Mala's Podcast

Mala Ramakrishnan
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Welcome to Mala’s Podcast, where honest conversations meet the future of AI, startups, and leadership. Mala sits down with CEOs, founders, and innovators leading the world’s most exciting AI companies — from Silicon Valley to Singapore and beyond. Each episode uncovers what really happens behind the scenes: building teams, surviving chaos, scaling products, and shaping the next era of intelligent technology. If you’re curious about how the AI revolution is being built — one decision, one founder, one story at a time — you’re in the right place.

  1. What it takes to make AI work in enterprises | Head of Product Strategy ⁨@rackspacetechnology⁩

    3D AGO

    What it takes to make AI work in enterprises | Head of Product Strategy ⁨@rackspacetechnology⁩

    What does AI strategy look like inside industries that are still catching up to cloud? In this episode, Mala speaks with Madhavi Rajan, Head of Product Strategy for Rackspace’s Private Cloud business, about her journey from NASA-funded research to enterprise infrastructure and AI strategy. Madhavi shares hard-earned lessons from 20+ years in deep tech, including how to move from engineering to product, why enterprise customers adopt technology slowly, and how leaders should think about private cloud, responsible AI, security, and business outcomes. This episode is especially relevant for founders, product leaders, infrastructure builders, enterprise SaaS teams, cloud strategists, AI operators, and anyone building for industries that move slowly but matter deeply. ________________________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:05 – Madhavi Rajan’s journey into cloud and AI strategy 01:34 – Early career in semiconductors and networking 02:36 – The cancelled project that changed her career 04:13 – Moving from technical execution to strategy 05:07 – Breaking into product management 06:04 – What private cloud means for enterprise customers 07:45 – Private cloud, public cloud, and regulated industries 08:55 – How AI workloads fit into private cloud 09:41 – AI sandboxes for sovereign and enterprise customers 10:52 – Why security is horizontal across AI and infrastructure 12:39 – Technology waves, enterprise laggards, and the reality of infrastructure adoption 15:26 – Responsible AI, GPUs, CPUs, and business outcomes 17:48 – Enterprise AI for efficiency vs revenue generation 20:10 – Why Copilot adoption is not the same as an AI strategy 24:26 – Infrastructure partnerships, ecosystems, and what real AI adoption will require 26:07 – Rapid fire with Madhavi 28:07 – Leading through ambiguity in AI strategy ________________________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Madhavi Rajan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavi-rajan/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org #MalasPodcast #MadhaviRajan #Rackspace #PrivateCloud #AIstrategy #EnterpriseAI #CloudComputing #Infrastructure #ProductStrategy #WomenInTech #TechLeadership #ResponsibleAI #HybridCloud #DataCenters #AIInfrastructure #ProductManagement #EnterpriseTechnology #CloudStrategy #Founders #DeepTech

    30 min
  2. Inside AI Implementation at a $1B Company | With Chief AI Officer ⁨@Buildops⁩ ​

    5D AGO

    Inside AI Implementation at a $1B Company | With Chief AI Officer ⁨@Buildops⁩ ​

    In this episode of Mala’s Podcast, Mala sits down with Duncan Grazier, a seasoned technology leader who has helped scale companies from early-stage teams to major exits, including ShopKeep’s $550M sale to Lightspeed Commerce and Weedmaps’ public-market journey. Duncan is now Chief AI Officer at BuildOps, a unicorn transforming the commercial contracting industry with software and AI.   This conversation goes deep into what it actually takes to scale engineering teams, build trust in AI, and bring automation into industries that still rely heavily on paper-based workflows. Duncan shares how BuildOps is helping electricians, HVAC technicians, contractors, hospitals, data centers, and large commercial operators move toward smarter, faster, AI-enabled operations. Mala and Duncan also explore the future of the Chief AI Officer role, why every leader will eventually need to become AI-native, how AI can improve billable hours and reduce operational errors, and why small language models and edge AI may be the next major shift. This is a practical, honest conversation for founders, operators, product leaders, CTOs, AI builders, and anyone thinking about how AI will reshape the physical world. _______________________________________________ Timestamps 00:05 Duncan Grazier’s startup journey 00:40 Scaling ShopKeep to a $550M exit 00:51 Taking Weedmaps public 01:27 Becoming Chief AI Officer at BuildOps 01:44 What BuildOps does 03:00 Internal vs external AI transformation 03:18 Getting traditional industries to trust AI 04:09 AI product opportunities in commercial contracting 05:19 BuildOps as CRM, dispatch, invoicing, logistics, and compliance 06:28 Selling AI through outcomes 07:25 Proving AI ROI through the bottom line 08:39 What breaks when teams scale 09:31 Hiring, trust, and growing leaders internally 13:04 The future of the Chief AI Officer role 17:12 Agents, small language models, and the future of AI at the edge _______________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Duncan Grazier → https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsmeduncan/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #StartupScaling #Leadership #EngineeringLeadership #BuildInPublic #AITransformation #FutureOfWork #EnterpriseAI #Founders #ProductLeadership #TechLeadership #Automation #Startups #Innovation

