BOOK · ENGLISH · 2025
The Founder Catalyst
Real lessons to transform founders into CEOs
A founder is very good at starting a company. As the company grows, the job changes: less doing, more deciding, hiring and leading. This book is a practical field guide to that change — 35 short chapters, drawn from three decades of building technology businesses and working with founders.
Venkatarangan Thirumalai
Oxygen Books, An imprint of New Horizon Media Private Limited
2025 · 208 pages · 35 chapters in five parts
ISBN 9788198400932
The hardest promotion in any company
Nobody promotes a founder to CEO. It just happens, one decision at a time, as the company grows. The skills that got you here — building the product, closing the first customers, fixing things at midnight — are not the skills the company now needs from you.
The company needs someone who can hire people better than themselves, say no, work with a board, and lead a team much larger than the room they started in. I learned this by running Vishwak Solutions for close to two decades, and I see it every week in the founders I work with.
“Maturing from founder to CEO isn’t about giving up your technical roots — it’s about rising above them. It means shifting from hands-on execution to long-term vision, from solving problems to enabling others to solve them.”
The shift
| Hands-on execution | → | Long-term vision |
| Solving the problem yourself | → | Enabling others to solve it |
| Hiring for degrees and finished skills | → | Hiring for curiosity, integrity and growth |
| Chasing every new management idea | → | Focus as the founder’s edge |
| Meetings as proof of activity | → | Meetings as engines of progress |
| Leading only from within | → | A mentor for outside perspective |
Who will get the most from it
First-time founders
You have a product and a small team. You are about to make your first senior hire and your first real strategy call.
Founders at the scaling stage
The company is growing faster than you are. You are still the bottleneck. The board is asking harder questions.
Leaders who work with founders
Investors, board members, CXOs and mentors who want a shared vocabulary for the founder-to-CEO conversation.
It is written for founders in India and elsewhere, and draws on Indian and global companies alike.
Thirty-five short chapters, five parts
Each chapter is short enough to read over a cup of coffee and ends with a one-line reflection you can take into your next leadership meeting.
A. The Foundation
6 chapters · Mindset, self-awareness, learning from failure, trust
Making the Founder Leap · Learning from Lost Bets · The Currency Called Trust
B. Growth
8 chapters · Strategy, focus, alliances, pitching
The Six Pillars of Strategic Growth · The Patient Flytrap Strategy · Build Like a Politician
C. People
8 chapters · Senior hiring, remote teams, mentors, decisions under pressure
The Art of Hiring Giants · Every CEO Needs a Mentor · Deciding Under Pressure
D. Execution
6 chapters · Users, timing, premortems, outages
Innovation Starts with Users · The Wisdom of the Premortem · Learning from Outages
E. Future with AI
7 chapters · AI in sales, choosing tools, AI risk, the human touch
AI Powering Sales Growth · Taming the AI Jungle · Guard Against AI Risks
A few ideas from the book
Focus is the edge
Every week brings a new framework. Founders who keep changing direction exhaust their teams.
“Clarity is the founder’s edge. In a noisy world, the ability to focus — not flail — is what drives compounding returns.”
CHAPTER 8
Strategic patience
Like the Venus flytrap, which waits for a second touch before it closes, not every signal deserves a reaction.
“Patience is rarely taught in startup playbooks, but it is a superpower in execution.”
CHAPTER 9
Build like a politician
Companies grow through alliances — Microsoft’s non-exclusive licensing deal and Nykaa’s brand partnerships are both coalitions.
“Running a business is less about charisma and more about communication, trust, and alliances.”
CHAPTER 10
Hire giants
David Ogilvy’s lesson: hire people bigger than you, then make room for them.
“The courage to hire people greater than yourself … is a hallmark of mature leadership.”
CHAPTER 15
Run the premortem
Imagine the project has failed, then ask why, before you spend the money.
“A premortem invites humility before hindsight forces it upon you.”
CHAPTER 25
Keep the human touch
AI can take over the routine work. It should not take over the moments people remember.
