My guest today is L.A. Balamurugan, known as Bala. With extensive experience in software development, he now plays the role of a delivery coach.

In this conversation filled with nuggets from his experience, Bala shares his career journey from a computer science degree in the early 1990s to roles at HCL, Perot Systems in the US, and Manugistics.

After earning a master’s in information systems and software engineering from George Mason University, he joined HP Labs in Bangalore as an R&D project/program manager on HP OpenView and became involved in early Agile/Scrum adoption and scaling.

He later launched a boutique consulting firm and co-founded BookMyTrainings.com (a training marketplace), grew it with angel funding, and expanded into payment collection and L&D program management before COVID led to winding it down.

He then spent about seven years as an Agile coach and recently published a startup-focused book, "What I Wish I Knew Before Starting Up," covering founder blind spots, idea alignment, co-founder choices, and emotional resilience.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

00:30 Early Career at HCL

01:53 Textile Systems Tech Stack

02:28 US Onsite Perot Systems

03:41 Supply Chain at Manugistics

05:20 Return to India and Masters

06:13 HP Labs and Agile Shift

08:10 Entrepreneurship Leap

08:57 Building BookMyTrainings

10:23 Payments and Revenue Model

11:52 SAFe Training and Coaching

13:43 COVID Impact and Book Writing

16:22 Learning New Domains Fast

19:03 Dual Hat PM and Scrum

22:48 Two Sided Marketplace Insights

25:03 Training Pain Points

26:05 Building Trust Platform

26:53 Win Win Marketplace

29:26 AI In Learning Paths

32:06 Agile Culture Vs Delivery

34:49 Writing Startup Book

40:08 Career Tips In AI Era

44:47 Co Founder Dilemma

47:24 Staying Grounded

49:56 Closing Thoughts

L. A. Balamurugan, or Bala, began his career as a computer science engineer, studying in India and later completing his Master’s in the USA. After sixteen years building software products and leading teams, he moved into entrepreneurship, founding multiple ventures including BookMyTrainings, a well known training marketplace in India. Following the pandemic and the closure of the startup, Bala now works as a Delivery Coach helping software teams deliver better products faster. His entrepreneurial journey inspired his book, What I Wish I Knew Before I Started: A Founder’s Guide to Understanding One’s Blind Spots and Equipping Before Venturing.

Bala’s Linkedin profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/labmurugan

Link to his book: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GFNP7NTG

In this episode, I am in conversation with Rajesh Sharma, co-founder and chief product officer of ProHance. Rajesh covers a lot of ground starting from his move from Public Sector to SaaS Founder.

Rajesh describes his path from a modest middle-class upbringing in Shimla and a mechanical engineering degree to a stable career at HPCL, then a major career reset into software after quitting his public-sector job to take an IBM course and restarting as a trainee. He later co-founded JaMocha Tech (now ProHance) in 2009 with co-founder Kiran, backed early by angel investor Sudhir Sharma, aiming to build a world-class software product from India. After experimenting with multiple products and learning that market feedback matters more than expert opinions, they focused on ProHance, a horizontal work visibility and effectiveness platform, now with 250+ customers in 23 countries, ~200+ employees, and a private equity majority investor. He emphasizes the importance of complementary co-founders, supportive family, direct founder-customer feedback loops, profitability and frugality, outcome ownership, and adopting AI internally and in-product.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

01:00 Origin Story and Courage

02:10 From Shimla to Bangalore

04:22 Quitting HPCL for IT

07:06 Starting the Company

11:06 Why Team Matters

14:02 Family Support System

16:56 Finding Product Market Fit

18:45 Choosing the Winning Product

23:18 Selling a Horizontal SaaS

24:31 Business Meets Tech

25:48 Customer Value Mindset

27:36 Product Decisions and Risk

30:36 Start Small MVP

33:01 Founder Led Feedback Loop

35:28 Scaling Global Teams

36:05 Leaders From Customers

39:16 AI Adoption and Roadmap

46:03 Staying Grounded Values

50:21 Parting Advice Start Now

Rajesh Sharma is a first-generation entrepreneur and the co-founder of ProHance, a highly successful, self-funded, profitable SaaS startup built from the ground up in Bangalore, India.

