My guest today is Thanos Diacakis, Software Delivery Coach & a Fractional CTO. We covered a wide range of topics that included: Insightful Experiences : Thanos shared many insightful and thought-provoking experiences and perspectives, particularly on software delivery life cycle improvements without explicitly using terms like Kanban Balancing Work and Personal Life : Thanos emphasized the importance of balancing work and personal life, recognizing that while work is important, personal rela...
Jul 12, 2025•54 min
In this episode of Software People Stories , Gayatri Kalyanaraman speaks with Anu Dwaraknath , Staff Technical Program Manager at Lam Research , about her dynamic journey across geographies, domains, and roles. From her early days in telecom to becoming a driving force in the semiconductor space, Anu shares stories of adaptability, continuous learning, and purpose-driven leadership. Episode Summary In this inspiring episode of Software People Stories , Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation wit...
Jul 05, 2025•39 min
Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Dr. Fred Jordan, CEO and Co-Founder at AlpVision and FinalSpark - Expert anticounterfeit technologies - Expert biocomputing talks about his journey to make a difference in AI and what propelled him to do that. 1. Early Career — Curiosity, Coincidence, and Counterfeits Fred describes himself modestly as a French physicist who stumbled into entrepreneurship by "provoking luck." He and his co-founder Martin Kutter began with research in digital watermark...
Jun 29, 2025•51 min
I am very happy to bring you the inspiring story of Santosh Kaveti, CEO and Founder of ProArch Technologies. In this conversation he talks about: His Origin Story: From applied mathematics to entrepreneurship, navigating challenges, risks, and business growth. AI in Cybersecurity & Infrastructure: The rapid convergence of AI, security, compliance, and enterprise tech strategies . Investing & Startup Leadership: What Santosh looks for in founders, financial planning, and scaling a busines...
Jun 20, 2025•50 min
Her early inspiration while growing up in Goa with limited exposure to career options. Her Father’s intellectual influence despite personal hardships and shift in focus to technology. Personal tragedy sparked a resolve to become financially independent and learn deeply. Inspirational quote that shaped her mindset: “Even if your dreams haven’t come true, be grateful that so haven’t your nightmares.” Her first role at a startup with Hands-on work with networking protocols (LDAP, VPN, DNS). Learnin...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 1 min
I am in conversation with Deepak Mittal, CEO of FFTalos Technologies. In this insightful episode, Deepak Mittal shares his career journey from coding to consultative selling , reflecting on his evolution from a tech enthusiast to a sales leader driving large-scale digital transformation. He explores solution-based selling , the importance of understanding customer needs , and why sales is more about facilitation than persuasion . More specifically, he covers: His Origin Story: From engineering a...
Jun 08, 2025•58 min
My guest today is Jake McKee, a pioneer in the modern customer community movement. In this conversation, he shares: Hiss Origin Story: His unique career bridging product design, engineering, and community strategy . Community-Driven Product Development: How companies can embed passionate customers in the development cycle . Empathy & Relationship Building: The importance of emotional connection between brands, engineers, and users. Community Across Industries: From B2B to B2C, physical produ...
May 30, 2025•55 min
My guest today is Stamatis Astra is the Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of Intelligent Relations. In this freewheeling conversation, he talks about: Introduction & Origin Story Stamatis shares his varied career journey, starting in theater before transitioning into technology and entrepreneurship. Reflects on early internet days, the rise of e-commerce, and parallels with today’s AI revolution. Entrepreneurial Mindset & Product Building The core skills of entrepreneurship remain th...
May 23, 2025•40 min
Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Deeksha Senguttuvan, Founder and CEO of BabyMD and executive trustee for a pediatric cancer foundation . Deeksha brings her authentic self to share powerful stories of personal transformation, entrepreneurial grit, and unwavering compassion for children’s health. Some highlights from the conversation Deeksha started her Career Journey in software industry Pivot to Healthcare due to circumstances that have presented Deeksha describes herself as someone...
May 20, 2025•34 min
Shiv is in conversation with Allen Cooper, President and CEO of Ancilla Ventures. Their focus is in providing tools to healthcare support staff to improve patient outcomes. In this conversation, Allen talks about: Allen’s Origin Story: Transitioning from accounting to computer science, and entering the consulting world at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Consulting to Startups: The transition from corporate consulting to entrepreneurship. Building Ancilla: How Allen became a partner and even...
