About Kanesh
Selling by conversation is older than our languages.
3,900 years ago, in Kanesh, merchants sold by letter to customers they never saw.
A merchant town in central Anatolia.
- Where
- Kanesh, at Kültepe, in central Anatolia.
- When
- An Assyrian merchant colony, around 1974–1836 BCE.
- What survived
- About 23,500 clay tablets: the largest collection of private texts from the ancient Near East.
- Who wrote
- Merchants writing to one another, to their families in Assur and to local people.
- Why it matters
- The tablets contain the oldest written record of any Indo-European language, the family that English and Spanish belong to.
The Hittites called their own language nešili: “the language of Neša”, which is Kanesh.
We build software for brands that sell by talking with their customers. We wanted a name that remembers how old that is.
The logo
One corner wedge makes the k.
The arms of our k are a single corner wedge, the Winkelhaken: one of the basic impressions of cuneiform writing.
- The logo is the word kanesh, in lowercase, with one drawn letter.
- The wedge stays apart from the stem, the way a stylus lifts off the clay.
- The k on its own is our symbol, for square and round spaces: app icon, favicon, avatars.
What we believe
Customers don't see departments. They see one brand.
They message you on WhatsApp, ask on Instagram, write an email, buy, return. On your side there are too many tools, and too often an AI that deflects instead of resolving.
We believe every conversation is either a sale or a customer who stays, and that its effect should be measured in orders, with the method in view.
So we build one place where marketing, sales and support share the conversation and the AI. With a person on the other side whenever one is needed.
Five rules we actually decide by.
If a value doesn't change a decision, it doesn't belong here.
The receipt rules
The truth is in the primary source: the supplier's invoice, the production data, the customer's written policy. Not the published rate, not what someone remembers. If we don't know, we say so and measure it.
In practice
- Before estimating a cost, we look at what the supplier already charged.
- Every figure carries its source, its date and whether it was measured, estimated or inferred.
What it isn't: Paralysis. If data is missing, we decide with what we have and write down what would change our mind.
What reaches the customer serves the customer
Every word, screen or charge a customer sees has to be useful to them. Our internal noise, our mistakes and our processes aren't their problem.
In practice
- An AI reply is ready to send as it is, with no notes that mean nothing to the person reading it.
- Nothing from one customer ever appears on another customer's screen.
What it isn't: Hiding problems. If something affects a customer, we tell them plainly, with the fix.
If we have to do it by hand, it isn't product
We scale with systems, not headcount. If something only works because someone at Nexau does it behind the scenes, it's a demo.
In practice
- When a customer needs something done, our job is to make the screen ready for them to do it themselves.
- Few and excellent: one brilliant person with good systems over three people filling gaps.
What it isn't: Leaving customers alone. There is always a path to a person when they need one.
Fixed means fixed for good
A fix isn't done until it covers the past, the cause is understood, and the next failure can be read in two minutes.
In practice
- Every data fix also corrects what was already written, because that's what the customer sees.
- Every incident ends in a test that stops it from coming back.
What it isn't: Perfectionism. We ship early, but we don't call something closed when it isn't.
We charge what it's worth, and never what isn't yours
Our price comes from the value we create for you, not from what others charge. We never bill for usage that isn't yours.
In practice
- If a cost was caused by us, it's never billed to you.
- Services have their own price, and we don't give them away.
What it isn't: Being cheap. We don't cut prices to win a logo.
Kanesh by Nexau
The company behind it.
Kanesh is a product by Nexau, a company based in Spain. Nexau signs the contracts and issues the invoices.
We work in Spanish and English.
Number Studios SL (Nexau) · B-14938864 · C/ Doce de Octubre 1, 2º 2, 14001 Córdoba, España. Legal notice
How to say it
ka-NESH
Stress on the last syllable. It rhymes with fresh.