My guest today is Harish Chandramowli, Co-founder & CTO of Flair software.

In this conversation, Harish talks about his journey from his early university days in India at Amrita University to leading roles in major companies like Bloomberg and MongoDB. He articulates his shift to a niche field combining software engineering with security, his experience at Johns Hopkins University, and his eventual move into cloud security engineering. 

Harish shares insightful narratives about his founding a small startup and the creation and development of Flair, a fashion tech platform, highlighting the challenges and triumphs he encountered. 

Topics include his approach to managing remote teams, dealing with the pressures of startup life, the challenges of prioritization, and maintaining a work-life balance. Harish also discusses the importance of understanding customer needs and integrating AI and security in product development.

Some of the topics covered are:

• Introduction and Early Career
• Graduate Studies and Early Professional Experience
• Career at Bloomberg and MongoDB
• Startup Journey and MongoDB Experience
• Transition to Flair and Early Challenges
• Insights on Security and AI
• Building Flair and Remote Team Management
• Empowering Engineers Through Customer Interaction
• Challenges of Managing Remote Teams
• Retention and Team Dynamics
• Balancing Startup Pressures and Personal Growth
• Navigating the Fashion Industry’s Legal Landscape
• Building Global Products from India
• Staying Grounded Amidst Startup Challenges

Harish Chandramowli is a second-time founder who started his career in deeply technical roles—building cloud infrastructure and security at MongoDB. Over time, he evolved from shipping code to selling ideas—learning the language of customers, diving into sales-led discovery, and translating that into product strategy. Today, Harish blends technical depth with commercial instinct to build tools that solve real operational pain with clarity and impact

In this episode of Software People Stories, Gayatri Kalyanaraman speaks with Dr. G Uma, Professor in the Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering and Dean of Institutional Development & Alumni Relations at NIT Trichy. An alumna herself, Dr. Uma reflects on her 27-year journey in academia, her pioneering work in MEMS technology, and her deep commitment to guiding future engineers.

From humble beginnings as the first faculty in a rural college to shaping NIT Trichy’s international profile, Dr. Uma’s career blends research excellence, institution building, and mentorship. She shares candid stories of early struggles, the leap into doctoral research, building one of South India’s first MEMS Design Centers, and balancing administrative leadership with a hands-on teaching approach.

Listeners will also hear her grounded advice on health, career focus, networking, and completing what you start—whether that’s a degree or a passion project. She speaks openly about the challenges of motivating today’s students in a world of distractions and the importance of developing both technical skills and professional ethics.

Key Takeaways:

• Passion for Teaching – How a rural college role ignited her lifelong love for education.
• MEMS Pioneer – Building a MEMS Design Center in 2004, ahead of its time in India.
• Doctorate with Purpose – Why PhDs are about philosophy, not just a title.
• Mentoring Future Engineers – Using societal problem-solving and teamwork to develop leadership in students.
• Advice for Students – Stay clear on your goals, master your core field, network widely, and prioritize health.
• Institutional Vision – Balancing global branding for NIT Trichy with deep alumni engagement.

Notable Quotes:

“Only when we are able to do what we are doing at present best, can we achieve our passion.”

“PhD is not just another degree — it’s a philosophy in research.”

“Health is the most important thing in the world; without it, everything else is zero.”

Perfect for:

• Students seeking clarity on career paths in engineering.
• Academics balancing research, teaching, and administration.
• Alumni curious about NIT Trichy’s vision and outreach.
• Anyone inspired by stories of perseverance, innovation, and mentorship.

Dr. Uma started her academic career in 1992 and joined the Department of ICE, NIT, Tiruchirappalli, in 1999. She is currently serving as a Professor and Dean of the Institutional Development & Alumni Relations. Throughout her distinguished career, she has held several significant leadership roles, including Coordinator of the ISRO- STIC (Space Technology Incubation Centre), ICC Presiding Officer, Additional Chief Warden, Head of Instrumentation and Control Engineering Department, Faculty Advisor of the International Society for Automation (ISA) at NITT, Ladies Hostel

Warden and Associate Dean.

Dr. Uma has made substantial contributions to her field, having authored over 90 research papers in reputed international journals and presented more than 60 papers at conferences. She has also contributed to two book chapters and served as one of the editors of a monograph on Nuclear Instrumentation and Control. Furthermore, she holds three granted Indian patents, demonstrating her innovative work in the field. She has been the principal investigator for several sponsored research projects and has guided over ten research scholars and more than 50 postgraduate students, nurturing the next generation of engineers and researchers. Dr. Uma also played a pivotal role in two national programs on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), namely NPSM and NPMASS, further advancing the research and development of MEMS technologies in India.