May 09, 2025•48 min
Shiv is in conversation with Mathias Buus Madsen, CEO of Holepunch, Copenhagen. In this episode, Mathias shares his journey into software development, beginning as a math student and evolving into a passionate advocate for peer-to-peer technology. He explains the foundational concepts behind peer-to-peer systems, their advantages over centralized models, and their applications in both personal and enterprise use. Mathias discusses how these decentralized systems enhance security, minimize infras...
May 02, 2025•50 min
I am in conversation with Sundar Rajan, a serial entrepreneur, currently the founder of OneMyle, a platform that seeks to address the needs of hyperlocal digital marketing in neighborhoods. He was earlier the co-founder of JustBooks, a lending library chain, supported by an innovative technology platform. Sundar reflects on his journey from a software developer to an entrepreneur, sharing his experiences and challenges along the way: Early Career in IT : He worked in IT, building software for ba...
Apr 27, 2025•55 min
Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Sunil (SKG) Gupta, Senior Director in Cognizant and author of the book “Unlock Yourself” about creating a purpose led and fun filled life — a seasoned corporate leader with over three decades of experience spanning supply chain, IT-BPM, SaaS platforms, and now, marketing and influencer relations at Cognizant. Some highlights from the conversation has two major parts A Career Built on Transitions and Reinvention and making of the author Sunil started h...
Apr 18, 2025•48 min
My guest today is David Young,Founder at Federated Computer. He has been a pioneer in cloud computing even before the term was invented. In fact, he and his team helped invent the term. In this conversation we could recall many of the developments of a couple of decades ago as well as what keeps him engaged now, at Federated computer. During this conversation, David touches upon: Introduction and Early Career Journey Transition to Silicon Valley and Startups Contrast Between Corporate and Startu...
Apr 11, 2025•48 min
Today, as part of the women’s special series in March, 2025, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Karthik Karunakaran(KK), CEO, co-founder of Mobius software and chief strategist Xtract.io , male ally for women continuing their career and a serial entrepreneur talks about his career journey. KK started his career in Tata Steel after completing production engineering in NIT Trichy and management in XLRI Jamshedpur. KK shares his belief in 'Make in India' and how he stayed true to his root...
Apr 04, 2025•59 min
Today, as part of the women’s special series in March, 2025, my guest is Veena Rao, SVP & Global Head, Corporate Lending at Finastra with over 25 years’ of experience in financial services and banking technology. In this conversation Veena shares Her early influences and being adaptable Her education and career path Her philosophy re career growth Insights from her leadership journey How to handle work-life integration aspects On Global experience and being sensitive to cultural nuances How ...
Mar 28, 2025•56 min
Today, as part of the women’s special series in March, 2025, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Ponni Krishnamoorthy, Director and Global head of Telco cloud in Nokia talks about breaking societal expectations to achieving career goals - Ponni shares about her humble background and Her roots in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, and how her upbringing shaped her career choices and Ponni’s career journey from NIT Trichy to becoming Director at Nokia.- Ponni shares her Being the first woman engineer...
Mar 21, 2025•44 min
Bindhu Unny is a leadership coach, podcast host and Social Entrepreneur, who straddles various mediums giving all her work a unique stamp of inherent creativity. She has 20 years of global experience working for corporates in various high-performance roles that span across Software development, Enterprise Marketing, Product Design, Customer Experience and Sales. During the course of her corporate career, she realized that she loved connecting with people, and enjoyed the process of motivating th...
Mar 14, 2025•44 min
Our regular and long time listeners know that we dedicate the month of March every year for our special women guests. Welcome to the first special episode for March, 2025. In this episode, I am in conversation with Vidya Kabra, a Global Tech and QA leader with over 30 years of experience in the global IT industry. She talks about: - Overcoming challenges from a traditional Marwadi family to pursue education and career. - Early struggles with a startup due to lack of job opportunities in Maharash...
Mar 07, 2025•50 min
Sivaguru is in conversation with the serial author and colleague at PM Power, Paramu Kurumathur. They talk about The trigger for the upcoming book is related to leadership. How this book builds on previous books but focuses on general leadership principles. The three aspects of leadership involving execution, business, and personal growth. Importance of reconciling leadership styles in different contexts. Holistic leadership that applies to both professional and personal contexts. Challenges and...