    20 min
  3. The hard truth about business turnarounds | CFO @Fullproof.ai

    APR 29

    The hard truth about business turnarounds | CFO @Fullproof.ai

    Shannon Power started in a bunny suit doing semiconductor manufacturing at Motorola and Intel. An industrial engineer turned finance executive, today she's a fractional CFO and COO who gets called in at inflection points — when companies are changing business models, scaling after a big raise, or preparing for an exit. In this fireside chat with Mala Ramakrishnan, Shannon breaks down why CFO turnover has doubled in the last year, why finance and operations roles are merging at companies like Salesforce, and how she actually evaluates AI tools — including her honest take on why most companies are getting AI investment wrong. Spoiler: cutting headcount to fund AI infrastructure isn't growth. It's something else entirely. If you're a founder selling into finance teams, an operator thinking about how AI is reshaping the C-suite, or anyone curious about what real business turnarounds look like, this one's worth your time. _________________________________________________ Timestamps 00:00 Meet Shannon — from semiconductor engineer to fractional CFO 01:07 Getting tapped for strategy and finance projects at Intel 02:08 The MBA pivot and finding her niche in operational finance 03:11 Why finance is the story of the business, not just the books 04:56 Why the engineer-to-CFO jump isn't as drastic as it sounds 06:29 What it takes to be a CFO today 07:32 Why CFO turnover has doubled in the past year 09:24 Measuring CFO performance beyond the numbers 10:48 The CFO as risk owner in the age of AI 12:27 How AI is reshaping the CFO role globally 14:09 Balancing guardrails without killing innovation 15:24 The AI tools Shannon is actually using 17:05 Advice for founders pitching enterprise CFOs 18:48 The real reason companies are cutting headcount for AI 20:42 Is the CFO role industry-specific? 23:28 Why CFO and COO roles are merging 25:38 Where governance, data, and AI fit in the org chart 27:31 When a company actually needs a CFO — full-time vs fractional _________________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Shannon Power → https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonlynnpower/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7 Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org #CFO #Finance #Founders #AI #BusinessTurnaround

    41 min
  4. How a 2X Founder is restructuring product & engineering for the AI Era | CPO @Instrumental

    APR 27

    How a 2X Founder is restructuring product & engineering for the AI Era | CPO @Instrumental

    Scott Sundvor is a three-time founder with a path most people don't take. He started Nima at MIT — a sensor that lets you test food for allergens in under two minutes — built it, scaled it, sold it. Then he pivoted into cannabis, ran that company through a regulated landscape with no banking access, and exited again. Now he's the Chief Product Officer at Instrumental, a Series C company helping NVIDIA, Meta, and others detect manufacturing defects in real time. In this fireside chat with Mala Ramakrishnan, Scott talks about why hardware is still hard even with AI, what's actually driving the current robotics and physical-AI boom, and why he made the call to sell his cannabis company instead of grinding through a decade of pain waiting for federal change. He's also direct about AI-native company building. His worry isn't big competitors. It's the two-year-old startup that's AI-native from day one and moving three times faster. Instrumental is restructuring entire teams around that reality — fewer product managers, tighter pods, every engineer working in an AI-orchestrated environment. If you're a founder evaluating hardware ideas, a leader thinking about how to actually rebuild your team for the AI era, or just curious what it takes to start three companies and keep going, this one's worth your time. _______________________________________________ Timestamps00:00 Meet Scott — MIT, three companies, immigrant founder 00:32 Nima — building food allergen sensors from a personal need 01:42 First principles thinking when every expert says no 03:03 Selling Nima and how users keep bringing it back to market 04:21 Why hardware is still hard, even with AI 05:22 Evaluating hardware startups as an investor 07:20 The current hardware boom — GPUs, defense, robotics 08:33 Pivoting from MIT engineer to cannabis founder 09:46 Marketing a product you're legally forbidden from advertising 11:12 The federal bet that didn't pay off and the call to exit 14:04 Joining Instrumental as Chief Product Officer 14:48 Improving manufacturing yields by 10–20 points 17:13 What it actually costs to deploy on a manufacturing line 20:31 Why GPU compute servers became the focus 22:25 Rebuilding teams to be AI-native, not AI-bolted-on 26:09 Founder mindset advice — ambiguity and chewing glass 28:15 The leadership lessons that stuck — focus and never lie _______________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Scott Sundvor → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssundvor/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7 Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org #Founders #Hardware #AINative #Manufacturing #StartupLessons

