Building a High Growth Vertical AI Company in Healthcare: Ganesh Padmanabhan, CEO of Autonomize AI (Part 1)

Ganesh has executed on a textbook case study of building a vertical AI company in Healthcare with a clear human-in-the-loop strategy that VCs are salivating over. Read on, much to learn.

Sramana Mitra: Alright, Ganesh, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Tell me where you’re from, where you’re raised, and what kind of background.

Ganesh Padmanabhan: Sramana, thank you so much for inviting me to the platform. I’m excited to be here. I grew up in Kerala in southern India in a tiny city or town called Palakkad. It’s very famous for being stuck in the 1970’s and 1960’s. It’s a very culturally rich environment. I grew up in a fairly lower middle-class household. I went to school there; I learned a lot about resilience and how you can build a better life for yourself by being inspired by everything and being grounded on a lot of things around Eastern philosophy and things like that.

So, that was my upbringing. I grew up there. I spent all my formative schooling years in Palakkad, did four years of college in Kerala, and then was at Bangalore for a little bit, and then came to the US and have been here in Austin, Texas for the last 19 years. It’s the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere.

Sramana Mitra: Did you come to the US for studies or to work?

Ganesh Padmanabhan:I actually came here for work, but I did try to come here for studies a few different times. I was graduating from my undergrad in 2001. Then 9/11 happened, which delayed my admission. I thought I’ll take a year before I come in for my master’s in the US. I got admission, but I found work and I thought it was more fun and I wanted to continue working.

Five years later, I came here for work. I used to work for a company called Adaptec, which was a dot com company in the 2000’s. They moved me to Orlando, Florida, and I spent about a year there, met a professor there at UCF Orlando who said to me, “I’m going to pay you as much as you’re making,”; because I wasn’t making much. He said I’ll give you a PhD if you work for me for five years.

I said, “Yes, let’s do it.”

I went back to India and changed my visa type. Iwas planning to come back, but then I started dating a girl. That was the end of my PhD. That didn’t happen. She is actually my wife of 17 years right now. So that worked out. I made the right call.

Sramana Mitra: Worthwhile trade off.

Ganesh Padmanabhan: Exactly. Then I came here again for work. I joined Intel and then Dell. Dell moved me to Austin. Then while I was working, I did my executive MBA at McComb School of Business, University of Texas.

So, I did end up studying here in the US as well, but it was a roundabout way of getting to it.

Sramana Mitra: Okay. So, before I dive into your professional story, I’m going to tell you a little story about Kerala. In 2012, Kerala was doing TiEcon, and they invited me to give the keynote, and I accepted that because I wanted to see Kerala. My husband and I went to Kerala for that particular agenda. We spent a beautiful week in Kerala and absolutely loved it. Very, very nice memories.

Ganesh Padmanabhan: It is still God’s own country. There is still a lot of beauty around it. It’s still not super touristy, at least not all places, right? There’s so many little nooks and crevices within. Kerala has diverse places to go visit. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I try to get back at least once a year, maybe a couple of times a year.

Sramana Mitra: Okay. Well, you described your journey up till this point. What year does that bring us up to?

Ganesh Padmanabhan: Let me revisit that. I graduated from college in 2001, spent about three to four years. Bangalore is where I got my first job at Adaptec. I was here for a year. I was back in India in 2005 to go through that Visa swap. I stayed in India till end of 2007. I joined Dell in 2007. I ended up spending 11 years at Dell. I grew up from engineering to product, to sales. I was a general manager for one of the fastest growing businesses. Then I finally left Dell in 2016.

Then I tried to start a company which led to a larger company aqui-hiring me. I ended up joining them as their head of growth. I got into startups ever since. I joined as an early member of another startup after that called Molecula, and then founded Autonomize, where I’m the Founder CEO right now, about three and a half years ago.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Building a High Growth Vertical AI Company in Healthcare: Ganesh Padmanabhan, CEO of Autonomize AI
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