Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business 1297: He Built a $40M Company, Now He's Building an AI Vet for Your Pet w/ Tim Maliyil
What if AI could translate your pet’s barks and behaviors into early health warnings? In this episode, Brian sits down with Tim Maliyil, a visionary tech founder with over 30 years of experience, to discuss his latest venture, PerkyPet. Tim unpacks the journey of building an advanced AI platform designed to interpret your pet's vocal and physical cues, essentially acting as a 24/7 vet in your pocket. This episode is a masterclass for entrepreneurs on building a complex, high-stakes product from the ground up, navigating the crucial dynamics of a technical and non-technical co-founder partnership, and leveraging AI to enhance human capabilities, not replace them. Get ready to learn how to architect for massive scale from day one and why responsible AI is the future of innovation.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
- The Co-Founder Power Play: Learn how pairing deep technical expertise with specialized industry knowledge (like medicine) can create an unstoppable product vision.
- Architecting for a Billion Users: Discover Tim’s strategy for building a tech infrastructure that’s ready for massive scale from day one, without breaking the bank.
- The "Do No Harm" MVP: Understand why for high-stakes products, prioritizing quality and safety over speed is a non-negotiable for your minimum viable product launch.
- Leveraging AI for Founder Efficiency: Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Tim uses AI tools like Claude to condense a week's worth of product management work into just three hours.
- Navigating Critical Inflection Points: Uncover the two key areas—finance and technology—that Tim identifies as the make-or-break inflection points for any startup.
- The Human-AI Partnership: Hear why the future of AI isn't about replacing humans but enhancing their capabilities, and how to build technology that facilitates trust and escalates to human experts when needed.
📝 About Tim Maliyil
Tim Maliyil is a seasoned technology founder, builder, and operator with over three decades of experience creating innovative, forward-looking solutions. After successfully growing his previous company, AlertBoot, to over 160 employees and $40 million in revenue, he turned his attention to a new passion. As the co-founder of PerkyPet, Tim is channeling his deep technical expertise into revolutionizing pet care. He brings a unique perspective on how to architect complex systems for massive scale, manage the intricacies of a tech startup, and thoughtfully integrate AI to solve real-world problems.
🎯 Tim’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Always be learning, but also check the source of where you're learning from."
📢 Memorable Quotes
- "I always think AI plays here is to enhance human capability." – Tim Maliyil
- "The expectation of MVP in today's modern age is pretty high to begin with... Perky Pet especially, there's something that's of serious importance that we can do harm if we make a mistake. And the core piece is to do no harm." – Tim Maliyil
- "In the startup world, it's almost, I would say, week by week or month by month... The risk always grows as you have a user base there." – Tim Maliyil
🔗 Links & Resources