
- Built RestockingOS (RM 12K) — automated procurement engine with WinGold ERP integration for Anniqh Gold
- Shipped TradeMind, Tiger AI, and monimoni as AI-native fintech ventures
- Conducted HRDC-claimable AI-Driven Development workshops, training 10+ non-technical professionals to build with AI
Next.js
React
TypeScript
Supabase
Electron
MediaPipe
Jan 2021 — Present
Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
Fintech/Edutech startup backed by Cradle & MOSTI, building the "Duolingo for Finance" in Malaysia.
- Directed product pivot from trading platform to gamified financial literacy super-app
- Defined "Learn-to-Earn" reward economy using behavioural data analytics, achieving high day-30 retention
- Optimised user onboarding flow, improving install-to-active conversion rates by 25%
React Native
Expo
Firebase
Redux
Strapi CMS
Jan 2024 — Apr 2025
Senior Consultant, Strategy & Operations
PwC SEA Consulting / Strategy&
Strategy consulting spanning commercial, operations, and go-to-market with a full-scale transformation lens.
- Validated business plan for a billion-dollar data centre JV of two major telco companies in MY and SG
- Developed target operating model for a leading water utility via employee profile analysis and global benchmarking
- Supported Post-Merger Integration for a Fortune 100 O&G company ensuring non-event on Day 1
- Devised 3 growth strategies for Malaysian O&G company across traditional and renewable energy
Strategy
Business Planning
PMI
Operating Model
Jul 2022 — Dec 2023
Senior Consultant, Transformation Architecture
Ernst & Young (EY)
Strategy consulting across growth strategy, strategic planning, enterprise cost reduction, and operating model design.
- Developed transformation strategy for an energy regulator to drive the Energy Transition agenda
- Assessed business feasibility of nation's first Renewable Energy Exchange for net zero carbon goals
- Conducted infrastructure impact study of Thailand's largest logistics development on Malaysia's GDP
- Identified areas for 20% cost savings across subsidiaries of a major listed company
Transformation
Cost Optimisation
Energy
Government
Oct 2018 — Jan 2022
Graduate Management Executive
Securities Commission Malaysia
Served 3-year scholarship bond across Corporate Planning & Strategy, Market & Corporate Surveillance, and more.
- Performed market research for ideation and curation of the Capital Market Masterplan 3 (CMP3)
- Composed daily market reports for the SC Chairman and Minister of Finance
- Built financial models: equity market crisis thermometer and probability of default assessment for PLCs
- Identified Asset Impairment misrepresentations traced to fraudulent activities by management
Capital Markets
Financial Analysis
Policy
Surveillance
EDUCATION
Monash University, Malaysia & Melbourne (exchange)
Bachelor's degree (double major) — Accounting and Banking & Finance
CGPA: 3.7 | Securities Commission Malaysia Scholarship
Perlis Matriculation College, Malaysia
Pre-University in Accounting
CGPA: 4.00 | Excellence Achievement Award (all semesters)
SMK Ibrahim, Malaysia
SPM
Straight A's (8A+, 1A, 1A-)
WORKSHOP FEEDBACK
Trusted by Builders
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Overall experience
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Trainer delivery
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Confidence to build
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Would recommend
Based on 7 participants from cohort 1
“You took a risk, put in the work and it is paying off swimmingly. Super inspirational, well executed and highly informative. Worth every penny — and more, for sure!”
“The level of depth and expertise Vimall brought is invaluable. As a non-technical professional, I really appreciated the breakdown using easily digestible terms. Very structured and professional.”
Yassamin Zainal
Senior Talent Partner
“Vimall helped me bring my vision to life — and that is most valuable to me. Didn't expect to learn so much over 2 days.”
Kashmeera Shalesh
Event Operations Executive
BUILT WITH
- v0
- Cursor
- MediaPipe
PROJECTS
What I've Built
From custom AI products for clients to my own AI-native ventures.
BUILDING FOR OTHERS
Custom AI product development for SME clients
Demo available upon request
EquipShare
B2B SaaS for Event Equipment Suppliers
A unified platform for Malaysian event equipment suppliers. Features a 7-step job wizard, real-time inventory overlap detection across all jobs, a costing engine with B2B partner network, and automated PDF outputs for client quotations and internal costing sheets.
- 7-step job wizard with real-time inventory overlap detection
- Costing engine with B2B partner network and service charge calculations
- Automated PDF generation for client quotations and internal costing
React 18
TypeScript
Vite 5
Supabase
Tailwind
jsPDF
Demo available upon request
RestockingOS
Automated Procurement Engine
Automated procurement engine for a Malaysian jewelry retailer. Integrates read-only with WinGold ERP's PID API, features a magic-link vendor portal for quote collection, atomic PO numbering, and a quote comparison dashboard.
