Show Notes

In this episode of Career Downloads, Manuel Martinez sits down with Pradeep Pulipati, founder and CEO of Tropoleap, a cloud AI and cybersecurity company. Pradeep shares his remarkable journey from discovering ham radio in ninth grade to becoming a technology leader and entrepreneur.

Key Discussion Points:

• 
  
• Pradeep’s introduction to technology through ham radio and how it sparked his passion for wireless communication
  
• His educational path through electronics engineering and the transition to virtualization technology
  
• Experience as an early VMware expert when virtualization was still a novel concept
  
• Leadership philosophy developed through managing multiple engineering teams
  
• The importance of encouraging continuous learning and skill development in tech team
  
• Why solving business problems should be the focus of technology implementation
  
• His “T.O.P.” framework: aligning Talent, Organizational needs, and Passion
  
• The significance of transparency in leadership and team management
  
• Journey to entrepreneurship and founding Tropoleap
  
• Insights on career development and professional growth in technology
  

Notable Quotes:

“Their resume should always be up to date, as in not just updating the dates, but updating your skillset. Because you could very well be an administrator of something for 10 years, you wake up one day, and the technology might not exist that day.”

“Art of the possible and fail fast, recover fast – those are the two cornerstones for how I go about my life today.”

Connect with Pradeep:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pradeeppulipati/

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#CareerDownloads #TechCareers #Leadership #CloudComputing #AITechnology

Transcript

Manuel: Welcome everyone, my name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads, where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about their background, their career, and just the different things that they’ve done to kind of navigate their career over time to really be able to pull out actionable advice for you to go through and use as you’re managing your own career. So for today’s episode, I have with me Pradeep Pulapati and he has a very interesting background. We have crossed paths through a VMware User Group. I’ve kind of seen some of the different areas that he’s been involved with and, you know, we’ll get into kind of what he’s doing now. He’s ventured on into his own business. So I think these are all things that are really interesting and, you know, will be valuable to people. So with that, I’ll introduce Pradeep. So hey Pradeep.

Pradeep: Hey, hey Manny.

Manuel: Appreciate you coming on.

Pradeep: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Manuel: Of course. And really, so what I’ve been doing with all of my guests is if you can just to start off, give us your current role and some of the, you know, just a summary of the responsibilities and then eventually we’ll kind of lead into how you got there.

Pradeep: Yeah, absolutely. I’m founder and CEO at Tropoleap. We are a cloud AI and cybersecurity company. It’s been about close to 18 months since I started this company and have been working in the gaming industry, have been helping clients outside of the gaming industry, both in healthcare, financial services, so on and so forth.

Manuel: So now let’s kind of go back and we’ll kind of lead into what eventually led you to kind of, you know, opening your own business, but really give me an understanding of kind of some of your background, like basically where you grew up and then eventually what kind of got you interested into technology.

Pradeep: Sure, yeah. I come from India, the southern part of India called, it’s a state called Andhra Pradesh and I’ve come from a city called Vijayawada, very close to Hyderabad, which is the kind of the Silicon Valley of India, so to speak now. So I think my first love with technology was when I was introduced to ham radio. So I was actually, my dad actually got me into ham radio when I was in my ninth grade. So that was my first passion for wireless technology. I was just amazed by how interestingly you can communicate between people across the world using the satellite because if I’m in ninth grade, that was ages ago, there were no cell phones. The only way to communicate with another person is your landline, right? Seeing that at home and going to a place where now this person is using satellite to communicate to another person that’s on the other side of the world was really unimaginable. That’s what got me very interested in wireless communication. That’s my first love with technology, I would say.

Manuel: And then, so how long did you use that ham radio and is it something that you still kind of continue today or eventually just with all the responsibilities eventually kind of fell?

Pradeep: Yeah, like anything else, when I came to the U.S., one of the hurdles was for me to re -certify because as a ham radio operator, you have to go through an exam, like two exams back in India to certify and the wireless planning commission of India will give you a certificate saying you’re authorized to use the ham radio because as a ham radio operator, you can get on to bandwidths that are sensitive as well. So you have to go through thorough background checks, so on and so forth before you can use it. But now I think things are a little bit more open. So like anything else, I think it kind of went back into the background as I was getting more focused on education and career. But recently I introduced my son to ham radio, so he just picked up Morse code, so he can actually go through the Morse code by himself now and then comes the electronic circuitry portion of it that he needs to learn. But yeah, I’m still trying to keep it alive in the family.

Manuel: Oh, that’s awesome. So then, you know, this is in ninth grade and you mentioned you continued on with your education. So when you discovered ham radio, is this something that eventually kind of led you down towards looking at an IT career? Did you kind of go to college, start working?

Pradeep: Yeah, so in India, it’s typical for your parents to want you to either become an engineer or a doctor. It’s a very stereotypical thing, but that is the reality, at least back in the day. And I chose to become an engineer and I went into electronics and communications for my bachelor’s degree. And that’s where satellite communication, wireless communication and the electronic circuitry that goes into all of it really got my attention. And that was my bachelor’s, was my turning point and truly embracing the technology aspect.

Manuel: So your bachelor’s, is it you were taking classes on the technology side of it or as part of the engineering, like how did that kind of…

Pradeep: It’s a very structured curriculum. So we start off with semiconductor design, we go into electronics, then we go into communication. So there’s a lot of math in the first one and a half years, but after that, it gradually becomes more networking, I would say, is the key part. So if you ask me in a way, fundamentals for my technology career, I would say are around semiconductors and networking.

Manuel: As you’re kind of picking all this up and you’re starting to get an interest, now you’re getting the formal education at this point where you’re starting to have an idea of where you might want to take your career or did it kind of take a little while after graduation.

