Erie, Pennsylvania · August 2026
Building the next generation of industry software.
StayX is an AI-native software company. We develop vertical products for markets where existing systems are fragmented, outdated, or poorly matched to how professionals actually work, and we build custom enterprise applications for organizations whose operations deserve better than generic software.
01 The argument
Industry software keeps failing the professionals who depend on it.
In industry after industry, the people doing the most consequential work are served by the oldest, most fragmented software. Systems designed decades ago hold the records; spreadsheets and inboxes hold the actual work; the professional's memory holds everything in between. AI arrived, and most vendors bolted a chat window onto the same old systems. We think the honest response is to rebuild the software itself.
Owned products and custom systems are one discipline.
We build vertical products, starting with Mano for legal work, because some industries need a product: hundreds of firms with the same broken workflow. We build custom enterprise systems because some organizations run operations no product will ever fit. The engineering underneath is the same: start from how the work actually happens, build the complete system, stay responsible for it in production. Each side makes the other stronger.
Software is a relationship, not a delivery.
Most custom software fails after the handoff: the team that built it leaves, the operation changes, the system rots. So we do not hand off. We host, monitor, maintain, and keep developing what we build, our products and our enterprise systems alike. From the first business problem to the production system, StayX takes responsibility for the complete software lifecycle.
02 The record
What has happened so far.
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Origin · Erie, PA
StayX is founded in Erie, Pennsylvania.
An AI-native software company at 900 State Street, with two sides of one discipline: vertical products for markets that need them, and custom enterprise systems designed, built, hosted, and improved by one accountable team.
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First product · Legal
Mano, the first vertical product.
AI-native case preparation and practice management for small law firms. Built for legal work: hundreds of firms with the same broken workflow, served by a system that shows its sources and never guesses.
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2026 · Recognition
First place at the 2026 Erie TechCelerator, for Mano.
First place · $10,000 award · Judged by Ben Franklin Technology Partners
Read the announcement -
Next · Where this goes
A company that builds enduring industry platforms.
The long-term ambition is plain: a family of vertical products that define what software should be in their industries, and a body of enterprise systems that organizations trust with their most important operations, all on foundations we improve every year. We would rather grow deliberately and be right than announce fast and be forgiven.
03 The signatories
Three founders. One accountable team.
The same three people who design, engineer, and operate what StayX ships, and who write about what they learn on the way.
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Yashwanth Kasini
Co-founder & CEO
Leads the company's strategy, technical direction, and growth, from early product development to production deployment and enterprise adoption.
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Manohar Kakumani
Co-founder & CTO
Leads the architecture and engineering of the StayX AI platforms: agentic applications, backend systems, data infrastructure, and workflow orchestration.
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Yashash Kasini
Co-founder & Lead Product Architect
Owns product architecture: how workflows, data, and AI behavior come together into software people rely on.
Founder photography is on its way. We would rather show you nothing than something generated.
04 Postscript
P.S. Principles we run on.
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Build the complete system
A feature is not a product. We ship whole systems: interface, data, AI, and operations together. Or we do not ship.
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Start with how the work actually happens
The map of the real workflow, exceptions and approvals included, comes before the first line of code.
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Product quality over demonstration value
We optimize for the system that holds up in month eleven, not the demo that dazzles in minute five.
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AI belongs in the architecture, not only the interface
If removing the AI leaves the product intact, the AI was decoration. Ours is structural.
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Stay responsible after launch
Hosting, monitoring, maintenance, and continued development are part of the product, not an upsell.
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Announce products when they are real
No speculative product pages, no invented customers, no placeholder logos. Confidence comes from the work.
Talk to the people who build it.
Write to us about a product, a partnership, or the software your organization needs. A founder reads every message.
Yours, StayX · Erie, PA