    31 min
  5. Stop hiring more salespeople, fix this instead | Hear from a woman navigating a male-dominated field

    APR 22

    Stop hiring more salespeople, fix this instead | Hear from a woman navigating a male-dominated field

    Tammy Schuring is a fourth-generation Bay Area native whose great-grandfather pushed a wheelbarrow from South Dakota to help build the Golden Gate Bridge. She was the first in her family to go to college, and went on to become a math major and a CRO who's generated hundreds of millions in revenue for cybersecurity and enterprise companies. In this fireside chat, Tammy sits down with Mala Ramakrishnan to talk about the moments that shaped her — the professor who assumed she was lost in her own advanced math class, the temp job at a two-guys-and-a-dog startup that turned into a 32-year career, and the research-backed sales philosophy that actually works (hint: it's not what your slick sales training taught you). She also breaks down what founders get wrong about selling, why vulnerability is the only real source of connection, and how she jumped into cybersecurity in 2003 when nobody thought it mattered. Plus her pivot into Polymatic and why she's still chasing disruptive early-stage problems after three decades. If you're a founder trying to figure out how to sell, a woman navigating a male-dominated field, or anyone who loves a good origin story, this one delivers. ____________________________________________________ Timestamps 00:00 Meet Tammy — four generations Bay Area, math major, CRO 00:36 The wheelbarrow story — how her family got to San Francisco 03:53 Rethinking privilege and what "underrepresented" really means 05:00 Being a blonde math major in the 80s and the bias that came with it 08:10 From math doctorate plans to a temp job at a startup 09:05 Two guys and a dog in the NeXT ecosystem 10:59 Why curiosity turned her into a sales person 13:09 Leaving a PhD at Berkeley for a career that actually fit 16:34 The three things top sales people actually do 18:00 Why story beats pitch every time 20:42 Advice for founders on the first enterprise sale 22:00 Why struggle sells better than shine 24:16 Brené Brown, vulnerability, and the source of real connection 25:42 Jumping into cybersecurity in 2003 before anyone cared 28:00 Pioneering data-centric encryption and format preserving encryption 29:01 The Heartland breach and why data protection became her obsession ____________________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Tammy Schuring → https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammyschuring/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

    43 min
  6. Startup Speed vs Enterprise Scale: What Actually Works? | CTO ⁨@CDW⁩

    APR 21

    Startup Speed vs Enterprise Scale: What Actually Works? | CTO ⁨@CDW⁩

    Phil Taylor, CTO ⁨@CDW⁩ , built a 250-person services company from the ground up, sold it to CDW, and now runs their Digital Velocity business unit. But what makes his story compelling isn't the exit — it's how he got there. At 21, he was distributing half a billion dollars in checks. One error could've bankrupted the company. Years later, he learned the hard way that being right matters less than helping your team win. He'll tell you about the Silverlight bet that taught him to ship imperfect products fast, the founders he picked wrong, and why his best business came from investing in people he let go. He's also refreshingly honest about AI hype, why most services companies miss the obvious, and how to actually scale when you can't touch the code your teams are shipping. If you're building a company, leading engineers, or trying to figure out how to compete without a shiny product, this one's worth your time. ________________________________________________ Timestamps 00:00 Meet Phil — from software engineer to CTO at CDW 01:51 The builder mindset, started at age 13 02:30 Distributing $500M in checks at 21 04:38 The team rebellion that humbled him as a leader 05:37 Choosing to win with your team, not be right 06:56 Ship value fast — perfect is the enemy of good 07:19 Listen to customers, don't sell them 09:09 The honest manager who told him to go start something 10:11 Building serverless before AWS Lambda 11:06 Pivoting to services, betting on Kubernetes 12:44 Exiting to CDW during the pandemic 13:28 Investing in people — your best network effect 15:32 The jump to enterprise — processes and structure 18:40 Running services like a product with real standards 19:08 AI quality control — why manual testing still matters 21:18 Staying on top of innovation 24:13 Zero to one in consulting — partnerships first 26:04 Building your portfolio of capabilities 28:40 AI is overhyped, cloud is a journey ________________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Phil Taylor → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ptaylor1/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

