Tammy Schuring is a fourth-generation Bay Area native whose great-grandfather pushed a wheelbarrow from South Dakota to help build the Golden Gate Bridge. She was the first in her family to go to college, and went on to become a math major and a CRO who's generated hundreds of millions in revenue for cybersecurity and enterprise companies.

In this fireside chat, Tammy sits down with Mala Ramakrishnan to talk about the moments that shaped her — the professor who assumed she was lost in her own advanced math class, the temp job at a two-guys-and-a-dog startup that turned into a 32-year career, and the research-backed sales philosophy that actually works (hint: it's not what your slick sales training taught you).

She also breaks down what founders get wrong about selling, why vulnerability is the only real source of connection, and how she jumped into cybersecurity in 2003 when nobody thought it mattered. Plus her pivot into Polymatic and why she's still chasing disruptive early-stage problems after three decades.

If you're a founder trying to figure out how to sell, a woman navigating a male-dominated field, or anyone who loves a good origin story, this one delivers.

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Timestamps

00:00 Meet Tammy — four generations Bay Area, math major, CRO

00:36 The wheelbarrow story — how her family got to San Francisco

03:53 Rethinking privilege and what "underrepresented" really means

05:00 Being a blonde math major in the 80s and the bias that came with it

08:10 From math doctorate plans to a temp job at a startup

09:05 Two guys and a dog in the NeXT ecosystem

10:59 Why curiosity turned her into a sales person

13:09 Leaving a PhD at Berkeley for a career that actually fit

16:34 The three things top sales people actually do

18:00 Why story beats pitch every time

20:42 Advice for founders on the first enterprise sale

22:00 Why struggle sells better than shine

24:16 Brené Brown, vulnerability, and the source of real connection

25:42 Jumping into cybersecurity in 2003 before anyone cared

28:00 Pioneering data-centric encryption and format preserving encryption

29:01 The Heartland breach and why data protection became her obsession

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🔗 Connect with Tammy Schuring → https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammyschuring/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our

Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

Phil Taylor, CTO ⁨@CDW⁩ , built a 250-person services company from the ground up, sold it to CDW, and now runs their Digital Velocity business unit. But what makes his story compelling isn't the exit — it's how he got there.

At 21, he was distributing half a billion dollars in checks. One error could've bankrupted the company. Years later, he learned the hard way that being right matters less than helping your team win. He'll tell you about the Silverlight bet that taught him to ship imperfect products fast, the founders he picked wrong, and why his best business came from investing in people he let go.

He's also refreshingly honest about AI hype, why most services companies miss the obvious, and how to actually scale when you can't touch the code your teams are shipping.

If you're building a company, leading engineers, or trying to figure out how to compete without a shiny product, this one's worth your time.

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Timestamps

00:00 Meet Phil — from software engineer to CTO at CDW

01:51 The builder mindset, started at age 13

02:30 Distributing $500M in checks at 21

04:38 The team rebellion that humbled him as a leader

05:37 Choosing to win with your team, not be right

06:56 Ship value fast — perfect is the enemy of good

07:19 Listen to customers, don't sell them

09:09 The honest manager who told him to go start something

10:11 Building serverless before AWS Lambda

11:06 Pivoting to services, betting on Kubernetes

12:44 Exiting to CDW during the pandemic

13:28 Investing in people — your best network effect

15:32 The jump to enterprise — processes and structure

18:40 Running services like a product with real standards

19:08 AI quality control — why manual testing still matters

21:18 Staying on top of innovation

24:13 Zero to one in consulting — partnerships first

26:04 Building your portfolio of capabilities

28:40 AI is overhyped, cloud is a journey

________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Phil Taylor → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ptaylor1/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our

Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

Ash Parikh, CMO @Absolute Security, 3x B2B CMO (Informatica, Druva, Trellix), sits down with Mala Ramakrishnan to talk about what most marketers get wrong — and what the best ones obsess over.

Spoiler: it's not MQLs.

Ash breaks down the "dark funnel" — the invisible buying journey where 70% of decisions are made before a vendor even knows a prospect exists. He walks through how pre-intent signals, reverse IP lookups, and tools like ShiftUp are changing the way pipeline actually gets built.

The conversation gets real about the CMO gig — why most people don't last, how Ash accidentally fell into the role from product management, and why he thinks of himself as a business owner first, marketer second.

He also shares a killer practice: every marketer on his team spends 10% of their time each month piloting new tools and ideas. That's how you stay ahead.

