TEDx, August 2026 — The tools we build, build us back.
Venkatarangan Thirumalai
I have spent more than thirty years in software, working from Chennai for customers around the world. I founded and ran a services and products company, co-founded an AI fintech venture, and have written three books. Today I do two things: I help business leaders understand what AI means for their business, and I help founders make the move from founder to chief executive.
Most people call me Venkat.
Who I am
Biography in brief
Venkatarangan Thirumalai is a TEDx speaker, technology entrepreneur and author with more than thirty years in software. In 1997 he founded Vishwak Solutions, which grew into a multi-million-dollar IT services firm with offices in Chennai, Seattle and London, serving enterprises in nine countries; he led it for two decades. He later co-founded docu3C, a fintech venture built on Azure AI. An Honorary Microsoft Regional Director since 1999 and an IEEE Senior Member, he speaks to leadership audiences on what generative AI means for business, and is the author of The Founder Catalyst and two Tamil books on technology.
What I do now
Speaking
Keynotes and closed-door sessions for leadership teams on what generative AI means for a business — in plain language, with real examples. Twenty-six cities across eleven countries, in English or Tamil.
Advisory
Working with founders and CXO teams on strategy, product direction, pricing, senior hiring and board readiness. I also advise boards, and invest as an angel in a small number of companies.
Writing
Three books, and a weekly newsletter, the Founder Catalyst Digest, on what AI means for leaders. I have blogged at venkatarangan.com since 2004.
Listen to the podcast I host on Spotify
Thirty years, one thread
Early 1990s
A family of books, and a first program
I grew up in a publishing family. My grandfather, Sri Krishnaswami Sarma, founded LIFCO in 1929; it became known for its English–Tamil dictionaries. My first real piece of software was an inventory system for a publishing house, written while I was still studying engineering at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering. Around 1994 I sat the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer exam, when very few people here knew what that was.
Late 1990s
Selling software to strangers
My first venture sold shareware and freeware — EasyPass, and tools under the Easytools.com name — to people in the United States, Europe and Australia who never saw my face or my city. This was years before anyone said “SaaS”. It taught me early that software written in Chennai could find customers anywhere.
Home base: Chennai, 2025.
1997–2016
Vishwak Solutions
Microsoft India saw our early web work and asked us to build for its MSN portal. That became Vishwak Solutions, which I founded in 1997 and led for two decades: offices in Chennai, Seattle and London, over 300 people across three continents, and clients in nine countries — among them Microsoft, for whose MSN portal we were an outsourced technology partner for more than a decade.
Our products arm built EasyStruct, a database tool used by organisations including NASA, and Simpligic, a news app personalised by machine learning, filed as a United States provisional patent in 2016 (62/343,406) — years before generative AI arrived.
I wore every hat in those years: founder, chief executive, coder, midnight server troubleshooter, salesman, financier and mentor.
“His company was truly great at delivering expected results in a timely manner, anytime.”
Ken Inoue
2017–today
The Founder Catalyst
Through Little Feet Services, I began working with founders and CXOs. I have been a CEO coach at Cynapta, makers of Cerebrata, later acquired by Kovai.co; a strategic adviser to Zumen; a technical adviser to Inspace; and an adviser to the chief executive of XR Labs. I am a mentor with Microsoft for Startups, and I lead the mentoring programme at TiE Chennai.
2019–2022
Starting again: docu3C
I co-founded docu3C in Seattle and Chennai, a fintech venture using Azure AI to rethink how companies work with the information locked inside their documents. Starting again, decades in, is a useful reminder of what founders actually go through.
2025–today
Writing it down
In 2025 I published The Founder Catalyst, a field guide to the founder-to-CEO journey. I have also written two Tamil books on technology: Nutpam (2023) and Seyaligalin Kathai (2026). The books
I have watched several technology shifts from the inside — the PC, the web, mobile, cloud, and now AI. The technology changes each time. The business questions are remarkably similar.
I have been early before. I have also been wrong.
Got it right
2003 — said the mobile phone would become the only computer most people in the developing world would ever own.
2016 — shipped a news app personalised by machine learning, and filed a US patent, years before ChatGPT.
2021 — said, before ChatGPT, that job roles would be turned upside down.
Got it wrong
2007 — said the iPhone would not succeed, because Apple was bullying its partners. I bought one in 2008 and have used one since.
2015 — wrote that phones in their current form would disappear by 2025. We are still holding glass slabs.