- Read-only PID API integration with WinGold ERP (server-side only)
- Magic-link vendor portal with 72-hour secure tokens
- Atomic PO numbering with sequential monthly resets
Next.js 16
React 19
TypeScript
Supabase
@react-pdf/renderer
BUILDING MY OWN
AI-native ventures in fintech and trading psychology
Real-Time Biometric AI for Traders
An AI trading psychologist that uses Google MediaPipe to extract 478 facial landmarks at 15fps, mapping 52 blendshapes to 8 psychological states. Features a crash-out meter, HUD overlay for trading platforms, and heart rate + mouse velocity fusion.
- Real-time emotion detection with 8 psychological states via facial blendshapes
- Always-on-top HUD overlay for trading platforms (Electron)
- Crash-out meter fusing facial, heart rate, and mouse velocity signals
React
Electron
MediaPipe
Framer Motion
GSAP
Supabase
AI Investment Research & Paper Trading
AI-powered investment research platform with paper trading. Chains multiple LLM calls to generate structured investment theses, detects 16+ behavioral patterns like FOMO and revenge trading, and provides virtual portfolios across US stocks, crypto, and Malaysian equities.
- Chained LLM agentic workflows for structured investment thesis generation
- Emotional coaching detecting 16+ behavioral patterns in real-time
- Paper trading with $10K USD / RM 50K MYR virtual portfolios
Next.js 14
TypeScript
Alpaca API
Framer Motion
Supabase
Gamified Budgeting PWA
A Tamagotchi-style budgeting app where your virtual pet's wellbeing reflects your financial discipline. Features zero-based budgeting, emotion-tagged transactions, offline-first architecture with IndexedDB sync, and a demo mode for frictionless onboarding.
- Tamagotchi pet system driven by financial behavior and energy mechanics
- Offline-first architecture with IndexedDB + Supabase cloud sync
- Emotion coaching with z-score anomaly detection on spending patterns
React
Vite
Dexie
Supabase
Recharts
PWA
SKILLS
Tools & Expertise
A blend of technical engineering, business strategy, and financial acumen. Hover to explore proficiency.
AI & Machine Learning
- Agentic AI Systems90%
- LLM / RAG Integration85%
- OpenAI API90%
- Google MediaPipe75%
- Prompt Engineering95%
- Claude / Anthropic API85%
Frontend & Full-Stack
- React / Next.js90%
- TypeScript85%
- Tailwind CSS95%
- Vite80%
- Electron70%
- Framer Motion80%
Backend & Infrastructure
- Supabase (PostgreSQL)85%
- Firebase75%
- Vercel / Cloudflare85%
- REST APIs90%
- MCP Integrations80%
- Row Level Security80%
Strategy & Business
- Growth Strategy95%
- Pricing & Commercial90%
- Operating Model Design85%
- Post-Merger Integration85%
- Feasibility Assessment90%
- Cost Optimisation85%
Product & Leadership
- Product Strategy90%
- Agile / Scrum80%
- Design Thinking85%
- User Journey Mapping90%
- Data-Driven Decisions85%
- Stakeholder Mgmt90%
Finance & Compliance
- CFA Level 180%
- Financial Modelling90%
- Capital Markets85%
- Bloomberg Terminal75%
- Compliance85%
- ACCA / CGMA80%
CERTIFICATIONS
ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP)HRDC Certified TrainerCFA Level 1 (Passed)ACCA (9/13 papers)CGMA by CIMA (All papers completed)PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
BLOG & UPDATES
Recent Writing
Thoughts on AI engineering, strategy, and building products that matter.
Engineering
Jan 2026
8 min readBuilding TradeMind: Real-Time Emotion Detection for Traders
How I engineered a client-side vision pipeline using Google MediaPipe to extract 478 facial landmarks at 15fps and map 52 blendshapes to 8 psychological states.
Career
Nov 2025
6 min readFrom Strategy Consulting to Shipping AI Products
Lessons learned transitioning from Big 4 boardrooms to building and shipping AI-native products. The frameworks from consulting that still apply, and the ones that don't.
Teaching
Jul 2025
5 min readAI-Driven Development: Teaching Professionals to Ship Software with AI
As a HRDC Certified Trainer, here's my approach to teaching non-technical professionals how to use AI tools like v0 and Cursor to build real software.
CONTACT
Let’s Connect
Whether you need a custom AI product, want to upskill your team with AI-Driven Development, or explore a venture partnership — I’m always open to a conversation.