Software People Stories

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 CounterfeitsFred 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 watermarking, creating invisible marks on media.Their startup AlfVision emerged from this — aimed at detecting counterfeit goods using image analysis.Lessons from early failures (9 out of 10 products failed) were key to refining their success. 2. Making the Mark — Patents, Passion, and Intellectual PropertyFred emphasizes building a business around passion, but insists on profitability too.He stresses the importance of understanding finance, even for technical founders.As a multi-founder and active programmer, he still codes when needed — including writing software that led to a patent and successful tech deployment in China. 3. Creating a Legacy — Bio-Neurons and a Sustainable FutureFinal Spark emerged from Fred and Martin’s desire to return to fundamental research, after years of commercial success.Their mission: dramatically reduce the energy and resources required to run AI by leveraging real neurons instead of digital simulations — achieving up to 1 million times greater energy efficiency.In their lab in Switzerland, they’ve created a testbed where biological neural tissues are grown, connected via electrodes, and streamed in real-time — with microfluidics feeding them 24/7.Fred draws a direct parallel between learning in artificial neural networks (via adjusting weights) and the biological challenge of inducing learning by reconfiguring synaptic connections. This forms the crux of building a true biological computing server. “When you have artificial neurons, learning is done by setting the right connections between them. We need to do the same in biology. That’s how humans learn — and that’s what we have to replicate in vitro.”The long-term vision is bold:Create biological servers at scale (10cm x 100m tissues) that could power AI with drastically less energy.Biological intelligence becoming mainstream — just as LED lights replaced incandescent bulbs.A future with hybrid bio-artificial objects — think of a glass that detects your mood and adjusts your drink accordingly.Breakaway quote-worthy moments “Trial and error is really precious... Being a co-founder, failures teach you very, very valuable lessons.” “I’m not building something for today — I want it to make sense even from 100 million kilometers away.”His thoughts on entrepreneurship: “You need to be not bad at many things. Everything is holistic.” “If you don't work for your dreams, you work for someone else's.”Fred Jordan is an Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of successful and profitable businesses. Skilled in Innovation, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Marketing, Management and Entrepreneurship. Scientific education with M.Sc. in physics and Ph.D. in signal processing.Co-founder of:- AlpVision: Supplier of technologies and smartphone solutions for automatic detection of genuine and fake products.- FinalSpark: Startup using biological neural networks for the design of Artificial General Intelligence.Dr. Fred Jordan  started their journey in technology entrepreneurship after completing his PhDs at EPFL in applied mathematics. This work gave them the inspiration for their first successful start-up, AlpVision, where they excelled at overcoming engineering challenges and created an innovative solution for product authentication. The company became very profitable and is still successfully run by them.This brought the co-founders Fred and Martin to a new, even bigger challenge, to address the problem of Artificial General Intelligence. Creating a ‘Thinking Machine’ is a dream of many engineers. A machine which can reason as a human being is considered by many as a peak performance to be achieved in engineering.Although we currently observe the flourishing of the AI models which make impression of being ableto think, as they successfully ‘fake’ human thinking with advanced statistics, this has nothing to do withhuman reasoning which is capable of creating new ideas and concepts outside its own experience. Thisis what a ‘real’ thinking machine should do as well.Fred and Martin decided to address this problem by testing the state-of-the-art methods in AI models, such as in silico spiking neural networks, genetic programming and many versions of in silico neural networks.Multidisciplinary thinking and the interest to explore unknown areas lead Fred and Martin to work on living neurons as computation units. They established FinalSpark lab which is currently running fundamental research with one main question: How to make living neurons perform intended computations?How to send instructions to the living neurons using electric wires and receive results – the same wayas we send the instructions by typing on our keyboard and receive the answers from in silico computerson our screens.Fred Jordan can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-jordan-anticounterfeiting-brandprotection-authentication/

