Start with the problem.
We do not prescribe agents, frameworks, or infrastructure before understanding the decision, workflow, constraints, and cost of being wrong.
// About The Zoop Troop
Experienced judgment forunfamiliar territory.
We are an independent technical research and architecture firm for organizations working through consequential decisions in advanced software and AI.
// How we think
Curious about what is possible. Disciplined about what should ship.
Put certainty where it matters.
Models are useful for interpretation and ambiguity. Deterministic software should enforce permissions, calculations, business rules, and irreversible boundaries.
Make complexity earn its place.
Autonomy, memory, and multi-agent orchestration are introduced when they improve the outcome—not because they make a more impressive diagram.
// How engagements work
Bespoke by design.
We shape the work around the decision in front of you. The Zoop Troop does not sell staff augmentation or force every problem into a fixed package. We can work directly with your internal team,assess and validate a direction, or stay involved as fractional architecture guidance when that is the useful fit.
Complete project delivery is not our default model, but focused implementation work can be part of an engagement when it is the best way to test an assumptionor establish a sound foundation.
// Grounded experience
Research informed by building and operating.
Our work spans customer-facing AI products, distributed compute, real-time video, analytics and data pipelines, high-availability services, and working agent-system experiments.
Owned product
BlueClaw Network
A customer-facing AI inference platform that turns distributed compute research into an operating product with routing, metering, account controls, and observability.
Collaborative work
Cloud SPE
Livepeer-funded work in AI and video infrastructure, analytics, data pipelines, model runners, gateways, and open-source systems—contributed through XodeApp alongside Speedybird and other collaborators.
Operated initiative
XodeApp + Open Pool
Hands-on experience operating distributed video and AI infrastructure and building systems for worker coordination, performance measurement, and automated settlement.
Research practice
Applied research and experiments
Working explorations of agent orchestration, workflow automation, model behavior, memory isolation, real-time media, local-first analytics, and emerging architectural patterns.
// Leadership + collaboration
Senior involvement stays direct.
The Zoop Troop is owned and led by Mike Zupper, who brings more than 24 years of experience building and architecting scalable, secure, highly available systems.
Trusted collaborators—including Speedybird and others—may participate when a problem benefits from complementary expertise. The model stays flexible without pretending to be a large permanent staff.
We work primarily remotely from northeastern Pennsylvania, within the broader Philadelphia and New York City region, and are willing to travel anywhere when the engagement calls for it.
// Explore the fit
Have an uncertain technical decision in front of you?
Start with the problem. We will listen and determine whether our experience and interests align.