Arun C Michael

Entrepreneur · Bengaluru

Arun C Michael Turning waste
into energy.
Ideas into companies.

I started Synod in 2009, just out of college, with about ₹40,000 and a couple of friends. The work has grown slowly from there: biogas and composting, then smart farming, then software. I also research how a large language model can run on one workstation.

See the companies How it started

BengaluruSince 2009

Black-and-white portrait of Arun C Michael, wearing glasses, a cap and a hood.
Arun C Michael · Bengaluru

01 — How it started

₹40,000 and a couple of friends.

2009Still learning.

There was no office to speak of.

I had just left college. I had about ₹40,000, no business experience, and a couple of friends. We started Synod by doing the labour, the deliveries and the installations ourselves.

It moved one step at a time: biogas plants and composting, then smart farming, then software. Zeeshan M P has been beside me for most of that.

I still think of myself as a student. The problems are ordinary and practical, and I am still learning them.

“You don’t need to be born a genius to build something great.”

A longer version (opens in a new tab)

02 — The companies

What I work on.

Separate companies, under the Synod Group name.

01

Synod Bioscience

Where I started

Waste, biogas plants, composting and environmental work for homes, institutions and businesses.

  • Biogas
  • Composting
↗
03

nanoFarm

NFI SmartFarm Solutions Private Limited

Smart farming and monitoring. emPOWER, the ERP, started here.

  • Smart farming
  • Sensors
↗

03 — The work

Energy, farming, software.

Three parts of the same job.

  1. Organic waste
  2. CH4 Anaerobic digestion
  3. Useful energy and nutrients

Energy and water

Waste, then something useful.

At BIOPOWER I work on biogas, compressed biogas, composting and water treatment.

Explore BIOPOWER (opens in a new tab)

Software · emPOWER

Ordinary business, in one place.

emPOWER is an AI-assisted ERP for sales, purchasing, inventory and accounts.

Explore emPOWER (opens in a new tab)
  • Sales and CRM
  • Purchasing
  • Inventory
  • Accounts and reporting

What it covers

04 — People

Beside the product.

A visit I wrote about, and a place to learn the work.

01

A visit near Bannerghatta.

I wrote about the Hakki-Pikki community there. WonderBin systems were installed at concessional prices, with help for the installation work.

What I wrote (opens in a new tab)
02

Learning next to the work.

ACADEMY is Synod Group’s learning platform. People come for internships and stay close to live projects.

ACADEMY (opens in a new tab)

05 — A note

One workstation.

A technical note I published in 2026.

Technical note · Zenodo · 4 November 2026

A large model, on the machine I have.

Beyond VRAM Capacity: A Single-Workstation Case Study of Strata, Qwen3.8-Flash-Next, and OpenCode on an RTX 5080.

I wrote down what it took to run that model on one workstation, with the GPU, the machine’s memory and the disk sharing the load.

Read the technical note (opens in a new tab) The code (opens in a new tab)

Concept DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23945368 (opens in a new tab)
Version 1.0.2 record zenodo.org/records/23947052 (opens in a new tab)

06 — Timeline

A few dates.

Zeeshan M P and I studied together, and have worked together since.

  1. 2005–2009

    Engineering studies

    Mohandas College of Engineering & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.

  2. 2009

    Synod begins

    I started Synod Bioscience. Waste and renewable energy, learned on the job.

  3. 2023

    BIOPOWER, nanoFarm, naturGas

    Biogas and compressed biogas, smart farming, and natural gas.

  4. 2026

    Software, and a note

    emPOWER, and the case study on one workstation.

07 — Elsewhere

Other places to read.

A press note, a longer personal note, and public profiles.

08 — Questions

Questions I get.

Who is Arun C Michael?
I am an entrepreneur in Bengaluru. I started Synod in 2009 with about ₹40,000 and a couple of friends, and I still work across renewable energy, waste, smart farming and software.
How did it start?
With about ₹40,000, no business experience, and a couple of friends. We did the labour, the deliveries and the installations ourselves.
What does BIOPOWER do?
Biogas, compressed biogas (CBG), composting and water treatment, including sewage treatment plants and water treatment plants.
What are nanoFarm and emPOWER?
nanoFarm is smart farming and monitoring. I work on research and operations there. emPOWER is the AI-assisted ERP that came out of that work, and NOVA is its assistant.

Contact

If you want to write.

Collaborations and engineering questions.