Pradeep: Yeah, that’s an interesting question because like I said, my original love was wireless communication. But then once I started reading about or studying semiconductors and designing or programming microprocessors, so I was writing assembly code with 8086 microprocessors. So that got me into the computer aspects of technology, from the communication. Networking wireless communication was one part, but this was the most attractive part, being able to write any program you want in an assembly language and actually see the microprocessor execute that program, it kind of gives you a thrill. And that kind of was like, well, what is next? What is the next path once you go past assembly language? So that was kind of my, I would say, path into technology.

Manuel: Was it something where you thought, okay, I want to be a programmer at that point? Is that kind of, you said, you know, that got you into technology?

Pradeep: Yeah, interestingly enough, what fascinated me more was not the program that I was writing, but this amazing piece of hardware that’s capable of understanding what you’ve written and executing. So my mind went, well, how does someone design a microprocessor? How does someone design a chip? So that led me into my master’s degree, which was about embedded systems, VLSI, so chip design and manufacturing.

Manuel: Interesting. So you were really like, hey, I need to know it from the get go, like how this all works.

Pradeep: Absolutely.

Manuel: Awesome. And then so that master’s degree program, a lot of times, is there a thesis around that and kind of what was the thing that you really wanted to kind of design your thesis around and really understand?

Pradeep: Yeah, I mean, so I would say probably my, rather than thesis, I would say, it was a project that was much more, much more cooler. So what we did was something called audio and video digital water marking. So the idea behind that was, and this was, gosh, 20 years ago, maybe, or a little more than that, was where you transmit a signal, audio or video, but there is an underlying audio or video signal hidden in that signal. So that is digital water marking. So we used, we basically programmed that onto the analog digital signal processors back in the day. So that was the more cool part. So we’re talking spy encryption 20 years ago.

Manuel: That’s pretty cool. And all that you just kind of developed on your own and kind of just.

Pradeep: Yeah, there was a lot of research. And I think from a master’s program, that’s something that I really enjoyed, which is unlike in your bachelor’s, where you get quote, unquote, fed everything, master’s was more about, here is what the art of the possible is. Now you go research, right? So that really opened up some of the, I would say, pathways, neutral pathways to want to go and see what’s out there and see what problems are out there that you could probably solve.

Manuel: So now that you’ve got your masters and you really understand, you know, the microprocessor and you’re really trying to figure out that this is seems to be a passion of yours at this point. Where did you decide that you wanted to kind of start your career? Was it you just started putting out applications at different places? How did that work?

Pradeep: Actually, that’s an interesting story because when I did my master’s, right, the major part of the coursework was embedded systems programming and chip design, VLSI, so on and so forth. But there is another aspect or another set of credits that were purely networking. So think of your CCNA, CCNP type coursework, right? My love was with the embedded systems program part of it. After master’s, I had a couple of interviews, got through the interviews, but I couldn’t get a job because both of those positions were requiring C level security clearance. And as an immigrant, you won’t have that kind of a clearance. So at one point, I’m like, well, I don’t think this is going to pan out. So I started leaning towards the networking aspect of it because the job market is less security based or security clearance based when it comes to networking. So went into networking, started into network administration, so to speak, as part of an internship program. And that was my, I would say, first job after master’s.

Manuel: And this is still in India, correct?

Pradeep: No, master’s was here in Cal State, Chico.

Manuel: Oh, okay. So then after you got your bachelor’s degree in India, then you went and decided to continue your master’s degree here.

Pradeep: Yeah. So what happened was after my bachelor’s degree, I had an opportunity to work for a very big telecom company, like a telecom giant in India. So I was actually responsible for providing primary lines, primary lease lines is what you call them, essentially T1 connectivity to corporate companies through this telecom giant. So we’re talking everything that I’ve studied in engineering, I was seeing it in practice, fiber optics cables, fiber optic cables that get terminated at an end, and then you have up this huge multiplexer, and then you design a redundant fiber network ring for this telecom company. So I was really enjoying that part of it. And then due to, due to certain circumstances, I’m like, well, I think it’s time to pursue higher education. That’s when I came here to do the master’s and after master’s, I started off and I would say I didn’t spend a lot of time in the networking part, because that’s when VMware started to emerge as a technology.

Manuel: Got it. So then you still have, you know, that’s pretty interesting that you were able to get that internship, develop a lot of that hands on experience, right? Because a lot of times, you know, you go through all this course work, and then it takes a while to, you know, to kind of be able to pick up some of those skills and, you know, the experience. So then now you’re here, you’re obviously learning about VMware. And that exposure is that just, you know, as you’re kind of going to school, was it just things that you were reading about playing around, like how did VMware really get introduced to you? I’m assuming at some point it was kind of probably your first job, you know, coming out of your master’s.

Pradeep: Absolutely. In fact, yeah, the very first job that I got out of master’s was about virtualization, more specifically VMware. So while I was interning at this company, there were others that were actually working as systems engineers and system administrators at the company that said, hey, just so you know, there is a new technology that’s coming out, we are also trying to understand. And remember when VMware came out with their very first GSX, if you remember that, it was hard to explain the concept of virtualization. So if you have to go explain it to somebody, even at that point, even if you have to go explain it to a technical individual, it was a hard concept to grasp because you were telling them that, yes, you can run a server inside a server. In fact, you can run multiple servers inside one physical server. And they would look at you like crazy. Are you crazy? How can you do that? So that was very fascinating to me, because as part of my networking internship, there is a lot of exposure into storage area network as well, because you have to configure the HBAs, you have to configure, there is a certain aspect of networking, even with storage, storage subsystems. So I felt like virtualization kind of brought all of it together, the networking component, the storage aspect and the server aspect. So I started liking it and I started researching more. And at the time, there was a very, very good forum that was building up. The VMware user forum was, it was a beautiful forum where you can ask questions and you get some really good responses back from the community, a very vibrant community. So that’s kind of how I got into virtualization.

