About
Sisyphus Consulting is a small tech and design consultancy.
First, the obvious question.
What’s with the name Sisyphus?
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a clever king who tricked the gods, so they punished him. He was forced to push a huge boulder up a hill, but it always rolled back down, making him repeat the task forever. An eternal punishment.
This story has multiple meanings. But we resonate with Albert Camus’ interpretation in his essay Myth of Sisyphus:
“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Like Sisyphus, we scale the mountain of challenges for our clients. Sometimes the effort seems futile, but it is enough to fill our heart and spirit. We continue pushing the boulder up the hill, again and again. Again and again. Again and again.
Why people hire us
We provide lasting and contextual solutions to our clients. We do it with a high degree of ownership.
But that’s not enough.
The main reason is trust. They trust our process. They know they have made the right decision. Our reputation precedes us and we are known to leave money on the table for the right reasons. That’s why when we show our willingness to take them up as a client, they know we mean it.
In addition to the said reasons, people like our approach of keeping things simple. This is particularly remarkable in an industry that has an incentive to keep things opaque and complicated.
How people find us
In next one or two sections, you will learn that we don’t bid for work. So, how do people find us?
Most people find us through referrals. When anyone asks our clients or ex-colleagues about tech and design solutions, they point them in our direction.
Then there are people who are long-time subscribers of our writing. Whenever they need tech and design solutions, they reach out to us.
A good fit matters to us
If you think about it, when it comes to clothes, their brand, price or material don’t matter as much as the their fit. Similarly, we prefer working with clients who understand our thinking, get excited at trying new things and practice delegation. They’re a good fit for us and we’re good fit for them.
Having said that, if you’re looking for the cheapest service possible, you shouldn’t consider us. We are known to provide good returns on investment through our services—and that’s what matters economically.
What we don’t do
We don’t work for free We don’t say yes easily, and that includes declining most meeting requests. We follow a maker’s schedule, and our clients understand that by protecting our work time, we are ultimately safeguarding their interests.
We don’t bid for work or write proposal documents. Once we have had a verbal agreement on the work and fees, we put everything in a document for our shared understanding and reference. That’s as much close as it comes to a traditional proposal; the only difference being that it would be an agreement document and not a proposal document. We believe that free proposals and bids are some of the flawed and unethical practices of the industry. We want no part in perpetuating them.
Who’s responsible for this
My name is Bhagyesh Pathak and I’m responsible for everything that happens at our consultancy. I kind of look like this sketch.
In the past decade, I have worked with some of the best people at different start-ups and non-profit organizations in the field of education. The running theme during all of the engagements have been: process optimization and system design. Some of the notable contributions include designing and implementing an in-house data system to monitor over 10000 students across 100 schools. A system that is still scaling and going strong after 5 years of its creation—without my involvement.
There’s more
Since you’re on this page, you may want to know what else there’s to know.
Did you check our case studies? What about consultancy services? Been there, done that? Okay, if you have nothing else on your agenda, you can join my free semi-regular email letters here. I don’t spam or sell things. It is all about ideas, if that’s your thing.
Thanks for your interest and support. Have a great day.
— Bhagyesh