Codewave: Scaling Autonomy, AI, and Entrepreneurial Culture

This blog post is part of 80+ case studies of progressive organizations we created for the ZeroDX awards 2025. These organizations embody the principles of RenDanHeYi in their work structures:

• Zero Distance to customer: Decision what to build is based on insights from the marketplace

• Autonomy: Small teams with full decision-making autonomy enable speed in execution

• Shared Rewards: Everyone in the micro-enterprise participates in its financial success.

India, where Codewave is based, presents a distinctive cultural context for such an experiment. While the country ishome to a booming technology sector, many businesses still operate under deeply entrenched hierarchical traditions. As Vidhya describes, "In some places, people are very used to someone telling them what to do. They expect explicit instructions and fixed structures." The challenge of building a self-managing organization in this environment required Codewave to be highly intentional in hiring and cultural development. "One of the things we look for in hiring is self-awareness. Can they think entrepreneurially? Can they think critically? Can they speak up?" Vidhya explains.

As Codewave approaches 200 employees, it is actively institutionalizing its decentralized cluster model to sustain growth without compromising its core principles. The organization is designing and implementing a slightly differentorganisational structure to support deeper decentralization. Much of this work was sparked by the team's participation in the 2024 ZeroDX gathering in China, where they drew inspiration from Haier's RenDanHeYi model.

At the heart of Codewave's model lies autonomy at scale. Unlike conventional growth trajectories, Codewave has eliminated CXO roles and formal boards altogether. "We are just founders, but we are not bosses," Vidhya explains.Leadership is fully distributed. Responsibility and decision-making sit with the teams who do the work.

Building on their learnings from Haier, Codewave evolved its structure into entrepreneurial clusters of 21 people.This cap ensures agility and prevents bottlenecks. "Decentralization is one big learning for us. The moment acluster becomes more than 21, we break it down and split into two," Vidhya says. The approach reflects a clear RDHY principle: create small, customer-facing, self-managing units with full P&L accountability.

The Boundaries of Action (BOA) framework empowers each team to make decisions independently, from staffing and technology choices to client negotiations and financial targets. Teams do not need permission to act; instead, theyoperate within clearly defined boundaries. A self-management volunteer team monitors how these boundaries evolve, continuously identifying new areas where teams can take full ownership.

Codewave's zero-distance to customer principle is equally striking. Every team member, whether intern or lead, works directly with clients, participating in weekly check-ins focused on progress, value delivery, and trust-building. "It feelslike I've hired an internal team," clients often remark. There are no project managers acting as buffers. Every employee is fully exposed to client needs, enabling rapid learning and entrepreneurial responsiveness.

This direct customer engagement is supported by a strong culture of capability-building. Every new employee participates in a mandatory design thinking bootcamp where they develop and prototype a product idea. One such project unexpectedly turned into a powerful symbol of Codewave's culture: Home Chef. A group of new hires built a food delivery platform that enabled a member of the housekeeping staff to launch her own catering business. The Home Chef app allowed the housekeeping staff to sell home-cooked meals not only to Codewave employees but also to customers in other companies. This opportunity enabled the housekeeping staff member to successfully build her own catering business.

The company’s approach to hiring strongly favors individuals who thrive in a self-managing environment. This makes the company especially attractive to younger generations who are more comfortable with autonomy and continuous feedback. "The latest generation, the millennials and Gen Zs, they have been living in an information age and theythrive for a culture like this," Vidhya adds.

To support this unique culture, Codewave uses AI even before employees join. Candidates engage with an AI-powered pre-joining induction system that introduces them to the culture, expectations, and working style. "Either the person decides not to join, or they decide to join happily. This is too much autonomy for some people," Vidhya notes.An AI policy bot has also replaced static HR documents with interactive, conversational access to company guidelines, making information more accessible from day one.

Beyond design thinking, all employees receive training in Radical Candor (feedback training inspired by the book under the same name and authored by Kim Scott) and negotiation techniques (inspired by Chris Voss’ work). These are not optional. Radical Candor teaches employees how to deliver honest, respectful feedback across hierarchies, while negotiation training equips them to navigate both internal discussions and client relationships with empathy. As Abhijith HK (Abhi) explains, these tools are essential because "negotiation happens daily, even when deciding work schedules or resolving team tensions."

AI has become deeply embedded across Codewave's work, both for clients and internally. In technology development, design, and UX, AI tools boost productivity by up to 40 percent in manual tasks while leaving creativeproblem-solving to humans. "For every two people we hire, we find four AI tools to augment their work," says Vidhya.At Codewave, technological progress amplifies human capability.

These technological shifts have enabled a move to fully outcome-based performance evaluation. Teams are held accountable for both revenue and profitability, with a minimum project profit margin target of 30 percent. The Peerlyfeedback system remains central, with 40 to 50 peer-elected employees now involved in performance bracketing decisions. This transparency has strengthenedownership, though Vidhya acknowledges minor challenges remain, particularly as less experienced peers sometimes overestimate senior colleagues' contributions.

Profit-sharing aligns with Codewave's shared rewards philosophy. Project profits are divided between team members and a central fund used for bonuses and reinvestment. Currently, intrapreneurial branches in Rajasthan and Kolkataoperate under the same principles, with local leaders taking full business ownership while continuing their technical roles. "They are both developers and entrepreneurs," Abhi explains about the employees leading the expansion.

In 2025, Codewave is doubling down on its product innovation efforts alongside its organizational transformation. Thecompany continues to refine its internal platforms, Glue and Storymetrics, not only to strengthen transparency and decision-making internally, but also to prepare them for potential broader adoption by external partners. In parallel, Codewave continues advancing deeper decentralization, expanding regional entrepreneurial units, and deepening AI integration across its operations as part of its ongoing RenDanHeYi journey.

At its core, Codewave remains a living example of RenDanHeYi principles in action: radical decentralization, zero distance to customer, transparent shared rewards, and deeply embedded autonomy. Boldly, Codewave’s co-foundershave consistently confronted growth challenges with these principles anchoring their choices. As Abhi puts it, “Not scaling was not an option.” That mindset continues to define Codewave's unique journey to prove that self-management, entrepreneurship, and autonomy can grow together, even in the face of deep-rooted hierarchical traditions.