Tech Unplugged

Chief of staff is a role a lot of people at LBS are curious about, and almost nobody can describe properly. So we asked someone who has done it twice. Ally O'Donohoe is Chief of Staff and Director of Ops and People at Fyxer AI, and was chief of staff at Ukio before that. Three things stood out.

There is no single version of the job, but there is a shape to it. Ally described four pillars: leadership and exec programming, investor relations, strategy, and people. Which pillars you actually own depends on who is already in the building. If the company has a strong CFO, you do less on the investor side. If it is scaling fast, the people work expands to fill your week.

Being a generalist used to be the trade-off. It is less of one now. You give up functional depth, and a lot of the work is behind the scenes with little external credit. But Ally made the point that getting up to speed on an unfamiliar area used to take months and now takes days, which makes breadth far more useful than it was a few years ago.

How to spot a good role, and a bad one. If calendar and inbox management appear in the job spec, it is an EA role with a different title. And founder fit matters more than people expect, because you are in that person's pocket daily through the best and worst weeks. You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.

On getting in: cold outreach to founders, weekly, beats structured job hunting. And do not fixate on the title, since strategy and ops roles often ladder into it.

Anurag Viswanath has built product across Google, Deel and now Meta, spent a stint as a Founder-in-Residence at Antler, and started out as an officer cadet in the Indian Army.

We sat down with him to talk about what has actually changed in product management now that AI is in everything, and what has just been repackaged.

A few things that stood out:

Forget T-shaped. Anurag went M-shaped. He deliberately stacked depth in two or three domains alongside breadth, and says the real payoff has been pattern detection: spotting the same structural problem across completely different surfaces.

"AI product manager" means at least four different jobs. From using AI to speed up your own work, to layering AI onto an existing product, to building AI-native from scratch, to the emerging agent PM role. He explains why picking the right flavour matters more than chasing the title.

The 3B framework for breaking in. Borrow your domain expertise, Build something real, Benchmark its quality. He is honest that breaking in from a non-technical background is hard right now, and equally clear about why an MBA background is more of an advantage than people think.

Taste and judgement cannot be shortcut. Evals can be taught. Judgement comes from reps. He shares a simple exercise for building it if you do not have years behind you.

Agentic commerce is the tailwind he would go deep on. When an agent is doing the searching and choosing, there is no click left to win. He unpacks what that means for how you build, price and position a product.

On leaving big tech for Antler: "In a big tech environment, a lot of your effectiveness is borrowed." He wanted to find out what happened when the scaffolding fell away.

Most of us follow AI by reading about it. We keep up with the news, skim the threads, and feel reasonably on top of things. Melina's argument is that this is exactly the trap: you can read endlessly and still have no real sense of where these tools actually work and where they quietly fall apart.

For our latest Tech Unplugged episode, we spoke with Melina, a product leader who has worked across Meta, Coinbase, and Mistral, and now runs her own product advisory and teaches AI product management.

A few things we got into:

•⁠ ⁠Why the gap between a cool demo and something you actually use every day is where most of the real work (and value) lives

•⁠ ⁠What "AI product management" actually means, and why most people only think about a third of it

•⁠ ⁠How you build credibility with engineers when you can't explain how a transformer works, and why trying to can backfire

•⁠ ⁠What starts breaking inside a company during hypergrowth, from knowledge silos to decisions grinding to a halt

•⁠ ⁠Why a large code base no longer protects you, and what does: UX, data feedback loops, sheer execution speed, and operating in regulated spaces

If you're trying to get into AI, lead an AI roadmap, or just want a clearer picture of what's hype and what isn't, we think you'll get a lot out of this one.

Have a listen, and let us know what you think.

Most companies running AI pilots aren't short on ideas. They're short on pilots that survive contact with a real workflow. In this episode of Tech Unplugged, I'm joined by Akshay Nagpal, who launched a machine learning platform at ING that became the second most adopted product in ING Analytics, and who now works in GenAI product and advises startups on conversational AI.