Born and raised in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, Rajesh earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering from MNIT, Jaipur. He began his professional journey with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), one of India’s leading public sector oil and gas companies.

After over 12 years at HPCL, Rajesh identified the rising potential of the IT sector and made a strategic career transition in 2000, moving from a stable corporate role to the technology industry as a software engineer. He gained practical experience in software product development with companies including Network Solutions, International Decision Systems, and JSoft.

In 2009, Rajesh co-founded JaMocha Tech with Kishore Reddy (later renamed ProHance) where he leveraged his techno-functional expertise to build a profitable, debt-free SaaS enterprise. Today, ProHance stands as a global platform with over 200 enterprise customers and an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of around $18 million. In December 2023, ChrysCapital acquired a 75% stake in ProHance, fuelling its next phase of global expansion across regions such as the Philippines, Australia, and South America.

Throughout his career, he has consistently embraced roles beyond his core expertise, applying a hands-on, practical approach that combines on-the-job learning with sound judgment. This rare combination has shaped him into a leader with deep insight into both the business and technical aspects of running any enterprise.

Rajesh continues to be deeply involved with ProHance, now serving as its Chief Product Officer (CPO) after transitioning from his earlier role as COO. In this capacity, he continues to drive ProHance’s product vision, innovation, and technology roadmap—while mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs and builders navigating their own zero-to-one journeys.

Contact info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajesh-sharma-12298447

Host: Chitra Gurjar

• 4 decades and counting, always energized to do something, work is my DNA
• From post and telegraph to giving tuitions to creating her own agency to study
• An advocate for herself, nurturing her desire to serve
• Turning away “assured” job offers to join Defence Labs as a Scientist at CABS
• Moved onto a “lesser assurance” to join HP
• People and culture at the heart of her 3+decade stay at HP
• Challenging status quo, try and fail, Innovation has to be a part of one’s daily life
• Stay focused on problems that you are solving and layer tools and technology to solve your problem
• Focus on incremental delivery of value
• Holding a people vision through the course of her work
• Strong belief that “AI will improve the quality of jobs”
• Learning is a constant - continue to build
• Apply training and learning programs intentionally
• Working on a market analysis - next gen quoter
• Strong belief on impact of AI on Healthcare and Education
• Believing that coaching is something everyone should learn, enable people as answers lie within each one
• Working with a non-profit Daksham skills and Dreams Designs



Arundathi has been working in technology and leadership related roles for the last 40+ years. She

started her career as a Scientist at Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, India.

While at DRDO, she was involved in development of Radar transmitter and controller systems.

Arundathi joined Hewlett Packard in 1996 and during her 27+ year career in HP and HPE, she has

worked in multiple roles across various business units. Under her leadership, HP rolled out multiple

market leading internet services related products on HPUX. She was on one of the key leader

responsible for setting up Global IT teams offshore centre in India in 2004. She has managed a team

of 3000+ technologists delivering for IT, across multiple technologies and multiple business areas

enabling HP(E)’s business. She has successfully lead and delivered multiple IT transformation

projects. She has also lead the people transformation to move towards digital technologies in

alignment with the market trends and business needs. She has had a short stint of 2 years at EY as

the Engineering leader for India, in Client Technology, building on Product engineering and delivery

capability. In the recent past she was the Global Program Manager for HPE’s industry leading Next

Generation IT transformation program. She leads the Global Delivery Services organisation, which is

the internal the delivery engine for GIT. She is also the India leader for HPE’s Global IT.

Arundathi has led several initiatives in people transformation towards digital transformation,

customer centricity and employee engagement. She is passionate about building teams and leaders

who are future proof and future safe. She has a strong passion towards building women leaders in

technology and mentored and coached many women through focussed initiatives. She has also had

a stint as the chairperson at HP for Prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace.

Arundathi has as Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics from Government

College of Technology, Coimbatore and Master of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology,

Madras (IITM). She is a certified coach.

During her free time, Arundathi loves to teach, coach, travel and read.