faff | personal whatsapp assistant

"just faff it" becoming household lingo is a canon event. grateful to see it come alive 🧡 thank you rhea for making this real, you just made our day!

𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲, 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵: 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗠𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗩𝗖-𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 In June, I had joined faff as a fullstack + GenAI intern. What followed was a crash course in product-engineering at startup speed, raw infra, real users, and prod logs you prayed wouldn’t go red. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁: Over next couple of months, I worked across the entire stack: frontend, backend, infra, LLM pipelines and shipped features that directly supported 100+ active users and a 20+ member operations team. Here’s what I touched:  1. 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 → 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗦𝗤𝗟 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Moved all ops infra from spreadsheets to a proper DB. Maintained live sync using Google APIs + IAM service accounts.  2. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗽𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Used WHAPI to store, parse, and respond to messages based on type, built logic triggers for ops workflows, tracking, and metrics.  3. 𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 + 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺: Integrated Razorpay for transaction handling and used Zoho APIs to auto-generate GST invoices.  4. 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗚𝗖𝗣: Set up jobs to handle reminders, user health metrics, scheduled nudges, and other backend business logic.  5. 𝗟𝗟𝗠 + 𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗧 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: Worked on auto-categorizing 1000+ labeled tasks into 140 categories to streamline ops feedback loops.  6. 𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Automated group creation, scheduled meetings, and payment link flows — made user activation seamless.  7. 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Dockerized frontend/backend/socket services and deployed across GCP + DigitalOcean.  8. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀: Added jitter, retries, exponential backoff to key systems. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 At faff, there wasn’t a clean distinction between “intern work” and “real work.” There was just work that mattered and whether you could make it happen. Sometimes I was training models. Sometimes I was debugging container logs over coffee. Sometimes I was rebuilding a pipeline that went down at 2AM because a message schema changed upstream. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝘆 If you’re an engineer joining an early-stage startup, especially as an intern, here’s what I learned:  • 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 — You can’t move fast if your infra is held together by bash scripts no one understands.  • 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝗽𝘀 — They are your highest-signal users. Build what they ask for and they’ll tell you what’s broken before any metric will.  • 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 — Sometimes the fastest solution is a Google Sheet. Sometimes it’s a containerized webhook with retries and backoff.  • 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 > 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 — No one cares what your code looks like if the system’s down.  • 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 — The small things you automate become invisible and that’s good. Invisible systems are working systems.

More than a year ago, I joined faff without fully knowing how much this experience would change the way I think and work. What makes faff special is the people, the speed, the ambition, and the culture of figuring things out instead of waiting for instructions. It’s one of those rare places that pushes you to grow every single day. If you’re someone who: • Is high agency • gets things done • thrives in unstructured environments faff is hiring exceptional talent. Hiring drive on 11th May at our office. Apply before 9th May EOD: https://binary.so/46TmQDp Future openings: https://binary.so/PmPOZvj #CFBR

I joined faff right around Diwali 2025, a time usually associated with new beginnings, energy, and light. And honestly, that’s exactly what this journey has been for me. ✨ I joined as an Operations Manager, and today I’m working with the Escalations team solving real problems, handling unpredictable situations, and learning something new every single day. The last few months have been nothing short of a blast. Some days are intense. Some days are chaotic. Some days test your patience, speed, and ownership. But every single day pushes you to become sharper, faster, and better. At faff, you don’t just “do a job.” You learn how to think on your feet. You learn how to take ownership. You learn how to solve for customers. You learn how to move fast without waiting for perfect instructions. You learn how to get shit done. And now, because we’re growing fast, we’re hiring again. We’re looking for people who are:  - People who don’t take “no” for an answer  - Customer obsessed  - Fast learners, people who can learn 10x every week -Comfortable working in a real-world, unstructured, messy startup environment If you’re someone who wants comfort, fixed processes, and predictable days, this may not be for you. But if you want growth, ownership, chaos, learning, and the chance to build something exciting from the ground up, you should definitely check this out. We’re hosting a hiring drive on 10th May . Apply here: Hiring drive link: https://binary.so/46TmQDp And if immediate joining doesn’t work for you, you can still apply through our normal hiring process for future openings: Future openings link: https://binary.so/PmPOZvj. Grateful for everything I’ve learned here so far, and genuinely excited to see more amazing people join the journey. 🚀

The day we got to take care of the person who takes care of you :)

Loved having you at faff, Bhoomika :)

Thanks for everything, Francis. Wishing you the best for what’s ahead

Still learning. Still growing. Glad you’re doing it with us, Ishika :)