For founders, Ash has pointed advice: hire a data-obsessed marketer before a brand person, know your ICP cold, and don't touch AI until your data foundation is solid.

If you're building a startup, running marketing at a growth-stage company, or just trying to figure out how modern B2B buying actually works, this one's worth your time.

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Timestamps

00:00 Meet Ash Parikh: 3x CMO, accidental marketer

01:00 From bad coder to product manager to CMO

02:55 Starting in product marketing because he knew the product

04:23 Getting over the "marketing is fluff" mindset

06:14 The stat that changes everything, 70% of buying happens invisible

07:08 What the dark funnel actually is

08:46 Pre-intent vs. intent, and why the difference matters

10:06 Reading signals from buyers who never raise their hand

11:56 Too many tools, how to cut through the noise

13:35 The 10% rule his whole team lives by

14:44 Why CISOs are the hardest buyers to reach

16:09 Don't touch AI until your data house is in order

17:06 The CMO job is about growth

19:00 What founders get wrong when hiring their first marketer

21:07 ChatGPT killed the website visit. Now what?

23:01 Why he abolished MQLs and what replaced them

__________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Ash Parikh → https://www.linkedin.com/in/aysha-khan-77ba9014/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7

Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

Ravi Shankar, CMO & SVP at Denodo, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to unpack how enterprise go-to-market has evolved in the age of AI—and why differentiation is no longer about deep tech, but about how you take it to market.

With over a decade at Denodo and prior experience at Oracle and Informatica, Ravi shares how he scaled a global data company across 25+ countries and why product marketing sits at the core of every successful GTM strategy.

The conversation dives into master data management (MDM), data virtualization, and the critical role of real-time, contextual, and governed data in making AI actually work. Ravi also breaks down how AI is reshaping marketing teams, from content generation to personalization, while reinforcing the importance of human judgment.

If you’re a founder, CMO, or operator building in data, AI, or enterprise software, this episode is a practical guide to positioning, scaling, and winning in crowded markets.

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00:00 Intro and why GTM is the new differentiation

01:00 Ravi Shankar’s journey from engineer to CMO

03:00 Transition from engineering to product marketing

05:00 Scaling Denodo into a global company

06:30 Why product marketing is the core of GTM

08:00 Translating products into business value

09:30 AI era: crowded markets and differentiation

11:00 Core competency as the foundation of positioning

12:30 Using AI in marketing: content and scale

14:00 Human + AI vs autonomous marketing

15:30 One-to-one marketing and personalization

17:00 Data as the foundation for AI systems

18:30 Real-time data, context, and governance

20:00 AI-driven experimentation and A/B testing

22:00 Enterprise GTM stack, tools, and team evolution

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🔗 Connect with Ravi Shankar → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankardevaraj/🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan🎧 Subscribe to the podcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4ASpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malas-podcast/id1848618438Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai

Sunzay Passari, Director and Global Head of AI and Innovation at UPS, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to unpack what it really means to drive AI inside a 118-year-old global enterprise operating in 200 countries.

From route optimization and warehouse automation to AI-driven pricing models generating measurable ROI, Sunzay explains how UPS applies both operational AI (“physical AI”) and business AI at enormous scale. With 26 million packages moving daily in the U.S. alone, even a one-cent optimization per package becomes transformational.

The conversation explores intrapreneurship inside legacy organizations, how to build cross-functional AI task forces, measuring ROI across hundreds of use cases, and when agentic AI can make real decisions versus keeping humans in the loop.

If you're a founder, enterprise leader, or AI operator wondering how large organizations actually implement AI beyond pilots, this episode offers practical insight at global scale.

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Timestamps00:00 Intro and leading AI innovation at UPS

01:20 From eBay product leadership to UPS

02:30 Why UPS hired externally for innovation

03:10 118 years of legacy meets AI transformation

04:10 Operational AI: route optimization & “no left turns”

05:30 6,000 warehouses, 150,000 trucks, 300 planes

06:30 Business AI: optimizing complex pricing models

08:00 AI for product portfolio recommendations

09:10 Building the AI task force and org structure

10:20 ROI-first mindset: how UPS prioritizes use cases

11:30 Dashboarding initiatives and GTM tracking

12:30 Working with hyperscalers and enterprise platforms

13:00 What it takes for startups to work with UPS

14:20 Why UPS is the most reliable (and most expensive) carrier

15:30 Profitable volume vs pure growth strategy

16:20 Scale math: 26M packages per day in the U.S.

