Believing in the happenstance of hard work with Karthik (KK) Karunakaran

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 roots, influenced by Jamshedji Tata early on
• Karthik shares his evolution from a tech enthusiast to a serial entrepreneur and co-founded Mobius Software, Overcoming the challenges of building a startup, especially after his education-focused venture didn’t scale as expected.
• Talks about the lessons learned from previous education based ventures and how they shaped his approach to business.
• Discusses how he bootstrapped his business in the early days, even covering costs by tutoring students for the CAT exam.
• Experimented with team structures to create a more agile and inclusive work environment.
• Focused on product innovation, testing different technology stacks and market strategies.
• Implemented flexible work policies to support women professionals, ensuring career continuity.
• Shares how over 80% of Mobius Software's workforce consists of women, with a strong focus on hiring from Tier 2 cities where untapped talent is available
• KK talks about why he champions women in the Workforce and actively supports women's career continuity and workplace inclusion.
• Believes in equal opportunities and creating a supportive work environment.
• Discusses the importance of mentorship and policies that help retain women in tech.
• KK shares some of the challenges in the Startup Ecosystem on funding, scaling, and leadership in the tech industry.
• Shares about the biases women face in entrepreneurship and how male allies can help.
• KK concludes with the Advice for Women Professionals as he Encourages women to build strong networks and seek mentorship and advocates for confidence and risk-taking in career growth.

Emphasizes the need for organizations to rethink policies to support women returning to work.

Karthik Karunakaran is the CEO of Mobius Knowledge Services. He is the driving force behind Mobius being a leader unstructured data processing and public information aggregation. He is also the founder of Xtract.io, a GenAI driven hyperautomation platform that is focussed on agenticAI processes . The firms' success is attributed to innovative solutions and proprietary technology in the data services area serving various industry giants across geographies. With a strong presence in fields like Information & Media, Retail/Ecommerce and Financial Services, Mobius mission is to empower clients through cutting-edge data solutions. 

Karthik, KK as he’s fondly referred by friends, has co-founded education firm,fourth R India before embarking into the knowledge services domain.

KK has graduated from National Institute of Technology, Trichy in production engineering and management from XLRI Jamshedpur in Marketing and Finance.

Karthik can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthik-karunakaran/