Founder Catalyst leadership strategy and AI

Venkatarangan Thirumalai
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Founder Catalyst is a podcast by Venkatarangan Thirumalai, entrepreneur, author, and Generative AI keynote speaker based in Chennai, India. With three decades of experience, he shares grounded perspectives on leadership, strategy, and technology. Episodes draw from his original writing at thefoundercatalyst.com. Some are narrated by him. Others are AI-generated audio summaries. Every idea here is his own. For founders and business leaders navigating uncertainty and deploying AI deliberately.

  1. 4d ago

    The midwife who stopped waiting for developers

    Charlotte Williams is a UK-trained midwife, with about 20 years of practice and more than 1,000 babies delivered. She is the Founder and CEO of My Bump My Baby Enterprise. She started My Bump My Baby in the USA in 2022, bringing ultrasound into the home, with the My Bump My Baby My World Foundation. Now she is building My Bump Hub, "the Google for maternal health", a village that connects families and providers. Bump Buddy is the only AI allowed in it. She built her own CRM and website with AI after paying developers. We talk about hiring 30 salespeople and then using bots, running a startup with four children, paying developers $10,000 and then just over $30,000, and why AI still needs your brain. The app launches at Thanksgiving, 26 November 2026. Recorded on 5 November 2026. This interview is not sponsored, and it contains no paid promotion or product placement. I enjoy talking to founders from different backgrounds and industries around the world, to hear the stories behind why they started their businesses. I share these conversations to help guide future entrepreneurs. Any companies, products or websites mentioned are part of the guest's story and are shown for context only. Links: My Bump Hub The Founder Catalyst

    The midwife who stopped waiting for developers

  2. Oct 13

    Why AI Rollouts Stall: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

    Why does an AI pilot work, and the rollout to everyone else stall? Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work, says the answer is emotional, not technical. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, is a behavioural scientist and CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a future-of-work consultancy. The New York Times has called him the Office Whisperer. His new book, The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results, is published by Georgetown University Press, with a foreword by Nick Bloom of Stanford. In this conversation, Dr. Gleb walks through the three emotions he sees blocking AI adoption: fear and anxiety, identity threat, and shame. He calls the groups AI Alarmists, Pragmatic Resistors and Reluctant Adopters. You will hear what a founder can do for each group, why people hide their AI use, and why he sees this more strongly in India's collective workplaces. We also cover the metrics that matter, AI workslop, malicious compliance, how startups and family businesses differ, and why human judgment stays with humans. It was the first AI interview I have done that was mostly about people and emotions rather than models. Statistics in this conversation are quoted by Dr. Gleb from his own reading of the research. I am Venkatarangan Thirumalai (Venkat), host of The Founder Catalyst. Read more at thefoundercatalyst.com Chapters 00:00 Welcome to The Founder Catalyst 00:09 Why this book, and the emotional gap behind AI adoption 09:09 About Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and the book 11:04 How founders can get people to adopt AI 18:28 Metrics that matter: time saved, error rates, quality 21:09 Why people hide their AI use 22:57 AI workslop and malicious compliance 26:42 Startups, family businesses and large enterprises 28:30 Is human judgment overrated? 30:15 Closing thoughts

    Why AI Rollouts Stall: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

  3. Sep 4

    Stop Writing Code. Start Defending Decisions.

    "Four Cs you have to do..." — this episode opens straight into it: a practical framework for building an organisational learning loop before AI erases institutional memory. No intro music, no warm-up — just the argument. Recorded at FICCI's Digital Disruption and Transformation (DT10) International Summit 2026 in Chennai, this is my session on the panel "How We Build the Future & Lead with AI?", moderated by Chandrashekar Kupperi (Founder, ANOVA M&A and Fundraising Advisory). I cover two questions from the panel — Talent and Leadership — plus a closing question from the audience on whether AI is raising the entry-level hiring bar too high. Talent: why your organisation's learning loop is its real moat, built on Satya Nadella's idea of "AI exhaust," Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan's "second brain," and Andrej Karpathy's LLM Wiki concept — distilled into a Four Cs framework: Capture, Correct, Curate & codify, Circulate. Leadership: why I believe in using AI as a cycle, not a car — a framing I credit to Pratyush Kumar of Sarvam AI — and the Three Ds that follow from it: Delegate, Decide, Defend. I close with a story from interviewing interns at VIT Bhopal that answers the audience's question about AI and the entry-level talent bar better than any framework could. Venkatarangan Thirumalai, The Founder Catalyst | Regional Director (Hon), Microsoft. Recorded: FICCI DT10 Summit, Hotel Ramada Plaza, Guindy, Chennai — 30 July 2026 More at thefoundercatalyst.com

    Stop Writing Code. Start Defending Decisions.

  4. Aug 24

    From Stone Tools to AI: Are Our Tools Making Us Now?

    In 1960, Jane Goodall watched a chimpanzee strip a twig into a tool to fish termites from their mound — the first recorded proof that animals make tools. In 2011, researchers in Kenya uncovered stone tools 3.3 million years old, crafted by a species that predates Homo sapiens. For millions of years, we've defined ourselves as tool makers. But in the age of AI, that relationship is flipping. For the first time, the tools we build are starting to make us. In this short teaser, Venkatarangan Thirumalai previews his upcoming TEDx talk exploring what it means to be human when our tools shape our thinking, our habits, and our future — not just the other way around. Catch the full talk live at TEDx Thiagarajar College of Engineering on August 28, 2026. Venkatarangan Thirumalai is The Founder Catalyst.

    From Stone Tools to AI: Are Our Tools Making Us Now?

  5. Jul 28

    No Company Is Perfect on Hiring on Day Zero

    There's no secret to hiring — just a process every company has to build over time. Here's what founders should actually focus on, and why listening after onboarding matters most.

    No Company Is Perfect on Hiring on Day Zero

  6. Jul 23

    Building a cheese business without a playbook

    Anuradha Krishnamoorthy co-founded Käse, one of India's early artisan cheese brands, after years spent training and employing people with visual and hearing impairment through her venture CAN DO. In this episode, she talks about building a cheese business without paid press, pricing with confidence in a cost conscious market, and what her 2017 Nari Shakti Puraskar, received from the Hon'ble President of India, taught her about resilience. We also talk about her partnership with co-founder Namrata Sundaresan and where women entrepreneurship in India genuinely stands today. Guest: Anuradha Krishnamoorthy, Founder & Director, KIRKE Cheese Pvt Ltd Host: Venkatarangan Thirumalai, The Founder Catalyst

    Building a cheese business without a playbook

  7. Jul 22

    How to Ensure Bad News Reaches the CEO

    Four simple habits every startup founder needs so problems surface early instead of blowing up later — inspired by lessons from the Boeing door incident.

    How to Ensure Bad News Reaches the CEO

  8. Jul 17

    CEO Is Not Only a Salesperson

    Sales matters, but as a CEO you represent your entire organization — not just your product. Here's a simple habit to bring a holistic view into every customer conversation.

    CEO Is Not Only a Salesperson
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About

Founder Catalyst is a podcast by Venkatarangan Thirumalai, entrepreneur, author, and Generative AI keynote speaker based in Chennai, India. With three decades of experience, he shares grounded perspectives on leadership, strategy, and technology. Episodes draw from his original writing at thefoundercatalyst.com. Some are narrated by him. Others are AI-generated audio summaries. Every idea here is his own. For founders and business leaders navigating uncertainty and deploying AI deliberately.

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