    32 min
  7. The GTM playbook that actually converts | With 4X B2B CMO

    APR 20

    The GTM playbook that actually converts | With 4X B2B CMO

    Ash Parikh, CMO @Absolute Security, 3x B2B CMO (Informatica, Druva, Trellix), sits down with Mala Ramakrishnan to talk about what most marketers get wrong — and what the best ones obsess over. Spoiler: it's not MQLs. Ash breaks down the "dark funnel" — the invisible buying journey where 70% of decisions are made before a vendor even knows a prospect exists. He walks through how pre-intent signals, reverse IP lookups, and tools like ShiftUp are changing the way pipeline actually gets built. The conversation gets real about the CMO gig — why most people don't last, how Ash accidentally fell into the role from product management, and why he thinks of himself as a business owner first, marketer second. He also shares a killer practice: every marketer on his team spends 10% of their time each month piloting new tools and ideas. That's how you stay ahead. For founders, Ash has pointed advice: hire a data-obsessed marketer before a brand person, know your ICP cold, and don't touch AI until your data foundation is solid. If you're building a startup, running marketing at a growth-stage company, or just trying to figure out how modern B2B buying actually works, this one's worth your time. __________________________________________________ Timestamps 00:00 Meet Ash Parikh: 3x CMO, accidental marketer 01:00 From bad coder to product manager to CMO 02:55 Starting in product marketing because he knew the product 04:23 Getting over the "marketing is fluff" mindset 06:14 The stat that changes everything, 70% of buying happens invisible 07:08 What the dark funnel actually is 08:46 Pre-intent vs. intent, and why the difference matters 10:06 Reading signals from buyers who never raise their hand 11:56 Too many tools, how to cut through the noise 13:35 The 10% rule his whole team lives by 14:44 Why CISOs are the hardest buyers to reach 16:09 Don't touch AI until your data house is in order 17:06 The CMO job is about growth 19:00 What founders get wrong when hiring their first marketer 21:07 ChatGPT killed the website visit. Now what? 23:01 Why he abolished MQLs and what replaced them __________________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Ash Parikh → https://www.linkedin.com/in/aysha-khan-77ba9014/ 🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan 🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7 Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

    25 min
  8. Before You Build AI, Fix This First | Owning the Data Narrative with Ravi Shankar, CMO, Denodo

    MAR 26

    Before You Build AI, Fix This First | Owning the Data Narrative with Ravi Shankar, CMO, Denodo

    Ravi Shankar, CMO & SVP at Denodo, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to unpack how enterprise go-to-market has evolved in the age of AI—and why differentiation is no longer about deep tech, but about how you take it to market. With over a decade at Denodo and prior experience at Oracle and Informatica, Ravi shares how he scaled a global data company across 25+ countries and why product marketing sits at the core of every successful GTM strategy. The conversation dives into master data management (MDM), data virtualization, and the critical role of real-time, contextual, and governed data in making AI actually work. Ravi also breaks down how AI is reshaping marketing teams, from content generation to personalization, while reinforcing the importance of human judgment. If you’re a founder, CMO, or operator building in data, AI, or enterprise software, this episode is a practical guide to positioning, scaling, and winning in crowded markets. _________________________________________ 00:00 Intro and why GTM is the new differentiation 01:00 Ravi Shankar’s journey from engineer to CMO 03:00 Transition from engineering to product marketing 05:00 Scaling Denodo into a global company 06:30 Why product marketing is the core of GTM 08:00 Translating products into business value 09:30 AI era: crowded markets and differentiation 11:00 Core competency as the foundation of positioning 12:30 Using AI in marketing: content and scale 14:00 Human + AI vs autonomous marketing 15:30 One-to-one marketing and personalization 17:00 Data as the foundation for AI systems 18:30 Real-time data, context, and governance 20:00 AI-driven experimentation and A/B testing 22:00 Enterprise GTM stack, tools, and team evolution _____________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Ravi Shankar → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankardevaraj/🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan🎧 Subscribe to the podcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4ASpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malas-podcast/id1848618438Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai

    29 min
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About

Welcome to Mala’s Podcast, where honest conversations meet the future of AI, startups, and leadership. Mala sits down with CEOs, founders, and innovators leading the world’s most exciting AI companies — from Silicon Valley to Singapore and beyond. Each episode uncovers what really happens behind the scenes: building teams, surviving chaos, scaling products, and shaping the next era of intelligent technology. If you’re curious about how the AI revolution is being built — one decision, one founder, one story at a time — you’re in the right place.

Information

  • Creator
    Mala Ramakrishnan
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Mala Ramakrishnan
  • Show Website
    Mala's Podcast