Manuel: And I would agree with you there. I remember that early time. So I heard about it around the GSX times. I didn’t actually start getting an experience until version three. And even then, like to your point, it was hard to kind of conceptualize this. And a lot of times we take it for granted. Like even now, when people explain cloud, like it’s been around for a while, but originally when the cloud came out, it was just, it’s a concept that, well, wait a minute, like I’m not really paying for it. I don’t own it. But with VMware, and the thing that I found fascinating is, similar to you said, like, hey, you can run multiple VMs in here. And then when they introduced vMotion, like that was to me, I just, I didn’t understand, like, how are you moving something from one physical piece of hardware to another, you know, almost no downtime, right? You might lose a ping packet or something there. But the community was a big thing. And that, for a while, you know, documentation probably wasn’t as prevalent at that time. So you were relying on other people and just asking questions like, Hey, I’m running into this problem. Has anybody else seen it? And, you know, you’re reading forums, posting your questions.

Pradeep: Absolutely.

Manuel: And did you pick up a good portion of your knowledge there, combined with the hands on experience?

Pradeep: Yeah, I think, I think it was a combination of three things. One was at the time they had the, I believe it’s called the install and configure boot camp or something. It was like a five day thing. So that was very valuable, because it was instructional instructor led training, along with a lot of very hardcore hands on lab. And then the community was a quintessential part of truly applying what you’ve learned, translating it into a real design. And the third one I would say was a little bit of exploration and experimentation, right? You have, if you have the opportunity, you would want to configure a couple of things and see how things would actually behave. You know, you might think that enabling vMotion is going to solve one thing. It’s probably causing some kind of a performance issue if you don’t have the right storage subsystem underneath, right? So things like that. So there was a little bit of experimentation, I would say. Now, I would want to say that documentation was, was decent from a user administration perspective. But to really strategize and design, I would say that boot camp and the community were quintessential portions.

Manuel: So now combining both of you, you know, these technologies, right? Because you have to obviously bring in the network piece, you’re bringing in the storage piece. And as you’re talking to these other administrators, were they, was that your role or were they kind of bringing you in and you just kind of took an interest to kind of work with them?

Pradeep: So by the time I was, I was provided this opportunity to come in, it was really to come in as a VMware expert. Because by the time I already completed my VCP, VCP 3.0, it was a long time ago, but I was already certified and there were probably maybe handful or maybe handful might be exaggeration. Maybe there’s less than 30 people in the entire country that actually had the VCP certification at the time. So having that certification kind of validated you as an expert in virtualization. But to get to that point, like I said, there was a lot of exploratory work that I did, a lot of experimentation, a lot of learning that I did to be able to get certified. So I was brought in as a VMware expert into my first job, actually. And then as you’re, you know, set yourself apart as an expert, right? Especially in that time like I said, there’s only, like I said, 30, maybe 50 at most. And when you got certified, did you intentionally go through and say, okay, if I get their certification because of the scarcity of it, this is going to open up doors for me? Or was it something that as part of just going through the hands-on training and just learning and understanding, it was more just, well, I’ll do it just to do it?

Pradeep: No, it was purely a strategic move. Because when you do talk within the community and when you do go to these boot camps, you will understand the demand there is, right? You will understand the trajectory of this solution or this technology. So I could clearly see that if you want to ride the wave, that was the time. And to do that, to set yourselves apart from everybody else, you have to do that certifications. Because at the time, there were a lot of people with networking certifications, with UNIX certifications, with storage certifications, but there aren’t a lot of people with virtualization certifications. So that definitely was a strategic move on my part to set myself apart from the crowd.

Manuel: So then they kind of bring you in as the expert. And you’re obviously being pretty strategic with your career now, like understanding like, hey, there’s areas where I can kind of set myself apart. And as you’re now the architect, what did you kind of decide that you wanted to do with your career at that point? Like, did you kind of grow within that role for a while? Did you kind of decide, let me see what else is out there? Like, how did you kind of decide to manage that moving forward?

Pradeep: Yeah. So after that first job, that was kind of contract job that ended. And that’s when I got the opportunity to bring all of the expertise from a design perspective to a company here in Vegas. So I was already really good at designing.

Manuel: So prior to that, you were still in California?

Pradeep: Actually, it was based in East Coast. After my master’s, the internship and the first job opportunity was on East Coast in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, more specifically. After that was when the Las Vegas gig started with IGT at the time. And I was already designing enterprise systems. But when I did come into IGT, there was a lot of work to be done from ground up to design the whole thing. So I thought that was perfect for my skill set at the time, perfect for what I wanted to do. And that’s when I really started enjoying the architecture aspect of it. I mean, it’s a great thing to be able to install, configure, see the cluster come up and have seamless vMotion between the server, so on and so forth. But designing a solution, taking into consideration the requirements of the client, that’s when the seed was planted in my head that the road I want to go towards was solution architecture. And I’ve always had the opportunity to kind of define my role to be that. And that all of that came along with this expertise, right? Because if you don’t have this expertise and this knowledge, there is no way you’ll be able to get to an architectural type position. So it was crucial, every step of the way was crucial to be able to get to that. Okay, I want to be in a solution architecture role.

Manuel: Being in that solution architecture role, especially coming here to Vegas and getting to do more of that design work that solutions design, you’ve set yourself apart as one of a few. Now, people are probably starting to pick them up a little bit more, but you’re still pretty unique within the industry. And as you kind of decided to come over to Las Vegas and work for IGT, was it really the experience and the type of role that they were trying to go? Or was it also are you being recruited because you have this skill set? So I’m just curious to find out what the mindset is. Are they coming after you? Because at this point, you’re still more of a unicorn, or is it now you’re like, well, I am this unicorn. Now I can kind of go pick and choose what I want to do.