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 business globally. Navigating AI Risks & Model Security: Addressing AI poisoning, prompt injection threats, and governance frameworks for enterprises. AI for Business & Social Good: Why AI should be seen not just as a cost-efficiency tool but as an enabler of new opportunities. Human in the Loop & AI Ethics: The need for human oversight and anomaly detection to keep AI decisions aligned with real-world values. Social Initiatives & Community Learning: How the MASTI initiative bridges music, art, science, and tech and innovation  for underprivileged children. Balancing Business & Social Impact: Santosh’s philosophy on staying grounded, mentorship, and personal growth through meaningful work.With over 18 years of experience as a technologist, entrepreneur, investor, and advisor, Santosh Kaveti is the CEO and Founder of ProArch, a purpose-driven enterprise that accelerates value and increases resilience for its clients with consulting and technology services, enabled by cloud, guided by data, fueled by apps, and secured by design.Santosh’s vision and leadership have propelled ProArch to become a dominant force in key industry verticals, such as Energy, Healthcare & Lifesciences, and Manufacturing, where he leverages his expertise in manufacturing process improvement, mentoring, and consulting.https://www.linkedin.com/in/santoshkaveti/

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). Learning using only RFCs and O'Reilly books—no StackOverflow! Importance of building deep expertise for long-term success.Experiences with Troubleshooting and System Thinking; Transitioned from reactive fixes to logical, structured problem-solving. Her depth of understanding helped in debugging and system optimization.Career move to Yahoo where she led Service Engineering for mobile and ads across global data centers got early exposure to big data and machine learning through ad recommendation systems and built "performance and scale muscle" through working at massive scale.Challenges of Scale and Performance Then vs. Now: Problems remain the same, but data volumes and complexity have exploded. How modern tools (like AI/ML) can help identify relevance and anomalies in large data sets.Design with Scale in Mind - Importance of flipping the design approach: think scale-first, not POC-first. Encourage starting with a big-picture view, even when building a small prototype. Highlights multiple scaling dimensions—data, compute, network, security.Getting Into ML and Data Science with early spark from MOOCs, TensorFlow experiments, and statistics; Transition into data science role at Infoblox, a cybersecurity firm with focus areas on DNS security, anomaly detection, threat intelligence.Building real-world ML model applications like supervised models for threat detection and storage forecasting; developing graph models to analyze DNS traffic patterns for anomalies and key challenges of managing and processing massive volumes of security data.Data stack and what it takes to build data lakes that support ML with emphasis on understanding the end-to-end AI pipelineShifts from “under the hood” ML to front-and-center GenAI & Barriers: Data readiness, ROI, explainability, regulatory compliance.Explainability in AI and importance of interpreting model decisions, especially in regulated industries.How Explainability Works -Trade-offs between interpretable models (e.g., decision trees) and complex ones (e.g., deep learning); Techniques for local and global model understanding.Aruna’s Book on Interpretability and Explainability in AI Using Python (by Aruna C).The world of GenAI & Transformers - Explainability in LLMs and GenAI: From attention weights to neuron activation.Challenges of scale: billions of parameters make models harder to interpret. Exciting research areas: Concept tracing, gradient analysis, neuron behavior.GenAI Agents in Action - Transition from task-specific GenAI to multi-step agents. Agents as orchestrators of business workflows using tools + reasoning.Real-world impact of agents and AI for everyday lifeAruna Chakkirala is a seasoned leader with expertise in AI, Data and Cloud. She is an AI Solutions Architect at Microsoft where she was instrumental in the early adoption of Generative AI. In prior roles as a Data Scientist she has built models in cybersecurity and holds a patent in community detection for DNS querying. Through her two-decade career, she has developed expertise in scale, security, and strategy at various organizations such as Infoblox, Yahoo, Nokia, EFI, and Verisign. Aruna has led highly successful teams and thrives on working with cutting-edge technologies. She is a frequent technical and keynote speaker, panelist, author and an active blogger. She contributes to community open groups and serves as a guest faculty member at premier academic institutes. Her book titled "Interpretability and Explainability in AI using Python" covers the taxonomy and techniques for model explanations in AI including the latest research in LLMs. She believes that the success of real-world AI applications increasingly depends on well- defined architectures across all encompassing domains. Her current interests include Generative AI, applications of LLMs and SLMs, Causality, Mechanistic Interpretability, and Explainability tools.Her recently published book linkInterpretability and Explainability in AI Using Python: Decrypt AI Decision-Making Using Interpretability and Explainability with Python to Build Reliable Machine Learning Systems  https://amzn.in/d/00dSOwAOutside of work, she is an avid reader and enjoys creative writing. A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, she is actively involved in GHCI, LeanIn communities.

