Rethinking Product Engineering

In this edition of Founder Spotlight, we’re featuring Ali Hafizji, founder and CEO of Wednesday Solutions — an AI-powered product engineering company that’s helping startups, scale-ups, and enterprises build software faster, smarter, and leaner. With a bold thesis around AI-native teams, Ali and his crew have turned traditional development on its head, delivering 3x the outcome of a typical agile sprint using their proprietary Vibe Sprint model.

We sat down with Ali to learn how he built Wednesday, the real challenge behind growing a high-output team, and why the future of product engineering starts with rethinking how we work — not just what we build.

What does your business do, and what inspired you to start it?

Wednesday is an AI-powered product engineering services company. We help companies at every stage of growth:

• Launch: AI-native product builds for startups going from MVP to product-market fit

• Amplify: Traffic-driving spinouts and parallel products for scale-ups

• Control: Fixed-price project outcomes for enterprises

• Catalyze: Staff augmentation with elite AI-native engineers and designers

Before starting Wednesday, I worked with one of the largest banks in the country. They had unlimited resources—but painfully slow delivery. Our small team, in contrast, was pushing features weekly. That contrast opened my eyes: big companies don’t struggle because of money or talent. They struggle because their software development culture is broken.

I realized the future of product delivery wouldn’t be about throwing more people at the problem. It would be about rethinking how we build from the ground up—leaner teams, AI-native workflows, and speed as a feature.

What’s been your biggest challenge, and how did you overcome it?

Without a doubt — people.

Not just hiring, but aligning. Early on, we had smart individuals, but we weren’t a team yet. We faced misalignment, delivery gaps, and a lack of shared urgency.

The turning point came when I shifted my focus from just scaling output to building a true culture of ownership, execution, and learning. I brought in people who didn’t just write code, but asked: “What if?” And we backed them with systems, trust, and cutting-edge tech that removed blockers.

Today, that core team delivers like a unit 3x its size. They don’t just ship features. They move the business.

Where do you see AI making the biggest impact in your industry over the next five years?

The biggest shift won’t be in code generation. It’ll be in team dynamics.

AI will eliminate coordination drag. The best teams will be smaller, faster, and AI-native from day one. We’ve already seen it with our Vibe Sprints — an applied AI sprint format that uses tools at every step: from research and design to engineering and delivery.

The result?

• Faster experiments

• Sharper insights

• Fewer people

• Bigger outcomes

AI won’t replace product teams. But AI-native teams will replace everyone else.

How has Vengo AI helped your business capture leads and grow sales?

Vengo AI has been a game-changer for us.

As a services business, a lot of high-value leads drop off because they don’t get answers fast enough. Vengo helped us capture 96% more leads, 77% more emails, 57% more phone numbers, and 73% more booked appointments — all without increasing our headcount or adding friction.

What stood out was the intent-based engagement. Visitors don’t just fill forms—they have conversations. That personalization makes our outreach smarter, our qualification tighter, and our conversions stronger.

Vengo AI gives us a 24/7 sales assistant that speaks our language, knows our services, and converts curiosity into pipeline — automatically.

What advice would you give to other founders looking to integrate AI into their business?

Don’t treat AI like a feature. Treat it like a cofounder.

Most teams try to plug AI into existing processes. We did the opposite—we tore them down and rebuilt from scratch. We questioned every ritual:
Do we need this meeting? Can AI summarize the sprint? Can it turn research into wireframes?

That thinking gave birth to Vibe Sprints, our AI-native operating system for building digital products.

So if you’re considering AI, don’t start with automation. Start with this:

“If I were building this company from scratch with AI at the core—how would I do it?”

Then go do that. The rest of the world is already behind.

Want to capture more leads and build AI-native momentum like Ali?

Try Vengo AI free — no credit card required. Drop your trained AI agent onto your site and start booking qualified calls in minutes.
Use code VENGO50 for 50% off your first month after the free trial.
👉 Visit VengoAI.com