We get into the parts people usually skip. What actually kills an AI initiative inside a big bank. Why COBOL still sets the ceiling on what's possible. And why the most valuable piece of automation Akshay shipped at ING had no AI in it at all. We also talk honestly about jobs — his view is that the "average analyst" role is already gone, and that nobody has built a real transition plan for the people in it.

What we cover

• Innovation theatre: why pilots that don't start from a workflow or a revenue line quietly die

• The Biking initiative: automating year-end audit letters across Poland, the Netherlands, France and Italy, cutting weeks of manual coordination — with zero AI involved

• The 60-cent problem: legacy banks spend around 60 cents to earn a dollar. Monzo and Revolut spend 30–35. AI-native banks could reach 15–20

• Patriot Act vs GDPR: why European banks took years to trust AWS and GCP, and why Akshay defends GDPR as a consumer

• Build vs buy: when partnering with OpenAI or Anthropic beats internal tooling, and the two cases where building your own is the right call

• When agents hire agents: two coding agents split backend and frontend, ran their own retrospective, and decided they needed a PM

• Beyond the wrapper: why the moat is now user experience, distribution and vertical embedding — not the technology

• The uncomfortable bit: which roles go first, and what "upskilling as an orchestrator" actually means in practice

Tools mentioned in this episode

• Lovable to vibe-code expense tracker and portfolio site

• Claude for redesigning onboarding flows

• Gamma for presentations

• Gemini for deep research

• n8n and Zapier to run workflow automation (e.g. Stripe transactions straight into Slack)

Chapters

[0:00] Innovation theatre and the reality of scaling AI

[2:15] From Nokia to ING to entrepreneurship

[7:45] The Biking initiative: automating audits without AI

[10:50] COBOL, technical debt and the 60-cent efficiency ratio

[14:15] Build vs buy, and the ego of internal tooling

[17:30] The Patriot Act, GDPR and why EU banks feared US cloud

[20:45] Specialised agents: when AI hires its own PM

[28:30] Moats, wrappers and vibe coding

[32:15] Displacement, fresh graduates and the missing transition plan

[39:00] Closing advice: have a bias for action

Guest: Akshay Nagpal — big data engineer at Nokia, then product manager at ING in Amsterdam, where he launched a machine learning platform that became the second most adopted product in ING Analytics with 22 B2B clients onboarded. Oxford MBA '24 and former Head of the Oxford Tech Club. He now works in GenAI product at Hark Labs and advises startups on GenAI workflows and conversational AI.

Host: Aritra Sutradhar — LBS MBA '26. Consultant at BCG London. Previously chief of staff and GTM roles in startups, and years building in education. Speaks and writes on creativity in the age of AI.

Source: Tech Unplugged — the London Business School Tech Club podcast

AI is no longer just a feature layer; it has become the product, the teammate, and, in some cases, the operator. But what does this shift mean for the people defining these products?

In this episode of Tech Unplugged, we sit down with Amit Pasupathy, Senior AI Product Manager at Decagon, a company recently valued at $4.5 billion that is redefining customer experience through AI-powered concierge agents. Amit shares his transition from a Data Scientist at Freenome to an "Agent PM" at Scale AI and Decagon, exploring the technical and cultural nuances of building autonomous agents at scale.

We dive into:

• Defining the AI Agent: Why "resolving" an issue is the critical differentiator between a true agent and a standard chatbot.
• The "Agent PM" Role: How product management is evolving into a "forward-deployed" role that requires building alongside engineers and customers.
• Multilingual Complexity: Navigating the "hair-whitening" challenges of international deployments, from GDPR compliance to the linguistic nuances between Norwegian and Danish.
• The Future of Work: Why your future AI agent will be your "colleague" rather than just a tool, and how role requirements are shifting from execution to auditing.
• Career Tactics: Why the "standard MBA path" to PM is changing and why building real-world, impactful projects is the new credible signal.

