From Mortal Kombat Motion Capture to AI Agents | Pek Pongpaet of Impekable

What we talked about.

In this episode of the Sunny Ray show, host Sunny Ray interviews Pek Pongpaet, founder of Impekable, a technology consultancy that has spent over 15 years helping small and medium-sized businesses modernize. Pek traces an unusual path from computer engineering graduate during the dot-com boom to martial arts motion capture performer for Mortal Kombat video games, to a move to the San Francisco Bay Area that turned freelance work into a company. He shares how a weekend experiment called Pinstagram, later Pictacular, was covered by Time and Mashable, and what it taught him about lean experiments. The conversation then turns to how Impekable rescues stalled AI projects, including a pharma voice agent and a pest control product, why he scopes work to ship in 60 to 120 days, which clients he turns down, and how voice agents are only the tip of the iceberg. Pek closes by naming team development as the work he is proudest of.

A Mortal Kombat motion capture performer turned consultancy founder explains why curiosity, lean experiments, and tight scoping beat polish and hype.

The questions, and the answers.

What problem is Impekable solving?

We are a technology consultancy that helps with modernization end to end, turning business processes into software. Today we layer in AI agents and agentic processes, and we use AI in our own work too. In short, we take outdated, manual, or inefficient processes and automate or streamline them.

What did your Mortal Kombat motion capture work involve?

I wore a motion capture suit for the video games, not the movies, from Mortal Kombat 5 through 10 plus MK vs. DC Universe. I did martial arts moves, fight scenes, and fight choreography for cinematic trailers. I played Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Raiden, and even Superman.

How did you go from engineering to design, and what did you see that engineers were missing?

I graduated with a computer engineering degree at the height of the dot-com boom. With technology otherwise equal, the more successful products were the ones that were delightful and easy to use. I was curious how to make products more approachable with lower friction. By design I mean UX and usability, not pretty pixels.

When did you realize you were running a company rather than taking gigs?

I moved from Chicago to the Bay Area to build a startup with a co-founder, but people kept asking me to help with their products and UX. I kept saying no at first. After several months of our startup not taking off, I listened to the market and gave in. That was the signal.

What did shipping Pictacular teach you that client work could not?

It began as Pinstagram, a weekend joke built because Instagram had no website yet. We gave it a Pinterest-style layout, and it took off, getting covered by Time and Mashable. The first version took about two days. Small lean experiments work, and things do not need to be polished if they solve a real problem.

What habit from the early days have you never dropped?

Curiosity. I am always curious about new technologies and tools, even when it is draining. You do not have to implement everything, but you need to know what new capabilities make possible. If you ignore them and competitors transform their businesses, they could leave you behind.

What have clients usually tried before they call you, and how do you scope work?

They have often tried AI themselves. A pharma client built a voice agent that worked as a prototype but could not scale, so we rewrote it. I scope tightly to ship in 60 to 120 days, depending on regulation, because we need feedback from stakeholders and users instead of building in a vacuum.

What kind of clients do you take on or turn down, and where do voice agents fit?

We turn down clients shopping for the cheapest body shop. We want clients who need thought leadership and a product mindset, and we check the ROI first. The voice agent is the tip of the iceberg, with automation and guardrails underneath. We understand the problem before prescribing a solution.