Atomic Conversations

Hosted by Atomicwork

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the modern service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we bring you conversations with some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level. And we also explore what that next level actually means in a world of AI, a focus on security, and distributed teams.

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38 recent

August 18, 202641 min

Sreeveni Kancharla, SailPoint CIO on the New Rules of IT and how AI removed the hardest part of the job

Sree Kancharla is the CIO of SailPoint, where she led the transformation that prepared the company for its 2025 Nasdaq IPO — in seven months. Previously CIO/VP of IT at UserTesting, with earlier roles at Google and Mandiant. She joins us to talk about why she told her CEO "this is not a digital transformation, this is a business transformation," how AI removed the hardest part of the job (convincing the business), why she won't sign multi-year contracts, and how AI actually gets funded when budgets are flat. Chapters: 00:00 "This is not a digital transformation, this is a business transformation" 01:04 Welcome to Atomic Conversations 02:20 She wanted to be a doctor — and her mother wanted engineering 03:24 Choosing math instead: 51st in the state, and Osmania University 05:08 Marriage, moving to the US, and the PhD that never happened 06:53 Her three superheroes: dad, husband, son 08:14 Java developer to business analyst — why she chose consulting for years 09:39 Relationships over transactions: don't sell, build trust 11:44 Cloud, SaaS, AI: what actually changes and what never does 13:12 Same old problems, new tools — and who won't like the change 16:04 Boards want ROI; why SaaS-era standardization stalled at 30-40% 17:40 IPO readiness in seven months, and the 50/50 deal with the business 19:36 Business transformation or organizational transformation? 20:15 The budget squeeze: AI costs more, budgets don't 23:18 Shark Tank in four hours — inside her IT leadership summit experiment 24:57 People, productivity, and what companies owe employees in the AI era 28:33 Customer Zero: becoming a top-5 most advanced SailPoint customer in year one 31:28 Why culture is the hardest part of AI transformation 34:49 "Every employee will have an agent" — so make your own work valuable 36:03 AI champions and co-building: IT stops being the order-taker 37:03 Why she won't sign multi-year contracts anymore 38:15 "What tool are you getting rid of?" — how AI actually gets funded 39:42 AI is challenging humankind 40:29 Three pieces of advice: relationships, challenges, mentors Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

August 13, 202650 min

AWS's Amitabh Nagpal: Why India's seed rounds hit $100M and the founder flywheel has finally arrived

Amitabh Nagpal, AWS Head of Startups in India, joins Atomic Conversations to trace India's startup ecosystem from $200K seed rounds in the 2000s to today's $100M AI seed rounds — and explains how AWS Activate and the AWS Partner Network actually support founders at each stage. We cover the UPI infrastructure bet, the rise and fall of consumer and fintech waves, why 10-minute delivery became its own category, how last year's wave of Indian IPOs is seeding a new generation of founders and angels, and why "talk to 100 people before you sell to 1,000" still holds in the age of AI agents. Chapters: 0:00 Cold open — why seed rounds now close at $50–100M 1:06 Welcome to Atomic Conversations 2:11 Cloud as the great equalizer for founders 5:20 AWS's three pillars of startup support: financial, technical, GTM 6:02 From AWS customer to AWS ecosystem 7:12 India's startup ecosystem: the early 2000s (InfoEdge, MakeMyTrip) 10:36 UPI, ONDC, and the government's infrastructure bet 12:05 The consumer startup boom (Nykaa, Meesho) 13:24 10-minute delivery becomes its own category 14:03 MNCs, GCCs, and how India built its talent clusters 16:19 Founder and investor quality today vs. 10 years ago 18:15 SaaS founders vs. AI founders — what's different 21:39 $50–100M seed rounds and the research-scientist hiring wave 22:26 Repeat founders and 2024's wave of Indian IPOs 24:53 Inside AWS Activate: GTM enablement for early-stage startups 27:18 Becoming an AWS Partner Network (APN) member 29:28 How AWS measures ROI on founder support 30:08 Storytelling, founder-led sales, and building trust before selling 33:47 "What's your why" — the question every founder needs to answer 34:52 Why Amitabh doesn't judge founders on outcomes 37:26 Design customers — validating assumptions before you build 39:13 The "talk to 100 people" rule for product-market fit 43:00 New trends: global hiring, younger founders, campus-to-founder leapfrogging 44:58 AI, job loss fears, and building an entrepreneurial muscle 47:42 The solo founder + AI agents business model 50:07 Closing thoughts on India's founder ecosystem Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

July 1, 202652 min

Venky Rangachari CIO, HPE on why AI is the steam engine moment for enterprise

Venky Rangachari, CIO at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has lived through every major tech wave of the last 30 years — the internet boom, the dot-com bust, SaaS, cloud, and now AI. In this episode of Atomic Conversations, Lenin Gali (Chief Business Officer, Atomicwork) sits down with Venky to unpack what's truly different about the AI era, why the enterprise is undergoing its "steam engine moment," and how leaders should think about reimagining work from first principles. 00:00 Teaser – The AI wave vs. the internet wave 01:19 Welcome: Meet Venky Rangachari, CIO at HPE 01:45 Growing up in Chennai: Air-conditioned computer rooms & COBOL 03:39 Choosing computer science over mathematics 04:15 Assembling PCs & the tinkerer's mindset 05:57 First job at Exodus: A Silicon Valley startup in the '90s 07:30 Early internet parallels with AI today 10:00 Building internet infrastructure: Private peering & the birth of data centers 13:03 Catching waves: Dot-com → eDiscovery SaaS → Cloud → AI 15:22 What makes AI fundamentally different from cloud 17:42 The steam engine analogy: Re-architecting the enterprise 19:30 Reimagining the IT helpdesk — why tickets are irrelevant to employees 22:29 Cutting the "belts": Which workflows will AI eliminate? 24:50 Data as the one constant thread across 30 years of tech 29:01 Will AI replace software engineers? 31:18 Digital twins, AI coworkers & self-driving work 36:05 How Venky became a CIO without planning to 40:41 Leading teams through transformation: The quarterback analogy 43:05 Venky's leadership philosophy: Entrepreneur at heart 47:36 Advice for the next generation of tech leaders 49:59 Why Silicon Valley's DNA can't be replicated 52:22 Closing thoughts Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