Dr. Uma has been recognized with the Young Scientist Fellowship from the Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST) and was recently honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) from MIT, Anna University. Her research interests encompass the design of sensors and actuators, Micro- Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), biomedical instrumentation, and the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in advancing biomedical technologies

Dr. G. Uma, a native of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, completed her Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, Master of Engineering in Instrumentation Engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai and Ph.D. in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli.

My guests today are Cultural engineer-anthropologist Allen Batteau, Ph.D. and design anthropologist Christine Z. Miller, Ph.D., co-authors of the book:  Tools, Totems, and Totalities: The Modern Construction of Hegemonic Technology

Christine Miller is a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Allen, a retired professor from Wayne State University.

They share details of their interdisciplinary backgrounds, their collaborative book project, and the implications of technology on society. They discuss the concept of sociotechnical systems, the brittleness of technology, and the ethical responsibilities of designers and software developers. They also touch upon the potential impact of AI, user-centered vs. social-centered design, and the role of speculative design in fostering innovation and hope for the future of humanity.

Some specific topics that they touched upon: 

• Introduction and Guest Backgrounds
• Christine’s Academic Journey
• Allen’s Career Path
• The Concept of Sociotechnical Systems
• Hegemonic Technology in Software Development
• AI: Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Ignorance?
• User-Centered vs. Social-Centered Design
• The Importance of Broader Perspectives in Education
• The Role of Universities in Broader Education
• The Impact of Habit-Forming Products
• Productivity and Technology
• The Evolution and Impact of the Internet
• Ethical Responsibilities in Technology
• The Urgency and Maintenance in Design
• Brittleness of Technological Systems
• Speculative Design and Future Perspectives
• Concluding Thoughts on Technology and Hope

Allen W. Batteau, a cultural anthropologist and professor at Wayne State University, is a leading authority on the intersection of technology and society. His work, funded by agencies such as NASA and the National Science Foundation, includes numerous publications on aviation, flight safety, and technology in democratic societies.  

https://clasprofiles.wayne.edu/profile/ad4408

Christine Miller is a design educator and researcher at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). With expertise in socio-technical systems, her research focuses on how social and cultural dynamics influence technology design and adoption. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges anthropology, design, and business

https://www.scad.edu/academics/faculty/christine-miller

My guest today is S Parthasarathy, better known as Spart who is the founder at CuedIn Technologies.

In this episode, Spart shares his extensive journey in the software engineering field. 

Spart’s story begins with his initial projects in COBOL programming at Tata Burroughs and the World Bank, working on critical systems in retail, logistics, and financial sectors. 

He recounts his impactful stint at SWIFT, contributing to the foundation of what has become modern-day financial messaging systems. Spart reflects on his decision to pivot from electrical engineering to computer science, driven by his interest in the engineering of large systems. 

He details his tenure at Ramco Systems, implementing document-based transactions, model-based code generation, and achieving several tech milestones, including internet integration and 32-bit upgrades. 

After Ramco, Spart’s continued passion for software engineering led him to co-found a SaaS-based ERP solution company, targeting SMEs. Despite early challenges and market readiness issues, he gained crucial insights into cloud-native architectures.

Spart’s career path took another turn towards consulting and exploring AI, specifically focusing on probabilistic graph learning and the challenges of natural language processing in software engineering. 

He emphasizes the importance of non-functional requirements, application architecture, and the potential of tools like Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance software development processes. Spart concludes by reflecting on the ongoing evolution of software engineering and his current projects aimed at making software engineering more accessible and efficient with modern tools.

Spart has 40+ years of experience in various aspects of software services area covering consultancy, business systems management, product development and Engineering management. Worked with large North American Organizations handling complex projects to implement transaction processing business solutions and data communication networks.

Key interests:

• Gen AI based solutioning for key business activities

• Gen AI enabled SW engineering

• Contextual social network driven approach for building business systems

• Predictive analytics over operational databases using Bayesian causal networks

• Implementing innovative platform based techno-commercial models for software solutions/services delivery.

• Cloud computing and SOA based multi-tenant solution Architecture

https://www.linkedin.com/in/spartp/

My guest today is Galvin Widjaja, founder and CEO of Lauretta.io ….