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 and coding in the early IT days to discovering his passion for customer interactions. Tech vs. Sales: The shift from writing software to understanding business problems and shaping solutions. Consultative vs. Product-Based Selling: The difference between pitching features vs. uncovering customer pain points. Customer Empathy & Industry Knowledge: Why asking the right questions & listening is more powerful than a polished pitch. Building Relationships in Sales: The role of trust, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement in long-term success. The Modern Buyer: How the digital era has transformed customer research & purchasing behavior. Enterprise Selling Strategies: The contrast between RFP-driven sales and proactive relationship-building. Navigating Internal Trust in Sales & Delivery Teams: Why sales & delivery alignment is critical for customer success. The Human Side of Selling: Managing rejections, pressures, and the art of influencing without being pushy.Deepak has over his career, worked in IT sector focusing on Technology, Media & Telecommunication(TMT) businesses, in sales, business development & practice leadership roles. His experience across IT Services Companies, Managed Services Providers and Product Vendors, has given him a unique 360 degrees insight into IT solutions and how they fit into larger business landscape.He has worked across global markets and delivered significant results, in a period of great technological flux and business volatility within TMT sector. His experience has given him a good exposure & proficiency in the following areas–1. Understanding and managing digital transformation and its impact on business strategies as well as on the workplace.2. Understanding business drivers and their correlation with IT and Technology strategies.3. Execution of IT & Technology strategy on-ground.4. Understanding & enabling eco-systems to drive business outcomes.5. Building & motivating high performing global teamsHe has always tried to anchor his work in business fundamentals like customer experience, profitability & market share and leveraging technology into driving business outcomes.https://www.linkedin.com/in/demittal/

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 products to software, communities play a crucial role in success. Brand Strength vs. Community Engagement: Why brand prestige isn’t necessary—what matters is purpose and connection. Breaking Silos Within Organizations: How community initiatives foster collaboration across different departments. Harnessing Collective Knowledge: Using communities to gather insights, troubleshoot issues, and enhance product adoption. Leading Indicators vs. Reactive Responses: Using community feedback to detect trends before they become business problems. AI in Community Management: How AI can augment but not replace human relationships in communities.‍ What Makes a Great Community Manager? Perseverance, empathy, and communication are key traits for success.Jake McKee is one of the founders of the modern customer community movement. He led Apple’s famed Global Support Communities. He pioneered efforts at LEGO to engage its adult users in a community - which spawned breakthrough innovations such as the Mindstorms Community Driven Product Development (which landed on the cover of Wired Magazine). For more than 10 years, Jake has been a leading industry community consultant working with clients like Cancer Treatment Centers of America, EA Games, Southwest Airlines, and Outdoorsy. His consulting practice, Jake McKee Consulting focuses on helping organizations of all sizes design, execute, and grow Community Driven Product Development programs that bring the Community Voice into the product development lifecycle.Jake also manages the CX Sessions project, an invitation-only monthly dinner series that brings senior online community, CX, and product management leaders together for conversation, connection, and camaraderie. And just for laughs, he created a web comic for community managers called Confessions of a Community Manager. https://jakemckee.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakemckee/