17:10 Agentic AI: low-risk autonomous decisions

18:10 Physical AI: drones, humanoids & warehouse robotics

19:10 Happy Returns acquisition & No Box No Label

20:30 Measuring AI adoption internally

21:00 Killer use case: pricing, pricing, pricing

22:00 Advice on AI adoption and resilience

23:00 “There is no failure in technology” mindset

_______________________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Sunzay Passari → https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunzaypassari/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malas-podcast/id1848618438

Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai

Michael Avrahamov, VP of Engineering at ServiceNow, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to discuss what it really takes to lead large engineering teams in the age of AI.

From early startup work building developer platforms to leadership roles at Siebel, Oracle, and now ServiceNow, Michael shares how he built a niche in observability and reliability engineering—and why falling in love with hard technical problems shaped his career.

The conversation dives deep into AI-assisted coding, the risks of auto-generated code, IP concerns, and whether locking down engineers slows innovation. Michael also unpacks how ServiceNow infused AI into discovery, CMDB, and ITSM workflows—and what it means to scale responsibly with 170+ engineers.

If you’re a founder, engineering leader, or developer navigating AI productivity tools, governance, and code quality, this episode is packed with practical insight.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro and Michael’s journey into tech

01:00 Early startup days and developer platforms

02:20 Discoverability, observability, and reliability focus

03:40 From Siebel to Oracle to ServiceNow

05:00 Reverse engineering the JVM and deep debugging

06:40 ServiceNow’s early AI efforts before GenAI

08:00 The ChatGPT pivot and accelerating product development

09:30 Infusing AI as a co-pilot into product workflows

10:50 Automating ITSM tickets with AI agents

12:00 Managing a 170-engineer organization

13:00 AI adoption vs locking down engineers

14:30 Preparing internal systems for AI usefulness

15:50 Where AI actually improved productivity

17:00 The 2 million lines of AI-generated code problem

18:30 Code quality, review discipline, and verification risks

19:40 Should AI intentionally inject errors to test humans?

20:30 Freedom vs governance in AI usage

21:40 Prioritizing roadmap vs one-off customer demands

23:00 Startup advice: protect focus and your moat

24:00 Final thoughts on leadership in the AI era

___________________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Michael Avrahamov → https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelavr/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malas-podcast/id1848618438

Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai

Abhinav Asthana, CTO of Redwood Trust, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to share his unconventional journey from early data science in Formula 1 to leading technology at a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT).

In this candid conversation, Abhinav breaks down how technology drives real business outcomes in financial services, how private credit and non-qualified mortgages work, and why AI must tie directly to return on equity—not just automation metrics.

He also shares insights from investing in early-stage AI startups through Redwood’s corporate venture arm, what founders get wrong when selling to financial institutions, and why solving “hard, boring problems” can create lasting economic moats.

This episode is a must-watch for founders building in fintech, AI infrastructure, real estate tech, and regulated markets.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro and Abhinav’s background
01:00 Early data science in Formula 1
02:30 From engineering to M&A at Wipro
03:40 Transition into product leadership
05:00 Building zero-to-one product strategy
06:10 Joining Redwood Trust as CTO
07:20 Understanding non-QM and jumbo mortgages
08:40 The evolution of private credit in housing
10:00 Corporate venture investing in AI startups
11:20 Check sizes and early-stage investment strategy
12:40 How REIT economics shape tech decisions
14:00 Why partial automation doesn’t cut costs
15:30 Moving humans up the value chain
16:40 Advice for founders selling into real estate
18:00 Homogeneity doesn’t exist in customers
19:20 Design partners and industry networks
20:40 Solve hard problems with economic moats
22:00 Why pricing power comes after market capture
23:20 Books that shaped Abhinav’s thinking
24:30 Growth mindset and lifelong learning

____________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Abhinav Asthana → https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhiasthana/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7

Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai

Puneet Gupta, Founder & CEO of Amberflo, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to unpack one of the biggest blind spots in AI adoption: cost, governance, and tying LLM usage to real business value.

A former General Manager at Amazon Web Services and founding member of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Puneet brings deep cloud infrastructure experience to the AI era. In this conversation, he explains why token usage is exploding, why experiments don’t translate cleanly into production, and why enterprises must “get ahead of the bill” with AI governance.The episode dives into AI gateways, attribution models, multi-cloud realities, usage-based pricing, and the leadership discipline required to scale startups without chasing false momentum.