In this episode he talks about:

• Origin story: Galvin Widjaja shares his origin story, including his background and how he got associated with the AI industry .
• Entrepreneurial Journey: Galvin discusses his transition from a quant finance background to becoming an entrepreneur in the AI space .
• AI and Computer Vision: Insights into Galvin’s work in AI and computer vision, particularly in security applications .
• Business Challenges: Galvin talks about the challenges faced in running a restaurant chain and the importance of automation and domain expertise .
• Consulting Experience: Reflections on Galvin’s consulting experience and the lessons learned in communication and stakeholder management .
• Regulation Tech Project: Details about a regulation tech project Galvin proposed and executed at DBS Bank .
• Family Influence: The impact of Galvin’s family background on his entrepreneurial journey, including his father’s and grandfather’s businesses .
• Pivot to AI: The shift from business processing to AI and the founding of an AI security company .
• Technological Innovations: Discussion on technological innovations in Indonesia and the contributions of Indonesian software engineers



CEO & Co-Founder, Lauretta.io

Galvin Widjaja is the founder and CEO of Lauretta AI, a privacy-first computer vision company that helps organizations understand human behavior in physical spaces without relying on identity or biometrics. Under his leadership, Lauretta has become a trusted partner to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, TSA, U.S. Air Force, and major airport and defense agencies across Asia and North America. The company’s AI platform is designed to predict intent, enable preemptive alerts, and provide real-time situational awareness — all while preserving individual privacy.

Galvin’s unconventional journey into AI began not in a lab, but behind the counter of a quick-service restaurant he once ran for his father in Singapore. After early career stints in consulting, banking, and tech, a pivotal decision to reconnect with his estranged father led him to manage three migrant-serving restaurants. There, he learned that systems are only as good as the people they serve. That insight shaped his approach to AI — one built not just on precision and scale, but on empathy, equity, and lived experience.

Born in Singapore and raised partly in Indonesia, Galvin grew up in entrepreneurial households that saw both massive growth and total collapse. Those early lessons in volatility, resilience, and human complexity now inform his mission to build AI that doesn’t just react — it understands. His work focuses on helping organizations move from static surveillance to dynamic understanding, and from reactive alerts to proactive decision-making — all while respecting the humanity of the people being observed.

Galvin may be reached at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galvinw/

I am in conversation with Tom Elliott, founder of Ocuroot and former Engineering Productivity lead at Yext, 

Introduction:

• Tom Elliott shares his career journey, starting from his early interest in computers to his current role in Dev tooling .

Career Insights:

• Tom discusses the challenges of entering the industry during the financial crash and his transition from contract work to a full-time role at VMware .
• He highlights his experience at VMware, working on early-stage projects like building login pages and authentication systems .

Shift to New York:

• Tom talks about his move to New York and his work at a small VPN startup, focusing on user-facing applications .

Experience at Yext:

• Tom shares his journey at Yext, starting as a mobile developer and gradually moving to backend development and Dev tooling .
• He emphasizes the importance of being close to the users and getting immediate feedback on the tools he built .

Challenges and Solutions:

• Tom discusses the challenges of working in large organizations, such as resolving merge conflicts and managing long-lived branches .
• He explains the benefits of trunk-based development and feature flags for managing multiple features and environments .

Observability and Deployment:

• Tom highlights the importance of observability and the use of tools like open telemetry for distributed tracing .
• He shares insights on managing different deployment environments and ensuring consistency across regions .

Quality and CI/CD Pipelines:

• Tom talks about the emphasis on quality and the importance of CI/CD pipelines in ensuring reliable software releases .
• He shares his experience of setting up CI/CD pipelines to avoid issues like broken installers .

Conclusion:

• Tom reflects on the importance of flexibility and prototyping in software development .
• He shares his thoughts on the future of AI in coding and the role of human operators in leveraging AI tools .

Bio:

During nearly 20 years in the tech industry, Tom has worked for companies large and small on both sides of the pond and all layers of the tech stack from user-facing mobile and desktop applications to the backest of backends: DevOps. He is currently building Ocuroot, his own take on a CI/CD solution, based on his experiences scaling large numbers of environments for B2B SaaS products.

Links:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/telliott1984/

* BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/telliott.me

* Blog: https://thefridaydeploy.substack.com/

* Ocuroot: https://www.ocuroot.com

My guest today is Thanos Diacakis, Software Delivery Coach & a Fractional CTO.

We covered a wide range of topics that included:

• Insightful Experiences: Thanos shared many insightful and thought-provoking experiences and perspectives, particularly on software delivery life cycle improvements without explicitly using terms like Kanban 
• Balancing Work and Personal Life: Thanos emphasized the importance of balancing work and personal life, recognizing that while work is important, personal relationships and leisure activities are equally significant.
• Fractional CTO Business: Thanos discussed the benefits of running a fractional CTO business, allowing for flexibility in managing time and delivering value to multiple clients
• Scaling Challenges: Thanos shared experiences with scaling projects, particularly with Uber’s bikes and scooters, highlighting the importance of having systems in place to manage growth
• Learning from Others: Thanos emphasized the value of learning from others and cross-pollinating ideas across different clients to improve software delivery 