Feb 28, 2025•46 min
I am continuing this conversation with Rachana Shenoy, Engineering Leader HPE talks about balancing career growth, avid speaker and continuous learner In this part of the conversation, Rachana shares her stress and delivery pressures balancing it with employee engagement scores She shares some of the key techniques for budding managers Creating an environment of fun and accountability Embracing team members as a complete person rather than a skill or a resource Gen Z mindset doesn’t like to be a...
Feb 21, 2025•29 min
Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Rachana Shenoy , Engineering Leader HPE talks about balancing career growth, avid speaker and continuous learner In this part of the conversation, Started engineering as a natural choice due to the love of Mathematics Start at HP in the compiler and felt extremely overwhelmed and quickly found the mentor network She contrasts that with industry ready team members now Joined EMC in their storage management solutions understanding interoperability of OS...
Feb 07, 2025•32 min
I continue my conversation with Hikari Senju, Founder and CEO of Omneky, an AI platform that generates, analyzes, and optimizes personalized ad creatives at scale. In this part of the conversation, Hikari talks about: The need to focus on his customers - the advertisers’ needs Adapting to new technologies and standards such as cookieless future The inspiration to start his current company Omneky Building and nurturing a high-performing team His advice for aspiring software professionals Hikari S...
Jan 31, 2025•28 min
I am in conversation with Hikari Senju, Founder and CEO of Omneky, an AI platform that generates, analyzes, and optimizes personalized ad creatives at scale. In this part of the conversation, Hikari talks about His background and how the influence of one of his uncles got him interested in computers His serial entrepreneurship arc, with two successful startups and in his third venture His learnings from this experience on the importance of leadership, value brought by incubators, working on two ...
Jan 24, 2025•28 min
I continue my conversation with David G. Ewing, CEO of Motiv. I asked David about how he thinks AI based approaches are likely to impact the customer experience. He shares how this can be used as a powerful tool to improve customer experience. He also talks about his new venture ContentLion that helps companies centralize and manage their content He touches upon aspects of data security and privacy He shares his personal practices and some tips that help him stay focused and centered while also ...
Jan 17, 2025•28 min
I am in conversation with David G Ewing, CEO of Motiv. In this first part of the conversation, David talks about: His initial days in Detroit, where he grew up Meeting the CEO of Oracle, Larry Ellison and how that influenced some of his later decisions in choosing the area of work When building solutions, how and why technology under the hood has to be invisible, while focusing primarily on the user experience Using the customer journey mapping technique to better understand customer experiences...
Jan 11, 2025•26 min
I continue my conversation with Gorkem Ercan, founding Distinguished Engineer and CTO of Jozu. Gorkem has experience working and leading teams with various technologies ranging from building IDEs, to building mobile phones, and CI/CD systems. He is an avid contributor and supporter of open source. In this part of the conversation, Gorkem talks about: Time Management and Prioritization: for both personal and team work. Using visual tools like lists and boards to track and prioritize contributions...
Jan 05, 2025•24 min
I am in conversation with Gorkem Ercan, founding Distinguished Engineer and CTO of Jozu. Gorkem has experience working and leading teams with various technologies ranging from building IDEs, to building mobile phones, and CI/CD systems. He is an avid contributor and supporter of open source. In this conversation, Gorkem talks about: Gorkem's Background: Early interest in computers Discovering open source while at university and starting to read other people’s code. Beginning to contribute to ope...
Dec 28, 2024•28 min
I continue my conversation with Sophia Willows, the Head of Engineering at Rye, an a16z-backed developer tools startup making APIs for online commerce. At Rye, Sophia shapes the technical direction of the company and is responsible for building a high-performance engineering culture. In this part Sophia discusses the challenges of creating consistent and user-friendly APIs. She emphasizes the importance of involving developers early in the design process, using clear and consistent documentation...
Dec 20, 2024•32 min
Today, I am in conversation with Sophia Willows, the Head of Engineering at Rye, an a16z-backed developer tools startup making APIs for online commerce. At Rye, Sophia shapes the technical direction of the company and is responsible for building a high-performance engineering culture. She is a software engineer from New Zealand, shares her journey into the tech industry. Initially aspiring to be an astronaut, she pivoted towards computer science due to physical limitations. She gained early expe...
Dec 12, 2024•30 min