Roles and years
| Years | Role |
|---|---|
| 1994–2013 | Director, LIFCO Publishers — founded in 1929 by my grandfather, Sri Krishnaswami Sarma; long known for its English–Tamil and Tamil–English dictionaries. |
| 1997–2016 | Founder & CEO, Vishwak Solutions — Chennai · Seattle · London. Enterprises in nine countries; over 300 people. Products included EasyStruct and Simpligic. |
| 2016 | Creator, Simpligic — a news app using machine learning to personalise reading. US provisional patent 62/343,406. |
| 2017–present | Founder Catalyst, Little Feet Services Pvt. Ltd. — advising founders and CXOs. |
| 2018–2023 | Adviser to technology companies — CEO coach at Cynapta (Cerebrata, acquired by Kovai.co); strategic adviser to Zumen; technical adviser to Inspace; adviser to the CEO of XR Labs. |
| 2019–2022 | Co-founder, docu3C — Seattle & Chennai. A fintech venture using Azure AI. |
Books
Nutpam (நுட்பம்)
Tamil · 2023
Phones and computers explained in plain Tamil.
The Founder Catalyst
English · New Horizon Media, 2025
Real lessons to turn founders into chief executives, with stories from Microsoft, Tata, Nykaa, Airbnb and Ogilvy.
Seyaligalin Kathai (செயலிகளின் கதை)
Tamil · 2026
The stories behind fifty-two mobile apps.
All three are on Amazon India and Amazon.com. More about the books
Over three decades for Tamil
When I started, we had to persuade global software companies to include Tamil at all. A large part of my work outside business has gone into changing that — first into the standards and institutions that made Tamil work on every device, and now into carrying a classical language into the AI era.
- INFITT (உத்தமம்), 2000–2010 — among the founding team in 2000; chaired its working group on Tamil and Unicode; elected Vice-Chairman for 2008–2009, and as Chairman conducted the Tamil Internet Conference 2010 in Coimbatore.
- 2010 — member of the Government of Tamil Nadu committee on Tamil Unicode, whose report the Government accepted: Unicode became the main encoding for Tamil in all applications. It closed more than a decade of argument over Tamil encoding.
- 2022 — member, Technical Advisory Committee, Tamil Virtual Academy.
- 2023 — Advisory Committee, கணித்தமிழ்24 (Kani Tamil 2024); part of the work towards the Tamil Virtual Academy’s memorandum of understanding with AI Singapore, makers of the SEA-LION open model family, on training for Tamil.
- 2025 — member of the Tamil Digital Library committee. The Academy’s improved digital library — printed books, journals, palm-leaf manuscripts, inscriptions and copper plates — was launched on 8 August 2025. That material will matter a great deal to Tamil AI models.
- 2025– — part of the small team behind Sapien Geno, a YouTube channel explaining AI in plain Tamil, carefully and without sensation.
The full record is in the Tamil computing edition of my profile. Download (PDF)
Beyond the business
I am an adviser to the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation — House of Kalam, Rameswaram — set up by his family in 2015 to carry his work forward in education, innovation, water and the environment. I am a charter member of TiE Chennai.
I have blogged at venkatarangan.com since 2004 and have published over 5,000 posts, read by nearly three million people. The writing spans technology, entrepreneurship and everyday life — most of it written with a hot cup of Madras filter coffee and Tamil film songs in the background.
Recognition and education
- Microsoft Regional Director (Honorary), since 1999 — an independent, unpaid role; I am not a Microsoft employee
- Microsoft MVP, Visual Developer – Solutions Architect, 2007
- IEEE Senior Member; board member, IEEE Computer Society Madras Chapter
- Charter Member, TiE Chennai
- Mentor, Microsoft for Startups
- Innovation in Business Award, 2024
- B.E., Electronics & Communication Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, University of Madras
தமிழில்
தி.ந.ச. வெங்கடரங்கன்: செயற்கை நுண்ணறிவுப் பேச்சாளர், “செயலிகளின் கதை” உட்பட மூன்று நூல்களின் ஆசிரியர், தலைமை நிர்வாகிகளுக்கான ஆலோசகர், சேப்பியன் ஜீனோ யு-ட்யூப் ஓடைப் பேச்சாளர்.
Get in touch
v@thefoundercatalyst.com · WhatsApp +91 91760 42674 · LinkedIn · YouTube · My personal blog since 2004
Organisers: everything you need to announce a session — photographs, bios and technical details — is on the speaker kit.