Thanos Diacakis helps startups and growing companies overcome software bottlenecks, scale engineering teams, and deliver high-quality products faster. With over 25 years in software development, his background spans both early-stage ventures and tech giants like Uber and Included Health, where he led the technical integration of the JUMP Bikes acquisition, scaling the platform to 45k vehicles and over 2 million monthly trips. He’s seen elite teams stall when outdated processes leave them too heads-down to course-correct. With lean, evidence-backed practices, he unlocks faster delivery and greater developer satisfaction, so velocity rises while burnout falls.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Website:  https://www.cosmicteacups.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thanosd/

In this episode of Software People Stories, Gayatri Kalyanaraman speaks with Anu Dwaraknath, Staff Technical Program Manager at Lam Research, about her dynamic journey across geographies, domains, and roles. From her early days in telecom to becoming a driving force in the semiconductor space, Anu shares stories of adaptability, continuous learning, and purpose-driven leadership.

Episode Summary

In this inspiring episode of Software People Stories, Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Anu Dwaraknath, Staff Technical Program Manager at Lam Research — a global leader in semiconductor capital equipment.

Anu walks us through her transformative journey from a telecom software engineer to a program leader in the high-stakes world of semiconductors. With warmth and clarity, she shares how each stage of her career was shaped by curiosity, grit, and a willingness to embrace new challenges.

Having started in C/C++ development at Alcatel-Lucent, Anu transitioned into technical program management after earning a general management MBA in the U.S. — a shift she undertook during the 2008 recession. With no prior semiconductor experience, she joined Lam Research as an intern and steadily built her domain knowledge, moving from internal IT to core product engineering over the next decade.

Now based in India, Anu leads software initiatives on tools that power the chips behind every smart device — and actively advocates for greater awareness and participation in the semiconductor industry, especially for women in tech.

Key Themes & Highlights

Breaking Into Semiconductors with Persistence and Curiosity

• Joined Lam Research during her MBA through an internship focused on business analysis.
• Despite being new to the domain, she took on enterprise software migrations, bridging the business and engineering teams.
• Faced challenges around visa sponsorship and recession-era job market, but leveraged every opportunity to gain cross-functional exposure.

Learning the Domain, One Layer at a Time

• Started in IT and internal systems, then gradually moved into product-facing roles within Lam.
• Through subconscious learning from team meetings, leadership messages, and everyday exposure, she began to understand the complex world of semiconductor fabrication and capital equipment.
• Upon relocating to India, she took on a more core product role — bringing her closer to engineers and customers, leading to rapid upskilling in domain knowledge.

“I knew I was coming in from a non-product background, and I said yes — I’m ready for the steep learning curve.”

️ Building the Beginner’s Mindset

• Emphasizes the importance of staying mentally agile and open to new domains.
• Used every role — from unpaid internships to technical program ownership — as a learning opportunity.
• Believes you don’t need to know everything on Day 1, but must carry the intent to learn continuously.

Growing Semiconductor Awareness in India

• Engages actively with communities like Grace Hopper (GHCI), Lean In, and PMI, often being the only semiconductor representative in the room.
• Speaks at schools and conferences to demystify what semiconductors are, how fabs work, and why this field matters — especially post-COVID and in India’s Make in India drive.
• Helps others through referrals, career guidance, and mentorship — especially women interested in STEM and product roles

Quote-worthy Moments

“Your domain doesn’t have to define you — if you carry the mindset to learn, the journey takes care of itself.”

“I wanted to break out of my comfort zone — not just from engineering to management, but from one industry to another.”

“Being in semiconductors now feels like representing a movement — and I take that responsibility seriously.”

Anu can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anu-dwarakanath-89728a15/

Anu is Process innovator, critical thinker, and a corporate entrepreneur in the making! Solid program manager who adds strategic value and brings out competitive differentiation by focusing on business transformations.

● 15 years of experience working in IT program management, specializing in waterfall (SDLC), agile and hybrid project management methodologies

● A highly collaborative leader with a track record of building effective cross-functional teams and relationships, while delivering high scale solutions

● Core competencies: structured problem solving & qualitative decision analysis, negotiation & consensus building

Links & Resources

• Lam Research
• Grace Hopper Conference India
• Leanin.org
• PMI.org

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/

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 Counterfeits

• Fred 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 Property

• Fred 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 Future

• Final 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 able

to think, as they successfully ‘fake’ human thinking with advanced statistics, this has nothing to do with

human reasoning which is capable of creating new ideas and concepts outside its own experience. This

is 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 way

as we send the instructions by typing on our keyboard and receive the answers from in silico computers

on our screens.

Fred Jordan can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-jordan-anticounterfeiting-brandprotection-authentication/