We're the startup studio Florida founders wish existed when they started.
DSHG Sonic is Florida's AI-native startup studio, headquartered in Sarasota. We co-build AI products with founders, take equity alongside cash, and stay on as operators when companies scale — all built on the orchestration approach and agent governance standard we're preparing to open up to partners.
Our Story
Founded in 2017. Incorporated as DSHG Sonic LLC (Florida) in 2023 to consolidate what became a family of operating companies. By 2025, fully AI-native — co-building products with founders, taking equity, and staying on as operators.
2017
Origin — first products built under the DSHG umbrella
2023
Incorporated as DSHG Sonic LLC (Florida) — family consolidated
2024
Family formed — Podcast Inc, A Digital Agency, AI Virtual Ops operating
2025
AI-native pivot — studio model, equity + cash, Fractional CTO as flagship
Our Operators
Manish Balakrishnan
Founder & CEO
25+ years of operator experience across Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, Edifecs, and Accenture. Built and scaled technology organizations for enterprise clients before founding DSHG Sonic to co-build with early-stage founders. Sarasota-based. Fractional CTO to Fludder for 4+ years.
LinkedIn ProfileWhere We Work
Four locations, four purposes.
MIAMI · BY APPOINTMENT
Quest Workspaces 1395 Brickell Avenue, Suite 800 Miami, FL 33131
Florida's startup capital. Book a Miami meeting via Calendly.
PUNE · DEVELOPMENT CENTER
Pune, India
Engineering center. Your product ships while you sleep.
engineering@dshgsonic.comMANILA · AI VIRTUAL OPS
Metro Manila, Philippines
AI Virtual Ops team — 24/7 agentic operations and back-office support.
The DSHG Sonic Family
Four operating companies. One team. One roster of engineers, designers, and operators.
Our Commitments
No demo days. Launch days.
No vendor relationships. Co-owners.
No Delaware flips required. We work with you in Florida.
No stealth retainers. Transparent equity + cash structures.
What's coming from the studio
Two things we've been building for ourselves — that we're getting ready to open up.
The DSHG Orchestrator
The system we use internally to combine fast-execution AI with deep-reasoning AI into one coherent build, instead of stitching tools together by hand. We're preparing it for select partners.
The DSHG Agent Governance Standard
A published framework for how AI agents should be scoped, supervised, and paused for human review — formalizing how we already run every engagement today.