About
Two Words.
Two Words is a consultancy for complex, regulated industries. A small team, between Mumbai and Manchester. Founded in 2019.
Every company runs on a layer of technology that almost no one outside it ever sees — the platforms, tools, and workflows the business itself depends on to function. When that layer is good, the business moves. When it is poor, everything downstream runs slower, costs more, and grows quietly harder to trust. That layer is the only thing we work on.
It is rarely simple work. A wealth platform, a national tax workflow, a pharma launch under regulatory review — each arrives bound by rules, owned by a dozen stakeholders, and years of decisions deep. The craft is in making it usable without flattening what makes it real. Complexity is not the obstacle here. It is the material.
We have kept the studio deliberately small to stay close to that material — two cities, a short list of clients. We would rather be the team a client still calls in year four, knowing the work and its constraints by heart, than the one that was briefly, impressively large.
Nihar Tanna.
I read law, then trained in financial analysis at Grant Thornton — due diligence, regulatory work, transaction advisory. Before that, and for a while alongside it, I worked in cinema as a writer and director.
Two Words began as a small studio in 2019. The early work was design — interfaces, identity, the things a studio is usually hired for. The shape of the firm changed as the engagements did. A wealth platform here, a tax workflow there, a pharma launch, an AI system inside a regulated dashboard. The brief was rarely just the screen. More often it was the workflow behind it, the policy around it, or the question of what a particular team was actually trying to do.
The firm is built around being able to sit in that conversation. The team comes from finance, engineering, design, and operations. We work in one room, on one engagement at a time per pod, with the people commissioning the work and the people doing it both at the table.
Financial Analysis
Two Words
The people doing the work.
Six things, roughly held.
Business first.
We understand the regulation and the data model before we open Figma. Workflow before screen, every time.
One team.
The people who design the work are the people who build it. No handoffs across companies, no telephone game.
Complexity is the point.
We make complex systems usable without dumbing them down. The detail is what the work is for.
Small & senior.
Just the people doing the work. Every client works directly with the founder.
Ship it.
We deliver working software, not concepts. Most engagements end with code in production, not a presentation.
Selective.
We work in regulated industries where design decisions carry weight. A handful of clients at a time, by choice.
Two cities, one team.
Mumbai.
Manchester.
Common questions.
Most engagements are project-based, scoped to a defined outcome rather than a number of hours. A small number of clients work with us on a longer rolling basis where we hold both design and engineering across multiple product lines. We don't run agency-style retainers, and we don't sell time.
Most of our clients have an internal design or engineering function. We work alongside it rather than around it, often shaping the spine of a platform that the client's own team then extends. Where the client runs an agency partner, we work alongside them too.
Yes. The studio in Manchester sits closer to our UK and European engagements; the Mumbai studio handles most of the work in India and a portion of the work in the GCC. Financial services and pharma are the largest practice areas, but we also work in consulting, tax, mobility, and longevity.
Most of our work comes through introduction. If you've been pointed here, send a short note explaining what you're trying to do and we'll take it from there. If you haven't, the same applies — the door is open, the bar is the same.
Nihar runs every engagement directly, with the practice leads who sit closest to the work. The team you meet in the first conversation is the team that ships. We don't hand off after the pitch.
Applied AI infrastructure inside production platforms. Agents that read positions, draft reviews, monitor regulation, and flag what needs a human eye. We don't do chat surfaces bolted onto dashboards, and we don't build proofs of concept that aren't designed to ship.
Engagements typically run from a few months to multiple years, and the fee structure reflects that. We sit at the senior end of the market — closer to a boutique consultancy than to a design studio. Specifics are scoped to the engagement.