“Never automate away what people crave most — the irreplaceable human touch.”
CHAPTER 34
Lessons from companies you know, and from my own mistakes
The book draws on companies many founders study — and on my own bets, including the ones that did not work.
- Microsoft & IBM — the DOS licensing deal: build alliances, keep your options open
- Tata — Zara and Zudio — focus: two brands, two clearly separate customers
- Nykaa — building a coalition of brands
- Airbnb — staying close to the problem, a clear pitch
- Freshworks — an authentic pitch
- Ogilvy & Mather — hiring people bigger than you
- Johnson & Johnson (Tylenol) and Nestlé (Maggi) — trust is earned slowly and lost quickly
- Apple — strategic patience
- My own lost bets — the early cloud and Windows 8 app era: market timing
“I remember chasing every new management idea I read about. One week it was ‘lean everything,’ the next ‘build to scale,’ then ‘go niche or go home.’ I wasn’t building a coherent strategy; I felt like I was running a relay race between business books.”
Why I wrote this book
I started out as an engineer writing software for local clients. Within a few years I was a strategist, a salesman, a financier and a mentor — often in the same week. Nobody hands you a manual for that change.
Over nearly three decades, “I’ve had the privilege of building ventures from the ground up — serving world-renowned brands in nine countries as clients, and running operations with teams across three continents.” This book distils what I learned — “not as rigid rules or guaranteed formulas, but as practical insights grounded in real-world experiences.”
I also wrote it because the ground is shifting again. In 2003 I was convinced the mobile phone would become the main computer for the developing world. Today I see AI prompting a similar shift in how businesses are built and run. Founders need to prepare for both at once: growing into the CEO role, and leading through a technology change.
“Come, let’s explore these lessons together — and see yourself grow into the CEO your venture truly needs.”
The book is dedicated to my grandfathers, Sri V. Krishnaswamy Sarma (1908–1979), who founded LIFCO in 1929, and Sri S. Krishnaswamy (1908–2009).
The book, the keynotes and the advisory work
The book is where my advisory work and my AI keynotes meet. The first four parts are the founder-to-CEO questions I work through with founders and CXO teams. The fifth part is the AI conversation I have with business leaders on stage.
| Book part | Where it shows up in my work | Related talk |
|---|---|---|
| The Foundation · People | Founder & CEO advisory — senior hiring, leadership, saying no | Turning a technologist into a chief executive |
| Growth · Execution | Founder & CEO advisory — strategy, product direction, pricing, board readiness | The real fears founders carry in the age of AI |
| Future with AI (ch. 31–35) | AI keynotes & executive sessions | Responsible AI: risk, cost and the human touch |
What readers say
★★★★★
Honest and inspiring read
Really enjoyed reading The Founder Catalyst! It’s honest, practical, and filled with valuable lessons drawn from the author’s own journey and experience. A great companion for anyone navigating the ups and downs of building and leading a startup.
Akshai · reviewed in Canada · Verified purchase
★★★★★
A remarkable story, authentically told
Venkatarangan’s book is an absolute must-read! He shares authentic insights and wisdom from his remarkable business journey with refreshing honesty. Having had the privilege of witnessing parts of his path and knowing him personally, I wholeheartedly endorse this work.
Damir Tomicic · reviewed in Germany · Verified purchase
★★★★★
Empowering founders
This book is a game-changer for anyone looking to turn their ideas into reality. The advice is super practical and relatable, and one part that really stuck with me was the “Learning from Outages” section — it flips the script on setbacks, showing they’re opportunities for growth.
E. Ravi · reviewed in India · Verified purchase
Ideas from the book, continued
I keep returning to the book’s ideas in my weekly writing.
10 Sep 2025
16 Aug 2025
22 May 2026
Get the book
Amazon.com
Amazon (worldwide — resolves to your country)
Organising a leadership offsite or a founder cohort? Write to me at v@thefoundercatalyst.com about copies for your group. Want to read a chapter first? Download a free sample chapter (PDF).