Pradeep: Yeah, it was the former. So at the time, IGT had a couple different technologies they were using to deploy customer facing systems. And they wanted to really embrace virtualization. And so they were actually looking for virtualization experts, which is how I got the opportunity. So I was kind of fortunate because I had this opportunity to really design everything from ground up.

Manuel: So you get in here, you’re starting to kind of build everything up. What was their team around you? Were you just kind of put in directly as a lead and said, okay, hey, it’s free reign for you to kind of design and kind of determine the path forward? Were you working with the team? Kind of what was that dynamic?

Pradeep: Yeah, so I wouldn’t say it was free reign because I came in as a contractor, as a consultant. So I wasn’t a full time employee, but I was working with other systems engineers. I think the biggest part was a lot of bringing awareness to what it means to embrace virtualization at the time, because one of the things was, well, how does Microsoft licensing work? Because everybody had to rethink how Microsoft licensing would work with virtualization. So there was a lot of, I would say, awareness that I had to bring in, a lot of information I had to bring in to the team so they could actually understand how it would change their existing agreements, their existing models, their existing budgeting that they have to do. Right? So I think working with the team on those aspects was actually probably the coolest part of it.

Manuel: Not only that, but you’re also having to figure out, you know, those types of requirements. Now, one of the things for people who may not be aware, so IGT is a gaming technology, and when we say gaming, we mean casino gaming. So they’re using basically their technology to kind of power the back end of slot machines. So it’s not just you’re building the system there for IGT for their internal, but this is actually going to IGT’s customers to their properties. So there’s probably also a lot of, you know, requirements gathering that you have to get, not just, you know, hey, what’s the licensing, but also, you know, what’s the number of, you know, machines that are going to be at what’s the size of the property? What are we supporting? So that probably, you know, you’re probably having to do a lot of information gathering there. Are you also kind of acting as a project manager through that point? Or are you specifically just doing the design and say, okay, this is the design for this business, and this is the one for this other business?

Pradeep: Yeah, so my role basically evolved from building internal systems to building customer facing systems. I was brought in as a consultant to build the internal systems on virtualization. But then after I proved myself, I was given the opportunity to work there full time and slowly evolved into a solution architecture role that I always wanted it to be. And we were now designing customer facing server racks. At that time, the biggest thing was what we what we used to call site surveys. And the idea behind that is exactly that requirements gathering, right? And now you have to design and build a system to integrate into something that’s already existing. Now keep in mind, this was, again, this was 15 years ago, 15, 16 years ago, networking or network architectures were not as sophisticated as they are today in the gaming industry. Back in the day, the network systems were very rudimentary. So you had to ensure that you’re not introducing any complexity to the existing network. And you have to make sure that you’re not introducing any duplicate, let’s say IP addresses into the existing network. So your design had to be spot on. Because if you do one small mistake, once you integrate this new rack, it could bring the entire casino down because there is one duplicate IP somewhere.

Manuel: And this is probably the perfect combination. I mean, you already touched on it before, right? But, you know, especially having to go in there with the duplicate, duplicate IPs as you understand networking, you’ve understanding the storage. So this is, it really sounds like it’s the perfect combination of all of the skill sets that you’ve come to acquire and learn over time.

Pradeep: Absolutely. I definitely think I was fortunate enough to be able to apply my educational background and my, and my experience into something real time.

Manuel: When you are in that role, is there anything, you know, you’ve proved yourself as a contractor, you came in and now you got hired on as this solutions architect. And what was kind of the growth process there? So I mean, I know you were there for quite a bit, but I can’t imagine that for that period of time, you just stayed within that role. At some point, you know, as the technology is mature, you know, probably also the team start to develop and you know, you’re helping educate, what does that kind of transform your role into because sounds like you’ve been pretty strategic in understanding kind of what you want to do. How did you kind of decide to take your career forward? Or did you have a plan in mind?

Pradeep: Definitely, there is a plan in mind, but it is dependent on so many things. What, what actually happened was after about three and a half years of my time there, I was given the opportunity to actually lead a team of engineers. And that grew into managing two teams of engineers and then grew into managing three teams of engineers. So one, one team of engineers were going out on the field and doing the installations. The other team of engineers I was managing, they were purely building these systems, designing and building these systems in house. And the third team of engineers were responsible for regulatory submissions and whatnot from a technology perspective. So it, it, I would say it grew from a contractor to managing multiple systems engineers at one point in time.

Manuel: And going through the management track, is that something that you felt that you wanted to do? Because we’ve, most people always get to that fork, right? We either stay as the individual contributor and stay technical or, you know, not that you can’t remain technical on the managerial side, but it’s a lot less. So was that a conscious decision or is it something that, you know, you said, well, let me try it out and see if I want to do the management route versus, you know, the, you know, kind of the more technical side.

Pradeep: Yeah, I think I want to say the evolution was a bit more natural. I wasn’t entirely shooting for that position. But there was always an innate desire to be in management, more specifically technical management, right? Because I was always, I was always worried about being a manager without technical skills, but trying to manage a technical team, then that’s a perfect example for an imposter syndrome when, when your team, they’re all technical and then you’re, you being the immediate manager, if you’re not technical, how do you exactly inspire your team? How do you exactly guide your team? How do you exactly lead your team? So to me, being in a technical management role was very important, not just people manager. So again, fortunately, that, that role, I was able to kind of mold that role or mold that role into a technical managerial role. And my challenge was personally given, I gave myself a personal challenge to ensure that I always knew as much as my engineers, if not more.

Manuel: Were there any challenges that you faced as far as kind of leading and managing, right? Because it sounds like from the technical aspect, you know, you want to stand on top of it, you’re very curious, right? Like that’s one of the things that in the time that we’ve kind of known each other in the interactions, like I can tell that you have like that thirst for knowledge. And it sounds like, you know, especially now understanding, you know, your masters and all that, like I see it, right? It was innate and it’s been there. But now from a managerial standpoint, were there any challenges as far as kind of being a manager? Because I had a brief stint and management. And again, it was that technical management, I only had a small team, it was like three or four people. But then at some point, you know, like some of the challenges I had was leading that team, right? It’s, there’s a balance, especially when you’ve, you’re trying to understand, you know, like I have my director that’s kind of giving information this way, you’re kind of in the middle, right? And you have the technical team and you’re trying to, you know, balance, you know, well, this is things that we have to do that are being mandated, but then also kind of relaying upstream, like here’s some of the challenges that we’re going to face with that. So how did you kind of handle that? Or is that something that even came about?

Pradeep: Yeah, no, I mean, out of the three teams I managed, each one of them came with different sets of challenges, not because of the people, but because of the nature of the business. And this was, so one of the teams, like I said, were out on the field, right? So we’re talking, you know, not working in the office 10 years ago, work from home today is very normal, but managing a team that is always traveling to customer sites three weeks at a time in a month and still being able to have the relationship with the team, but also giving them the right tools to execute their job well, while you’re not getting any face time with them. That was one of the biggest challenges we faced, right? So you have these, I think at one point in time, I had about 13 people in this field team, and each one of them goes to a different property. So at any given point of time, they are in 13 different casinos doing 13 different projects, and you’re trying to coordinate with each one of them, both on their professional aspects and their personal aspects, because they’re away from their families and they’ll have to manage whatever they have to do from a personal life perspective, right? So back in the day, we didn’t have so much, I would say, awareness on managing remote teams. Again, I’m talking almost 15 years ago, 15, 16 years ago. That was what I would say was a challenge with that team. And with the other team that was building and designing these servers, they were always, no matter how much we prepare, it feels like we were always short of requirements. So it was about how do they work cross-functional with other teams that actually gather this information to plug all the holes. Yeah, sorry.

Manuel: Go ahead.

Pradeep: Well, I was going to say each one of those challenges was very unique, and it was an iterative process. There was no silver bullet to solve each one of them. It was iteratively getting better, understanding what their problem is, understanding what their pain point is, and what is the easiest one to solve first, or what is the most impactful one to solve? So you just chip away at the block.

Manuel: And that was actually the question that I was going to kind of lead into, is how are you kind of picking up that skill? Is it just, you know, you’re playing with it and just kind of, you know, hey, let’s try this and see if this works. And if that doesn’t, or, you know, are you reading books? Are you reaching out? Do you have kind of mentorship within management, you know, other people to ask? I was just kind of curious, like how you did a lot of this, or was it really just you on your own, figuring it out?

Pradeep: I would say it’s two things. One is going to my managers at the time and brainstorming with them. So my approach always has been to not just take the problem, take the problem, and maybe a solution or two. So when you go to your immediate manager or your management, don’t just go with the problem. Go with the problem and give a couple of solutions you think might work. And they might enhance them, those solutions, they might say, no, these solutions are not the way to go and give you a complete different direction. But that’s something that I did. So at the time, my managers or my manager was definitely crucial in addressing those challenges. So we used to brainstorm on what the problem is, how do we solve it. And there was a little bit of experimentation for sure. We try this, it doesn’t work. Okay, what’s the next step? And without the right mentor, without that right rapport between you and your manager, I couldn’t have done that.

Manuel: That makes sense. And then the communication that’s happening to your management and then also to the teams that you’re managing, how did you kind of develop your communication style? It sounds like you are pretty open, because you’re knowledgeable, you’re pretty open. It doesn’t seem like you have an ego to where you feel like I’m the person that knows everything. So how did you kind of develop that communication style to make people feel comfortable enough to say, I can go to you or be able to take direction from me?

Pradeep: Yeah, I think a big part of that was transparency. Sometimes I had to deliver bad news. It could be about their pay raises or it could be about something that they wanted that they’re probably not going to get. For example, let’s say the team needed this server rack to sustain and let’s say we didn’t get the budget. So you are going to them and saying, keep doing what you’re doing with this suboptimal hardware because we are not getting what you asked for. It was still bad news and sometimes when it’s about pay raises or whatever bonuses, those are also tough conversations to be had. So being transparent and giving them the facts as to what is happening, it won’t make the message any better, but it would at least give them a little bit of confidence in you to say that, okay, I can go to this person and tell them what I need, tell them what I’m going through, whether or not there is going to be a solution. So establishing that bond was very key.

Manuel: And that sounds like something that I’ve had certain managers that have that skill set. It doesn’t make it any better. If you’re not going to get a raise, you’re not like, oh, the delivery doesn’t make you say, oh, that’s awesome. It’s okay. It’s still tough, but it does give you a sense of confidence in your management to say, okay, I know that they didn’t and they probably felt comfortable enough in you to say, okay, well, I know that Pradeep made an effort. It just, it didn’t happen, right? It came above him. And is that transparency? Is that something that you had picked up as your time prior to being a manager? Are those things that you had seen on your own?

Pradeep: Yeah. So I think it actually started in the very first job back in India. So as part of the job, I had to work with the contractors that actually pull the fiber optics cable, they dig the road, they pull the conduit, and they pull the fiber optics cable. So as site engineers at the time, we were supposed to ensure that there is a certain level of quality they’re adhering to, like, is the trench deep enough or is the cable turn right or are they turning more than 45 degrees, so on and so forth, a bunch of things, right? So you’re dealing with civil construction people, you’re dealing with fiber optics cable people, you’re dealing with people that do the cable termination and multiplexing. If you’re not transparent in any one of these areas in communicating what the expectations are and what has been delivered or not has been delivered, that entire project goes down the drain. And we are talking a very big project, right? So coming out of my bachelor’s, that was my first job without any experience. And then I started realizing that I can either be the nice guy and because there was no intention to keep things from them, but I thought I was doing them good by not sharing some of the things and that’s actually making things worse. So that’s where I learned that it’s better to be more factual. It’s not going to, I guess, make the messaging, like I said, any easier, but it’s actually going to alleviate some of the pains if you’re not factual. So that’s definitely a learning that I took away from my very first job. And I strive to carry through and I still strive to do it today.

Manuel: Now you’re managing, you know, you’re picking up communication styles, you’re obviously establishing good relationships, you know, both above you and below you. And kind of what’s the next step for you now outside of, you know, managing these three different teams?

Pradeep: I always believed in do what you want something to be done for you. Right. In other words, I always wanted to be inspired, right? Now I have the opportunity to inspire somebody that I’m working with on a daily basis, right? So for me, it was all about motivating the teams and have that burning desire. If I have the burning desire, I can pass on that burning desire to them to get better at something, to learn something new, or to be more exploratory or more exploratory, I don’t know the right word, to explore a little bit outside the current job responsibilities, right? Because day in day out doing the same thing, it’s not going to differentiate you from the next guy or girl, right? So for me, inspiring and motivating my team, it’s a very important part, even from today. That’s really important for me.

Manuel: And how were you able to do that? Was it just, again, you showing that enthusiasm? Are you kind of doing this one-on-one in a group setting?

Pradeep: It’s everything. First, I need to be inspired, right? So I need to do things to get that inspiration. Today, there is a lot of content out there, social media, so many venues, avenues to be inspired. But again, a decade ago, there weren’t a lot of venues to really get that inspiration or get that motivation from. To me, those pockets were the technology conferences. So I would go to, say, a VMworld and then I would come out of it, invigorated with what’s happening in the world, what’s happening in the technology industry, and then I bring that back to the team. So whatever you do, that energy actually translates to your team. If you got your blinders on and if you’re trying to do just one thing, your team is also going to do the same thing. So to me, being able to transfer that energy that I get from these conferences to them was actually, I really enjoyed that part. In fact, I used to, within the team, within the different teams, I used to ensure that a few people are always going to these conferences, right? And I used to go with them and guide them through their first conference and the next conference, they would come back and say, hey, this is how you can get into this hands-on lab if it’s always forward. So they’re bringing back what they’re learning into the team, into the bigger part, into the bigger team.

Manuel: That’s something that’s a topic that hasn’t been brought up before. So when you’re attending conferences, now there’s any wide range of experiences that you can get out of that. And I’ve had my own personal, like I remember the first conference I went to, it’s just, it’s overwhelming, you go, you attend some sessions, and it was really just go, sit, watch, maybe do some of the labs, and then call it a day. Eventually that evolved over time to where I started to use that as an opportunity to network. And network is just really meet new people, you know, ask about their experiences and kind of expand my knowledge and my skill set, because while there’s a pretty big community here in Vegas, and I, you know, I, by this point, I had talked to a lot of people, but when you start to talk to people outside of, you know, your immediate geographical area, I mean, it opens up your mind. So kind of what were your different experiences there? I mean, did you have something similar, or did you go in mind, you know, say, hey, I’m going to network, or hey, I’m just going to consume content, what was that process?

Pradeep: Yeah, I think it was, I would say it’s different stages, right? First stage was overwhelming. The very first conference was overwhelming. I didn’t know where to go, what to do. I wanted to grab everything, but I could not grab everything. So there was that stress about, am I missing out on something? And then comes the inspirational phase, right? You go to those keynotes and you get inspired about how technology is doing good, how it is being used for good, so on and so forth. And then you get the imposter syndrome. You will be like, Oh, my God, these people know a lot of things, what am I doing here? And then you will have a bit of a drop down, because now you’re, you’re worried about why you’re not at the same level or what you’re missing out on, why you’re not upskilling or what is out there and you’re not part of it. That translates into, okay, now I have to make that happen, right? There is a burning desire that I was talking about, right? So it’s multiple stages that I go through and this is for every single conference, even till today. Even till today, if I go to a conference, I go through all of these emotions. But fortunately, at the end of the conference, I always come out with, that’s very cool, that applies to us, we got to do that. Now, one of the things I early on, when I came back to Vegas, because I moved to the Bay Area to work for VMware for a couple of years. But when I did come back, one of the things that I brought back was, yeah, do what we need to do as part of the job. But I wanted everybody to do something that had nothing to do with what you do. It was almost like a, it’s, I wouldn’t say mandatory, but I was pushing pretty hard. And interestingly enough, those things actually were used two years down the line by my same team for the organizational needs.

Manuel: And what was the mindset of doing that? Like, why do something completely outside of your role? Like, I’m just curious, what brought that mentality about?

Pradeep: Yeah, I mean, so there are two ways to navigate the technology world. One is to go along with the status quo, right? You join a job, you look at the job responsibilities, you talk to your team, you understand your place in the team, and you keep doing that. And you could probably do that for 20, 30, 40 years. I don’t know if you can do that now, but back in the day, you could. And you made a career out of it, right? So that’s pretty calm going career. And the other part is truly disrupting what’s happening, right? Talking about disruptive technologies that excites you, that keeps you alive in your job, right? Because you’re not recession proof. You’re not indispensable in a company. For you to make yourself indispensable in a company, it’s not enough if you just do what you’re asked to do or what you’re responsible for. You got to go above and beyond. And that’s to me, going above and beyond is doing things that actually might not be applicable to you today, but could be applicable in the future. And there were a few things that my team did that we never really used, but a majority of them, we actually ended up using. Not only did we end up using those things, we actually became the experts by the time the organization said, let’s look at something like this. So we became the go-to people because we did that expert training exercises.

Manuel: And then it’s probably also at the same time, while you’re doing these exploratory exercises and doing a lot of this, even the ones that didn’t get implemented, they’re probably still learning something from that. And if nothing else, the process of, and I tried to tell people this, that they’re going through is trying and failing, right? Like, hey, we try this, you know, it doesn’t work, or you know, hey, we don’t implement it. It’s not a failure. It’s not a waste of time.

Pradeep: It’s a learning opportunity.

Manuel: Right. You’re learning something. You’re learning how to, one, you’re learning how to learn something new and then pick up different skill sets that, okay, maybe I didn’t implement this technology, but I came across something that, hey, I remember doing this, you know, on this project that we didn’t use, or maybe it failed, that I can apply over here. Was that the mindset that you had? You know, it sounds like you did this coming from VMware, or is this something you picked up from there? Just how, how did that?

Pradeep: Yeah, again, it was, I think it was more of being inspired. It wasn’t exactly done there, but it was part of, part of what we were seeing around the world, around the world as an, around that organization, right? Definitely, there was that energy to explore something different that’s there. But I just took it a little bit more. And I said, because the people that were exploring were the ones that wanted to explore, right? And the ones that didn’t want to didn’t really do anything. So I took that a little bit extra step when I came back and applied it to my team. And I think the goal is, I always tell my team this, I told them that, and I always told them this, that their resume should always be up to date, right? Even, even if you have a secure job, always keep your resume up to date, as in not just updating the dates, but it’s updating your skillset. Because you could very well be an administrator of something for 10 years, you wake up one day, and the technology might not exist that day, right? So I used to challenge my, my team that you should always have a resume that is actually relevant in today’s job market. And my concept was, because when I, when I talked to this, talked about this to others, they’re like, well, are you not worried that they’re going to leave you? I’m like, I’m more worried that if you don’t give them this kind of nourishment, so to speak, they will then definitely leave us, right? Because they’re probably seeing something that’s happening with their friends, something out in the world, and then they want to go there, do that, and they’re not having that opportunity here. So then definitely they’re going to end up leaving.

Manuel: And I’m with you there. I’ve had those managers that they inspire you to kind of go through. They want you to grow that skillset. And to your point, like, hey, are they going to leave? They might, right? They, if they feel that they’ve outgrown it, but then a lot of times they might stay a little bit longer knowing that they have the opportunities to do something different outside of like, well, this is what I was hired to do. This is it. Maybe they’re picking up that skillset on their own. And like you said, now I see the shiny thing that’s over here. But at the same time, it sounds like you had the mentality of as a, as a leader, right? I’m not going to call you at this point, a manager anymore, because like, based on the activities that you’re doing, just the mindset, you’re more of a leader. And I feel that that’s the job of a leader. It’s to inspire, to get them to grow. And if they outgrow that, that’s a good sign. If they’ere doing if they’re leaving, you know, for a similar position, probably not. But if they’re leaving because they’ve outgrown this position, that’s a good sign on you. Now you’re bringing somebody else and you’re going to do that same process, right? So that is establishing, I won’t say your brand, but your reputation as a good leader.

Pradeep: Absolutely. And that’s the right thing to do, right? It is a responsibility. Whether you want to call yourself a manager or a leader, it is a responsibility. You’re actually taking, taking over a team of individuals that are believing in, in what they’re believing that you’re going to guide them to better pastures, right? Whether it is within their skill set, whether it is within their job that they’re doing, they’re expecting you to make their life better, right? They’re putting that confidence in you. So it is only the right thing to do as a leader, ensure that they’re given the opportunity to grow. And so far, Manny, I have not had even a single person that actually left me because they grew. Yeah, they left because of better pay, but whatever they’ve learned actually helped them execute in that, in that new job, but it wasn’t because that new job was all about the new thing. It’s just better pay. And that’s something that, you know, we are, we have our limitations on what we can, what we can do as leaders, right? But nobody has ever left my team because they learned this new thing and they now have the opportunity to do something else. No,that was never the case.

Manuel: So now as you’re going through, you’re, you’re doing all this leadership, you know, you’re bringing in, you’re inspiring people, you’re still obviously keeping up your skill set. So what’s, what is that, what is it that keeps inspiring you? Is it seeing your team grow? Is it, you know, you still wanting to learn all this new technology? Because if you’re telling your team you got to learn something new, I’m assuming you’re doing it as well. So kind of what’s the next step for you personally, you know, as you’re kind of doing this?

Pradeep: Yeah, for me, I would say the single most driver is always wanting to solve the business problem. Right? Because I never liked, again, back in the day, right? Technology teams were always looked at as back of the shop, right? We were never the front of the shop. And to me, that was something that never sat well with me, right? Because as technology experts, you can transform the business, right? With technology. So for me, I was always looking for the next business problem to solve. And that automatically drove me to learn new things. So even till today, that is my driving factor. What business problem do I want to solve next? And that’s automatically gonna force you to learn new things.

Manuel: Why the business problems, right? Because most times, from a technical aspect, right, we try to fix technical problems. It’s very, I don’t want to say it’s rare, but it’s not as common to kind of start thinking of the business problem. So what is it that kind of drove you, was it exposure at that management level to the different business problems or what kind of led you down that path?

Pradeep: I think one of the most impacting things was, I was at the conference once and the keynote speaker works for a very big financial institution. In her introduction, she said that we are a technology company and we work in finances. And this was a bank, but they represent themselves as a technology company. Think about it, right? When was the last time one bank was able to differentiate itself from another bank because they’re offering a better interest rate that’s standard, right? But how do they differentiate themselves? Easy to deposit your money, mobile check deposit or mobile transfer or something to do with technology solving a very simple business case, a very simple problem that the end user has. So I always, that always stuck with me that technology actually solves business problems. So why aren’t we out in the front? Why are we in the back of the house? So to me, any technology team in any organization that’s trying to solve a business problem will not be looked at as a cost to the company, but they have the potential to become a direct or indirect revenue generating team. That’s my desire, that’s my goal of any technical team that I ever managed.

Manuel: And I love that mindset of being that, not being a cost center, right? Because a lot of times IT is seen as a cost center. And if that’s the case, then again, they’re not solving business problems. All they’re doing is bringing in technology or different bits and pieces. So then you’re solving business problems, you’re doing this at IGT. And now at some point, I’m assuming, so you’ve done, there’s two things. One of the things is you decided to become a VMUG leader. So what kind of got you interested in not only just joining the VMware User Group, which is a community, but also eventually deciding to lead? Was it, again, that past experience?

Pradeep: So after I came back from VMware back to Vegas, one of the things that stuck to me was, they have very vibrant community of technology people. And I feel like we were, or I was personally missing out on the networking aspect of that. So when I started looking around, and again, my core passion always was virtualization. So it drew me towards what groups can I build, and turns out we already had VMUG. And I said, you know what, I really want to join VMUG for two reasons. One, I want to know fellow technology people that are in Vegas. Two, I want to see if I can add value into that group. Whether it is sharing experiences, sharing knowledge, sharing things that you’ve done that didn’t work, things that you’ve done that work. So somebody doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Those were the main reasons I wanted to join VMUG.

Manuel: Okay. So now you’ve done all these different things, you know, it sounds like you’re solving business problems, you’re becoming a good leader, you’re helping the community. Is it around this time that you started to kind of decide to kind of venture out on your own, or is there anything that kind of happens in between there?

Pradeep: Yeah, it’s kind of interesting. I wanted to start my company almost 12 to 14 years ago. Then again, I was working on virtualization. I saw that there was a business opportunity there. But unfortunately, I could not start a business because of my immigration status. So it took me the next 10 years to go past my immigration status to be able to start my own business. But I always had the desire to be an entrepreneur.

Manuel: Really? And that desire was it just because you see the opportunities and the ability to help improve these business processes? Or is it really you just kind of want to work for yourself?

Pradeep: See, working for yourself is a great thing, right? Being able to do what you’re passionate about. And what I mean by that is everybody wants to work for themselves, right? If given an opportunity. But to me, that culminates into three things. And I call this T.O.P., which is Talent, Organizational needs, and Passion. And I talk to my teams about this every time. And I learned this from, I haven’t gone to many personal development classes in my life, I wish I did, but there was this one class I attended, where I learned this. It’s basically, what is your talent? Does the organization need your talent? And are you passionate about it? If these three things are not just imagine a Venn diagram, and you want to be in the middle, where your talent is what the organization really needs. And you’re also very passionate about it. It’s very difficult to find that in a job, right? Because you might be really talented at, say, networking. But your organization is basically a, I don’t know, a real estate company that doesn’t need top of the line networking capability. But then you’re actually very passionate about, I don’t know, learning cloud technologies, right? Now, you have a talent that your organization doesn’t need. And you have a passion that you cannot really bring into your organization. And again, I said real estate as an example, I don’t mean to say they don’t have all of this. It was just an arbitrary example. So at that point, you’re going to have a lot of dissatisfaction in your job, right? So always being able to be in the center of that Venn diagram I think an entrepreneurial or entrepreneurship is what gives you that capability, right? You’re able to define your own area where you want to work, because you’re both talented, passionate, and you see the business need for it.

Manuel: It completely makes sense, right? When you kind of say that Venn diagram in those three areas, and especially with what you’re doing, it sounds like having to do a lot of experimentation gets you to that point, right? It’s not just going to happen, just be like, oh, I know the skill set, this is the passion, and there’s an organizational need. But in your exposure to all these different areas, different technologies, trying different things, do you think as part of that, the way that you kind of get that Venn diagram to kind of all intersect is trying different things, like you can’t just, if I have a passion for networking, and I have that skill set, do you think that you can find the organization that goes there? Or if you’re with an organization that you like, you have this skill set, do you maybe try and find a different passion? Like how do you eventually get them to intersect?

Pradeep: Yeah, it comes down to the individual’s personality. I’ve been in organizations throughout my life where, when I was fortunate enough to have managers that always empowered me, but they gave me the opportunity to define my own role, right? There was always this set of responsibilities you have to do no matter what, but I had the leeway to define my own role. So in many situations in my life, I created that role for myself, and I built the team together, and I built it as a cohesive unit that is driving towards that singular objective. For example, one of the reasons I came back to Vegas was I wanted to bring cloud into the gaming, and this was back in 2016, almost eight years ago, and in our industry, or in the gaming industry, cloud eight years ago was not a thing, but I wanted to bring it. That was the reason I came back from VMware, and when I was doing that, it’s not enough if just me gets onto the rooftop and starts yelling cloud, cloud, cloud. I need to have a team. If I need to have a team that is going to align with me on that vision, I have to create a charter for that team. So inadvertently, while you’re doing your job responsibilities, you’re also redefining that role. That’s the only way you can get to that talent, organizational need, and passion intersection.

Manuel: So then you have to make sure then that if you’re trying to do that, you have to be strategic. You really have to kind of understand and have an idea of what you want to try and accomplish. And I mean, I’ve seen it throughout. You have a very strategic way of how you’re going to move forward, how you want to develop your role. And that does that just come with experience, like developing that confidence to say, Hey, this is what I’m going to do. Here’