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 StoryStamatis 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 BuildingThe core skills of entrepreneurship remain the same, whether in film or software—raising funds, pitching ideas, and building belief.Confidence, resilience, and timing play crucial roles in success.Theater vs. Business—Script vs. ImprovIn acting, a defined script brings clarity, whereas business requires improvisation based on data and insights.Sales and investor pitches require a structured approach, but product development thrives on innovation and open-ended discussions.Remote Work & Leadership ChallengesDiscusses difficulties of leading distributed teams without face-to-face interaction.Emphasizes the need for engaged communication, structured meetings, and keeping discussions interactive.The Intersection of Media, AI & EntrepreneurshipShares insights from his role as a venture partner and a radio host—both involve asking deep, thought-provoking questions.Talks about Intelligent Relations, a PR SaaS company leveraging AI to democratize media access.AI's Role in Public RelationsAI helps connect brands with journalists through automation and data-driven personalization.PR success hinges on storytelling—brands must embed themselves in the news cycle, not just promote their offerings.Career Opportunities in Public RelationsTraditional PR relied on communication specialists; today, data engineers play a vital role.Engineers help structure outreach for journalists, influencers, and media platforms.Personal Philosophy & Staying GroundedThe importance of family, health, and knowing the deeper motivation behind success.Business challenges come and go, but fundamental values remain the same.Stamatis Astra, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of Intelligent RelationsStamatis Astra is the Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of Intelligent Relations, where he drives the company’s mission to transform public relations through AI-powered technology and expert insights. With over 20+ years of experience in media and business strategy, Stamatis is fully committed to making earned media accessible to all businesses, helping them build meaningful connections with the media and tell impactful stories.

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 presentedDeeksha describes herself as someone who never had a fixed plan but followed what made sense in the moment.After a chemical engineering degree from NIT Trichy and an MBA from IIM Kozhikode, she joined the Tata Administrative Services and worked in marketing and product management.Despite no tech background, she led cloud product management, learning tech concepts from scratch and bridging the gap between sales and engineering teams.A personal life event led her to seek more meaningful work,  Inspired by her pediatrician father, she co-founded a trust supporting pediatric cancer treatment in Trichy, where specialty care was lacking.Deeksha led digital transformation at Kaveri Hospital during COVID, building a patient-focused digital strategy that included basics like WhatsApp-based communication — revolutionary at that time.Motivated to align business success with patient well-being, she pursued a second MBA at Wharton to understand global healthcare and startup ecosystems.During her MBA, she pivoted her focus back to India after realizing her strengths and market understanding were more aligned with the Indian healthcare contextShe founded BabyMD during her time at Wharton and graduated early to work full-time on it from January 2024.Deeksha emphasizes the importance of credentials and networks (like Wharton) in breaking barriers and gaining investor trust.She met her investor through the Wharton alumni network, which led to a partnership based on mutual interest in pediatric healthcare.She advises entrepreneurs to articulate three things: a real problem, market size, and why they’re uniquely positioned to solve it.Advocates for volunteering as a personal and professional growth tool, linking social work with stronger leadership and empathy. Advice for Aspiring EntrepreneursRange by David Epstein – on the value of generalists in today’s world.Entrepreneurship doesn’t always stem from a “Eureka” moment — it can be a structured, analytical process.Encourages small experiments to validate ideas before going all in.Believes generalists (with wide-ranging experience) bring unique value to entrepreneurship, as explained in the book Range.Deeksha can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/deekshasenguttuvan/Deeksha is Building BabyMD to be a partner in parenting and give parents easy round-the-clock access to qualified medical professionals across channels. The company’s goal is to create a future where parents don’t have to navigate through multiple avenues for their child's healthcare needs and instead find everything they require under one roof.Executive leader with 7+ years of experience building and transforming businesses. I am passionate about utilising technology in the healthcare ecosystem to improve accessibility, affordability and quality of care.As a part of the leadership development program of The Tata Group of companies in India I have worked across various industries and functions; utilised my diverse exposure to orchestrate the digital transformation of hospitals across patient engagement, clinical quality of care, and operational activities to make them future-ready.Outside of work I am an avid Indian classical dancer and a public speaker passionate about motivating and mentoring!