Timestamps

• (00:00) Intro: AI as the Product
• (01:53) Amit’s Journey: From Stanford Math to Columbia MBA
• (03:52) Agentic AI vs. Chatbots: Defining the "Resolution" Layer
• (06:40) The Complexity of Multilingual Voice Agents
• (09:30) Case Study: Deploying Multi-Language Support for Fintech
• (11:58) Defining the "Agent PM": Forward-Deployed Leadership
• (15:15) The Scale AI Transition: Navigating Layoffs and Career Resilience
• (18:25) Is Technical Fluency Required? The Rise of "Vibe Coding"
• (21:05) Building with Impact: Advice for Aspiring PMs
• (23:10) Hiring at Decagon: The 3 P's (Product, Performance, Partnership
• (25:40) MBA Experience: CBS vs. LBS and the Big City Life

"An AI Agent isn't just about providing information. It's about resolution. Can it actually resolve the customer's issue in the most human way possible?" — Amit Pasupathy

Guest: Amit Pasupathy

Host: Lanre Adeoye

In the fast-paced world of tech unicorns and high-growth startups, the Chief of Staff (CoS) is often described as the "force multiplier" for founders and CEOs. Yet, it remains one of the most misunderstood roles in business.

In this episode of Tech Unplugged, we sit down with Kathryn Larin (MBA '21), the Chief of Staff at Marshmallow. Kathryn shares her "full circle" journey, from founding and hosting the Ride It Out podcast as an LBS student to becoming a key strategic partner to the C-suite at one of the UK’s leading Insurtechs.

We explore:

• The Career Pivot: How Kathryn moved from the structured world of investment banking into the entrepreneurial sphere.

• Defining the Role: The spectrum of the CoS role, from "Strategic Proxy" to operational leader, and how it changes from Seed stage to Series C.

• Rank vs. Authority: A fascinating look at military leadership principles applied to tech - how a CoS builds trust and authority without formal "rank".

• The AI Evolution: Why AI will automate the analytical "grunt work," making the CoS role more human-centric and relationship-driven than ever before.

• The First 90 Days: Tactical advice for MBAs entering the role, including Kathryn’s personal "Operating Manual" for working with CEOs.

Chapter Timestamps

(00:00) Intro: The Chief of Staff as a Force Multiplier

(01:53) Kathryn’s Journey: From Banking to the LBS MBA

(03:40) The "Ride It Out" Podcast: Lessons in Adaptability

(07:20) What does a Chief of Staff actually do?

(09:30) The "Glue" of the Organization: Cross-functional Leadership

(11:34) Rank vs. Authority: Building Trust in a Startup

(14:50) The Future of the Role: Will AI replace the CoS?

(18:25) Positioning yourself for a CoS role post-MBA

(21:05) The First 90 Days: Kathryn’s "Operating Manual"

(24:15) The Chief of Staff Guide & MBA Research Fellowship

Key Takeaways & Mentions

• Kathryn’s Tools: Granola (for note-taking) and ChatGPT/Claude (for high-stakes communication and EQ).

• Recommended Reading: The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins.

Opportunity for Students

Kathryn is looking for an MBA Research Fellow to help co-author her upcoming Chief of Staff Guide. If you're interested in working on this guide, apply here: https://forms.gle/snU27oZamo6kKRqh9

Host: Lanre Adeoye

Guest: Kathryn Larin

Editor: Lanre Adeoye

Crew: Ridhi Bhatnagar | Lena Markovic | Richa Aggarwal | Carlota Apolonia

Episode Summary: Is the classroom as we know it dead? With the arrival of Generative AI and the lasting impact of the pandemic, the education sector is undergoing its most radical transformation in a century. In this special collaboration between the London Business School Tech Club and the Education Club, we are joined by Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell, hosts of the industry-leading podcast EdTech Insiders.

Together, we unpack how technology is shifting education from a "factory model" to "precision learning," where the student takes the driver’s seat and the teacher becomes a coach. Whether you are a founder looking for "Blue Ocean" opportunities or an MBA student navigating the current VC drought, this episode provides a masterclass on the trends defining the next decade of learning.

What We Dive Into:

• The Post-Pandemic Shift: How the industry moved from Covid-era survival to the "ChatGPT Revolution".
• Precision Education: Shifting from top-down standardized testing to personalized, data-driven learning roadmaps.
• The Teacher’s Evolution: Moving from the "Sage on the Stage" to the "Guide on the Side" as AI automates mundane administrative tasks.
• Global Leapfrogging: Why the Global South may bypass traditional infrastructure directly into AI-enabled education, similar to the mobile phone revolution.
• Founder Reality Check: Why simple quiz generators are a "red ocean" and where the real gaps—like automated simulations and special pedagogies—actually lie.
• MBA Career Paths: Navigating edtech fellowships and the skills needed to bridge the gap between formal education and employer needs.

