On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2016. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Ritesh ↗
In their words
We moved over to the Instagram team and started helping them build out Instagram video. That was basically how, in six months, I experienced the entire life cycle of a startup. That's the power of saying yes.
He asked, does something like that exist? I said probably, but it would be better if you built it. Could you do it? It might have been the beers, but I said yes. Over the next few months we hammered out a contract, I quit my job at Instagram and moved back to Toronto to start BuildScience.
We helped launch this building, we built our platform out, we applied for and got into Y Combinator, secured some seed funding to build it out even more — and now we're in about six buildings across Canada.
Around the web ×2
Quick answers
What is BuildScience?
A software platform called Strata that lets property managers run a commercial building's subsystems from one interface. Patel told the TechTO room in 2016 that the venue itself was the company's first customer.
What is he doing now?
He runs Pulsecode, his own consultancy. Writing in January 2023 he described rebuilding an internal logistics platform for a large consumer-goods client, and a plan to relaunch BuildScience.
Is Ritesh Patel the same person as Xitij Patel?
Yes. He publishes as Xitij Ritesh Patel and is introduced on the TechTO stage as Ritesh.