Interview: How ISHIR Stayed Relevant for 25 Years by Betting on People, Process, and Product—Not Hype

Nov 12

Written By David Hoos

Behind the Agency Podcast with Rishi Khanna, CEO, ISHIR

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Prefer the highlights? Key takeaways and summary below.

TL;DR – Key Takeaways

Longevity = adaptability. ISHIR has ridden four waves (dot-com, 9/11 backlash, 2008, COVID/remote) by adapting fast, not clinging to one service.
Relentless clarity. Start by defining “what problem, for whom, and what success looks like in 12 months.” Everything else flows from that.
Innovation Acceleration. Their productized kickoff blends Design Thinking + Lean Product + Agile to de-risk scope before building.
Referrals on purpose. Best leads come from happy clients, alumni who change jobs, and adjacent partners (MSPs, PE/VC, accounting)—because relationships are maintained deliberately, not accidentally.
Meet more than you invoice. Quarterly (QRs) and annual (ARs) client conversations keep ISHIR top-of-mind and deepen multi-threaded relationships (their “3Y3D” habit).
Pricing is shifting. With AI reducing time-to-value, time & materials breaks. Move toward outcome/value-based models and clear success metrics.
Build your secret sauce. Off-the-shelf SaaS can erase differentiation; AI lowers build costs, so more firms are returning to custom tools and owning IP.
Culture compounds. Clarity for employees—goals, strengths, desired paths—drives retention and better client outcomes.

Meet the Guest

Rishi Khanna is the CEO of ISHIR, a Plano, Texas–based custom software firm that’s evolved from early web builds to mobile, cloud, and now AI. Over 25 years, ISHIR has helped startups, mid-market, and enterprise teams ship products users “can’t live without” by pairing global talent with repeatable product practices.

Episode Summary

1. From dot-com to AI: staying power through change
ISHIR launched in 1999 building web products, added a global team in India to solve talent shortages, and learned to navigate market shocks (dot-com bust, 9/11, 2008, COVID). Each cycle forced a reset: new client needs, new delivery models, and new tech stacks.

2. The core pain: building the right thing
Most teams jump to “we need an app” before defining the job to be done, success criteria, or what happens if they don’t build it.

“We ask, why do you need it—and what would success look like 12 months from now?”

3. Their answer: Relentless Clarity
Before a line of code, ISHIR gets explicit on goals, constraints, and outcomes. That clarity directs scope, reduces waste, and creates a shared definition of “done” that leadership can get behind.

4. The framework: Innovation Acceleration
A productized discovery that combines:

Design Thinking to empathize and define the problem,
Lean Product to validate assumptions early,
Agile to deliver value in measurable increments.
A cross-functional team joins from the start, and they revisit the exercise periodically as markets shift.

5. Common mistake to avoid
Treating a kickoff as a one-and-done ceremony. ISHIR re-opens discovery on a cadence to realign roadmaps with fresh data and changing priorities.

6. Where the founder still belongs
Founders set outcomes and constraints, then protect the cadence of validation. They don’t micromanage tickets; they enforce learning loops.

7. Hiring, scaling, and partnerships
Rishi invests in employee clarity (strengths, passions, career paths). Externally, ISHIR nurtures referrals:

Clients who share them internally or after job changes,
Alumni/employees who carry ISHIR forward,
Adjacent partners (MSPs, accounting firms, PE/VC).
Cadenced QRs/ARs + in-person meetups keep relationships alive in a remote-first world.

8. Pricing in the age of AI
As AI compresses effort, time-based billing misaligns incentives. ISHIR is experimenting with outcome-based fees and clearer success metrics. In some cases, clients want to share or transfer IP depending on the outcome.

9. The strategic shift from SaaS to custom
Like the cloud repatriation trend, some companies are moving from generic SaaS back to custom internal tools to protect differentiation and control costs—especially for AI agents tuned to proprietary workflows.

Notable Quotes

“We build products users will love—and can’t live without.”
“If we can’t define success for the next 12 months, we’re not ready to build.”
“AI reduces time-to-value; pricing should follow outcomes, not hours.”
“Referrals grow when you show up between projects, not just during them.”