Resources:

• EdTech Insiders: The global community, podcast, and newsletter for edtech professionals.
• Generative AI Use Case Database: A comprehensive database of over 300 AI tools categorized into 60 education use cases.
• Design Tech High School (DTEK): A pioneering school on the Oracle campus where students drive their own projects and products.
• Owl Ventures EdTech MBA Fellowship: A specialized fellowship program for business students to enter the edtech space.
• European EdTech Map: A directory of hundreds of edtech companies across Europe, from the Nordics to Poland.
• Coursera for Campuses: A platform helping universities integrate industry certificates into formal degrees.
• NotebookLM (Google): Noted for its "astounding" podcast feature for educational synthesis.

Featured AI & Learning Tools

• Build Your Own AI: Explore Google AI Studio to start creating personalized learning tools.

• The Future of Interviews: See the HeyGen Interactive Avatar in action—a glimpse into automated, video-based coaching.
• AI Social Experiments: Read the MIT Tech Review on how AI characters are evolving in digital worlds, redefining social-emotional learning.
• Precision Discovery: Check out Novodia for a look at next-gen AI-driven educational platforms.

Chapter Markers (Timestamps):

[0:00] Intro: The Future of Classrooms and Tech Unplugged.

[2:45] The Origin of EdTech Insiders.

[7:15] Precision Education: Beyond Cognitive Training.

[12:30] The Role of Parents and the "Burning Platform" for Teachers.

[19:00] Innovation in the Global South: The AI Leapfrog Moment.

[28:40] Entrepreneurship: Avoiding Saturated AI Markets.

[35:10] The VC Drought and Raising Capital in the AI Era.

[42:15] MBA Careers: How to Break into EdTech.

Guests:

Alex Sarlin is an edtech veteran with expertise in higher education, workforce development, and product design.

Ben Kornell is a K-12 expert focused on growth, strategy, and investment within the education ecosystem.

Together, they host EdTech Insiders, the world's largest global edtech community.Credits:

Host: ⁠Aritra Sutradhar⁠ — LBS MBA '26. Consultant at BCG London. Previously chief of staff and GTM roles in startups, and years building in education. Speaks and writes on creativity in the age of AI.

Editors: Aritra Sutradhar | Lanre Adeoye

Crew: Ridhi Bhatnagar | Lena Markovic | Richa Aggarwal | Carlota Apolonia

In the MBA world, the "Triple Jump" is the ultimate career maneuver: changing your geography, your industry, and your function all at once.

In our debut episode of Tech Unplugged, we sit down with Meredith Estren (MBA 2016), CEO and Founder of Albertine, who successfully navigated this high-stakes pivot. Meredith takes us through her transition from consulting in the U.S. and Asia to leading driver operations at Uber in London, and finally launching her own tech-enabled luxury service.

In this episode, we break down:

• The Strategic Reset: How to use the MBA as a "buffer" to pivot from structured consulting to the "beautiful chaos" of startups.

• The Reality of Ops: Why moving into tech often means trading PowerPoints for "laundry on the floor" and operational grit.

• Scaling at Uber: Navigating big data, competing with rivals like Bolt, and finding the human story behind the algorithms.

• Building the "Minimum Lovable Product": Meredith’s advice on creating products that users don't just use, but actually love.

  
  

  Credits:

  Host: Charlie Palmer

  Guest: Meredith Estrin

  Editors: Lanre Adeoye | Shreyas Parbat

  Crew: Aritra Sutradhar | Ridhi Bhatnagar | Lena Markovic | Richa Aggarwal | Carlota Apolonia

Welcome to Tech Unplugged - your front-row seat to real stories from across the tech world. This is your sneak peek: candid conversations with people who’ve lived, built, or pivoted through tech. No fluff. No buzzwords. Just insight that hits. Plug in and follow along for more!