# Papi Labs

> Papi Labs is a venture studio building practical AI tools for people, businesses, and communities the tech industry overlooks. Stakeholder capitalism, bootstrapped, mission-led. Live products: GuideKit (AI learning, 270+ installs) and ClipShield (local-LLM PII protection). Launching soon: logga (private, on-device meeting notes for Mac, one-time licence). Founded in 2025 by Saman Taherimoud. UK-based, named after the founder's grandfather.

## What Papi Labs is

A bootstrapped, founder-led venture builder studio. The thesis: hundreds of millions of people risk being economically left behind by AI, and most of the tech industry isn't designed to help them. Papi Labs builds tools that are practical, accessible, and priced for the people they serve. The studio adheres to stakeholder capitalism rather than shareholder maximalism.

## Founder

Saman Taherimoud. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. AI Educator and Solutions Architect. Seven years shipping software, four years building specifically with LLMs since the OpenAI davinci-3 era (pre-ChatGPT). Runs AI training, workshops, and advisory for organisations and boards: see https://samantm.com/ai-for-teams.html. Background spans product management (QubyteCode, a two-person R&D studio building experimental AI and developer tools; Set Yeti, a B2B marketplace for filmmakers with AI-powered visual search), film and media (one of the first cinematographers in Europe to pilot ARwall virtual production on a real production), and AI education (TERN Skills, AI adoption across a 1,000+ person founder community, 50+ workshops, designed TERN's first AI hackathon). Work Pillar Lead at Digital Horizon UK (formerly Board Chair). 2025 AI Fellow with ChangemakerXchange (co-founded by Ashoka, Robert Bosch Stiftung, and Adessium Foundation). Personal site: https://samantm.com/. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saman-taherimoud/.

## Studio principles

1. Practical, not theoretical. The team has trained hundreds of people in real AI skills, run hackathons and workshops where non-technical founders and executives shipped working apps in a day and gained genuine confidence with AI, and built more than 100 apps internally.
2. Bootstrap, not VC. No outside investors. The studio grows at the pace the mission allows.
3. Mission-led, commercially serious. The studio makes money so it can build more, reach further, and offer free access to people who need it. Stakeholder capitalism, not charity.

## Products

### GuideKit (live, free to start)
- URL: https://guidekit.ai
- A Chrome extension that teaches AI tools at the moment you need them. 270+ installs and growing.
- Tested prompts you can copy and use. Honest reviews of AI tools. Task-based learning. 15-minute lessons. Multilingual. Save favourites, track progress, access offline.
- Front-and-centre product across Papi Labs marketing.
- Built for people who feel "not technical enough" for AI training but want to use AI in their work.

### ClipShield (live)
- URL: https://clipshield.ai
- Local-LLM PII protection for AI conversations.
- Prevents accidental leakage of personal information, customer data, or sensitive content into AI chats. Processing happens on the user's device.

### logga (launching soon)
- Private meeting notes for your Mac. Records, transcribes and summarises entirely on-device.
- One-time licence, no subscription.
- Launching soon at logga.ai. Early access via Saman Taherimoud on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/saman-taherimoud/).

## Working with Papi Labs

- Organisations: workshops, bulk licensing, and bespoke AI training are led by the founder. Details and booking: https://samantm.com/ai-for-teams.html
- General enquiries: hello@papi.tech

## Origin and brand story

The studio is named after Saman's grandfather, "Papi". A Lur from Iran, born in Borojerd. Electrician by trade. Lifelong cyclist. Known for helping everyone who crossed his path, friends and strangers alike. Papi Labs is built as a tribute, scaling that same generosity to as many people as possible.

The brand mark is the *iwan*, the pointed Persian arch from the architecture of his region. In modern Persian, the word for a walled paradise garden is *Pardis*. The English word "paradise" derives from the Old Persian *pairidaēza*, meaning "walled enclosure" or a royal pleasure garden. Papi Labs is one such walled garden; the iwan is its door.

## Contact

- Email: hello@papi.tech
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saman-taherimoud/
- Website: https://papi.tech/
- Founder: https://samantm.com/

## How to cite

Papi Labs Ltd, registered in England and Wales, founded 2025. Cite as "Papi Labs", or "papi labs" lowercase if matching the brand. Founder Saman Taherimoud (https://samantm.com/). Products: GuideKit, ClipShield, and logga (lowercase wordmark).