Rootconf 2025 Annual Conference CfP

{Describe your talk/session in 2–3 paragraphs}
When we talk about developer experience and productivity, words that often come to mind are automation, tooling, documentation, and knowledge sharing. These pillars are key to building a strong engineering culture. But in chaos-filled days of a startup, when there are only a few developers juggling product deadlines, customer issues, and infrastructure, these best practices often fall by the wayside. There’s just not enough time, people, or resources.

This talk will explore how to build developer experience and productivity systems in the resource-crunched environments of small startups — where you don’t have a full DevOps or platform engineering team, but you still care about writing good code, sharing knowledge, and avoiding burnout. We’ll dive into small, high-impact practices that scale, and how AI can help you punch above your weight. You’ll hear real-world stories. Remeber that “developer experience” a shared responsibility — not a luxury.

How to set up low-cost, high-leverage developer workflows using automation and AI.

{Mention 1–2 takeaways from your session}

• How to build for developer productivity when you are always playing catchup
• How to embed documentation and knowledge sharing into your team’s daily rhythm — without needing extra time or people.

{Which audience segment is your talk/session going to be beneficial for?}
This talk is ideal for engineers, tech leads, and platform enthusiasts working in or building or dreaming of early-stage startups.

{Add your bio - what you do; where you work}
Akanksha Vyas is cofounder and Chief Technology Officer at Pinky Promise. Pinky Promise is building an AI-powered digital clinic to bring affordable sexual and reproductive healthcare to every Indian women. She has over a decade of experience working at early-stage startups. This is her third stint as the founding CTO of a company, and has build and scaled products across healthtech, blockchain, 3D printing etc. She runs WomenXCode (formally Women Who Code) in Mumbai, and is a Visiting faculty at KJ Somaiya and NMIMS.