Shiv is in conversation with Allen Cooper, President and CEO of Ancilla Ventures. Their focusis 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 eventually the sole proprietor.Choosing Healthcare Tech: The path to focusing on healthcare IT solutions.Finding Industry Problems: How products like WriteList and VR-90 were born.User Adoption Challenges: Strategies for getting hospital staff to engage with software solutions.Managing Development Team Motivation: Keeping engineers engaged despite stable enterprise tech.Scrum & Agile Benefits: How these methodologies helped balance planned work and incoming client requests.AI & Coding: How AI might change development roles, but won't replace programmers entirely.Advice for IT Careers: Guidance for both new entrants and mid-career professionals wondering about their next steps.Personal Productivity & Balance: Allen’s tips for staying organized, healthy, and grounded while running a company.Allen Cooper is the Co-Founder and CEO of ReadyList, Inc., a mobile-friendly software that transforms how hospital ancillary and support service teams operate. Allen co-founded ReadyList with a deep passion for helping the behind-the-scenes workers who keep hospitals running smoothly. ReadyList’s software modules guide them through best-practice cleaning and room prep protocols, resulting in cleaner, safer facilities for both patients and staff. Allen believes the right kind of software can save hospital systems money, time, and even lives. https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-cooper-4a07598

Shiv is in conversation with Mathias Buus Madsen, CEO of Holepunch, Copenhagen. In this episode, Mathias shareshis 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 infrastructure costs, and improve accessibility—especially for remote or underserved communities. He also compares peer-to-peer networking with blockchain, clarifying the distinct roles each technology plays. He touched on real-world applications of peer-to-peer tech, including its potential for rural connectivity and resilience in low-bandwidth environments. Mathias also reflects on his transition from hacker to entrepreneur, sharing insights into leadership, scaling a business, and the evolving landscape of decentralized internet solutions.As CEO of Holepunch, Mathias brings his passion and extensive expertise in open-source development to the fore, having published more than 1000 modules to npm, the Node.js package manager, totalling billions of downloads every month.Mathias Buus is a self taught JavaScript hacker from Copenhagen. He works full time on open source projects and has been working with Node.js since the 0.2 days. Mathias likes to work with P2P and distributed systems and is the author of more than 550 modules on npm, including some of the most popular ones for working with streams. In addition he has spoken about “mad science” projects at various conferences around the world.You can also see his Github here:https://github.com/mafintosh and more info on Pear Runtime here: https://docs.pears.com/. Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Pears_p2pSocial - Mathias X: @mafintoshPears X: @Pears_p2pKeet X: @keet_io

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 banking and financial services.His exposure to implementation and user experience shaped his professional growth.Transition to Entrepreneurship:His entrepreneurial journey began unexpectedly with a family-run library project, Just Books, which turned out to be a success.He faced challenges balancing a job with entrepreneurship and gradually pivoted to focus on growing the library business.Expansion and Challenges of Just Books:The business grew organically to over 60 libraries across cities, driven by franchising.He adapted to changes like the rise of digital books and evolving customer behaviors.Shift to OneMyle:After exiting Just Books, he started OneMyle, a digital marketing platform aimed at connecting local businesses, communities, and creators.He shared insights into shaping the platform, testing features, and learning to target specific personas, including local creators.Personal Practices and Reflections:Sundar emphasized the importance of reading code, context switching, and his method of note-taking (emails to himself) as tools for managing stress and priorities.He candidly discussed the unpredictable nature of entrepreneurship and the learning process involved.Sundar Rajan is an Entrepreneur, Co-Founder Onemyle, JustBooksTechnology & Entrepreneurship remain big areas of interest.Worked in IT industry for 15 years, before turning Entrepreneur.While in IT, was involved in software product development for financial services industry. As an Entrepreneur, have keen interest in 'Neighborhoods', especially the interaction between local businesses and residents nearby.https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsundarrajan/r.sundar@onemyle.com