April 8, 202633 min

Jeegar Shah, Head of Applied AI at Atomicwork | From Big tech to startups: How risk-taking builds better AI leaders

What does it take to thrive at the intersection of AI research and real-world deployment? In this episode, Atomicwork's new Head of Applied AI shares how a career built on calculated risk, moving between corporations and startups, shaped a philosophy for navigating today's biggest technological shift. If you think in dimensions, you think better. Watch the full episode to find out why. 00:00 – Introduction and the "Reset" Moment, 02:30 – Engineering Culture and Native AI, 05:00 – High Risk Profiles and Building Natively, 08:00 – Lessons from Amazon: Customer Obsession and Scale, 11:00 – The PR FAQ Method and Product Alignment, 14:00 – Avoiding Wasted Resources in Startups, 17:00 – Pitfalls of AI in Production, 20:00 – Agentic AI: Real vs. Aspirational, 23:30 – Why Atomicwork: Talent Density and Faith,, 26:30 – The Importance of Curiosity, 29:00 – Defining Success through Customer Perception, 31:00 – Advice for Young Engineers,, 32:15 – Recommended Reading: Physics and AI Analogies,, Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

November 27, 20251 hr 4 min

Aysha Khan, CIO & CISO at Treasure Data | Conscious leadership, secure innovation, and AI that puts people first

In this conversation, Lenin Gali discusses the transformative impact of AI in the workplace, emphasizing that while AI itself won't replace jobs, individuals who leverage AI will have a competitive edge with Aysha Khan, CIO and CISO at Treasure Data. He advocates for making AI accessible to all employees, not just technical teams, to ensure that everyone can benefit from its capabilities. Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

November 27, 202534 min

Henrique Teixeira, Head of Strategy at Saviynt | Why 2025 Is a Defining Year for Identity, Access & Zero Trust

In this episode of Atomic Conversations, we sit down with Henrique Teixeira, former Gartner Analyst for Identity & Access Management and now Head of Strategy at Saviynt. Henrique breaks down why 2025 is a defining year for identity management, beyond just cybersecurity, and emphasizes the importance of understanding workforce identities, including employees, contractors, and consumers, while also highlighting the growing relevance of machine identities in today's digital landscape. Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

November 27, 202531 min

Gary J Ahwah, CIO of Molina Healthcare | Navigating Change: Leadership, Learning & Innovation in Real Time

From storytelling at Disney to life-and-death decisions in healthcare, CIO Gary Alwah has seen every wave of technological change—from the rise of the internet to the dawn of GenAI. In this episode, he shares what it takes to build resilient teams, drive responsible innovation, earn clinician trust, and lead technology as a true business. A masterclass in leadership from one of the most experienced CIOs in the industry. Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

October 31, 202528 min

Sanjay Shahani, SVP Customer Experience of F5 | How to lead, learn, and innovate in a constantly changing world ?

In this episode of Atomic Conversations, we sit down with Sanjay Shahani, SVP Customer Experience of F5, a global technology leader whose journey from software engineer to enterprise architect to executive has spanned continents and industries — from telecom and retail to fintech and cybersecurity. Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

October 31, 202541 min

Vishal Gupta, CPO & CTO of GoGuardian | Why AI is a once-in-a-generation shift?

AI isn’t “the next mobile.” It’s bigger. In this episode of Atomic Conversations, GoGuardian Global CTO Vishal Gupta explains why AI is a once-in-40-years shift—and how leaders can turn it into material business impact. From launching Lexmark Ventures to upskilling 100+ employees via an AI academy, Vishal shares practical frameworks for picking high-value use cases, building org-wide alignment, and managing the coming world of human + agent teams. Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.

October 31, 202535 min

Gopalratnam VC, Global CIO at Philips | AI, leadership, future of IT and leading with vision

In this episode of Atomic Conversations, Philips’ Global CIO Gopalratnam sits down with Sairam Krishnan, Head of Marketing at Atomicwork, for an unfiltered conversation on leadership, innovation, and the evolving world of enterprise IT. From his experience leading global technology teams at GE, Cisco, and Philips, Gopal shares timeless lessons on building high-performing, inclusive teams, navigating AI with cautious optimism, and keeping values at the heart of every decision. He also explores: - Why consistent, values-driven leadership matters more than ever - The CEO–CFO disconnect in AI adoption - What “technology Disneyland” looks like at Philips - How GenAI and agentic AI will shape the next era of IT and healthcare Atomic Conversations is brought to you by Team Atomicwork, where we are building the agentic service management platform of the future. Every fortnight, we will be speaking to some of the sharpest minds in IT to figure out how they are taking service management to the next level.