If you're a founder, CIO, or operator deploying AI at scale, this episode is a practical guide to managing cost, governance, and long-term strategy.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro and Puneet’s background
01:00 Early days at AWS and cloud lessons
02:00 The origin story of Amberflo
03:00 Inside AWS metering and billing systems
04:30 Usage-based business models in the cloud era
06:00 From billing to AI governance and FinOps
07:30 Moving from AI experiments to production
09:00 Why LLM token usage explodes with agents
10:30 Tying AI spend to business outcomes
11:45 Why parsing vendor bills isn’t enough
12:30 The rise of AI gateways
14:00 CIO use cases: cost control and developer tooling
15:30 Product-facing AI attribution challenges
16:30 Context windows and unpredictable token costs
17:30 Founder advice: don’t confuse momentum with progress
19:00 Choosing the right design partners
20:30 Why founders must focus on a niche
22:00 Lessons from building metering before billing
24:00 Is AI overhyped? What will last
25:30 Multi-cloud strategy and competing with hyperscalers
27:00 Final thoughts on AI infrastructure opportunity

________________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Puneet Gupta → https://www.linkedin.com/in/puneetguptausa/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7

Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai

Rajeev Sethi, SVP of Emerging Technologies at ServiceNow, joins Mala Ramakrishnan for a candid conversation on how large enterprises actually adopt AI, automation, and agentic systems.

With nearly four decades across engineering, IT, consulting, and enterprise platforms, Rajeev shares how ServiceNow evolved from a workflow engine into a category-defining company, why automation matters more than AI buzzwords, and where agentic AI is genuinely useful versus overblown.

The episode dives deep into consumerizing enterprise software, working with early-stage startups, pitching to CIOs, embedding AI responsibly, and why autonomous enterprises are closer than we think—but still hard to build.

A practical, grounded discussion for founders, product leaders, and operators building enterprise and AI-first products.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro and Rajeev Sethi’s background
01:10 From engineer to enterprise leader
02:30 Designing systems for the future, not today
03:50 Early customer deployment and consulting lessons
05:10 Why ServiceNow created the Emerging Tech group
06:30 Learning from 200+ early-stage startups
08:00 How ServiceNow works with founders and VCs
09:20 What ServiceNow got right early on
10:40 Pivoting from platform to ITSM
12:00 Embedding AI before GenAI hype
13:30 LLMs, Hugging Face, and frontier models
15:00 From generative AI to agentic workflows
16:40 Why AI agents need guardrails
18:10 AI is not autonomous without workflows
19:40 The limits of AI accuracy in enterprises
21:10 Why unstructured data is the real bottleneck
22:40 Autonomous enterprise vs autonomous vehicles
24:10 Where AI will create real enterprise value
25:40 Final thoughts on automation and opportunity

___________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Rajeev Sethi → https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevsethi1/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7

Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org

Parisa Naseralavi, COO of XOPS, joins Mala Ramakrishnan for a candid conversation on operations, leadership, and what it really takes to scale companies from early traction to enterprise adoption.

Starting her career as a chemical engineer, Parisa shares how thinking in process and scale shaped her journey across Monsanto, Cisco, VMware, ServiceNow, and now a fast-growing startup. She explains why operations is the operating system of a company, why startups underestimate go-to-market discipline, and how autonomous workflows can remove human friction across IT, HR, and finance.

The episode also dives into selling to Fortune 100 companies, achieving fast time-to-value, building trust early with customers, and why founders must obsess over outcomes, not just features. A practical, no-hype conversation for founders, operators, and executives building enterprise software.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro and Parisa’s journey to COO
01:00 From chemical engineering to operations
02:20 Learning scale and quality at Monsanto
03:30 Joining Cisco during hypergrowth
04:40 Why operations is the company’s operating system
05:50 Moving from hardware to software leadership
07:00 Scaling global operations at VMware
08:10 Lessons from ServiceNow’s growth phase
09:30 Why Parisa joined an early-stage startup
10:50 The reality of building from Series A to B
12:10 What XOps does and autonomous workflows
13:30 Outcome-driven automation vs task automation
14:50 Removing humans from broken workflows
16:10 How startups land Fortune 100 customers
17:40 Fast deployment and time-to-value
19:10 Why early customers take bets on people
20:40 Founder involvement in early enterprise deals
22:00 AI adoption: cost, productivity, and revenue
23:30 Advice for women leaders and sponsors
25:00 Mentorship, giving back, and leadership values
26:40 Books, travel, and closing reflections

____________________________________________________________

🔗 Connect with Parisa Naseralavi → https://www.linkedin.com/in/parisanaseralavi/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

🎧 Subscribe to the podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4A

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7

Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai