# #170 | From Startup Garage to Microsoft MVP: How Continuous Learning Builds Unbreakable Tech Leaders w/ Amit Chandak, @ex-Oracle, @Kinerika Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/leman-tech-leadership-podcast-7045357/170-from-startup-garage-to-microsoft-mvp-how-continuous-learning-builds-unbreakable-tech-leaders-w-amit-chandak-ex-oracle-kinerika Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/leman-tech-leadership-podcast-7045357/170-from-startup-garage-to-microsoft-mvp-how-continuous-learning-builds-unbreakable-tech-leaders-w-amit-chandak-ex-oracle-kinerika.md Podcast: [Leman Tech Leadership Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/leman-tech-leadership-podcast-7045357) Published: 2026-06-18T03:30:02+00:00 Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/170-from-startup-garage-to-microsoft-mvp-how-continuous-learning-builds-unbreakable-tech-leaders-w-amit-chandak-ex-oracle-kinerika--72565264 Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72565264/170_from_startup_garage_to_microsoft_mvp_how_continuous_learning_builds_unbreakable_tech_leaders_w_amit_chandak_ex_oracle_kinerika.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/leman-tech-leadership-podcast-7045357/episodes/170-from-startup-garage-to-microsoft-mvp-how-continuous-learning-builds-unbreakable-tech-leaders-w-amit-chandak-ex-oracle-kinerika Duration seconds: 3031 ## Resource ▶︎ #170 | From Startup Garage to Microsoft MVP: How Continuous Learning Builds Unbreakable Tech Leaders w/ Amit Chandak, @ex-Oracle, @Kinerika In this episode of the Leman Tech Leadership Podcast, Aleksandra sits down with Amit Chandak, CTO and Data & AI Lead at Kinerika, a Microsoft Fabric Featured Partner operating at the forefront of cloud data engineering. Amit's career spans three distinct environments: a 10-year co-founder journey building a BI tool from a two-person apartment startup to a 50-person product company, senior engineering leadership at Oracle, and now heading data and AI strategy at a fast-scaling services organization. In 2022, he became a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for his exceptional contributions to the Power BI community - a recognition earned through over 17,000 community solutions and years of relentless self-directed learning. The episode opens with a question that shapes the entire conversation: what actually separates the leaders who compound their impact over time from those who plateau? Amit and Aleksandra dig deep into the IC-to-leader transition - one of the most structurally underestimated challenges in tech organizations. Amit is precise about what gets lost in that shift: the identity of being the best individual performer becomes a liability when your actual job is to build an environment where the team outperforms what you ever could alone. For anyone navigating the tension between lifelong learning and burnout, building a tech team from scratch, or making the mental shift from individual contributor to people leader - this episode delivers the kind of practical clarity that only comes from someone who has lived every stage of that journey. ✉︎ FOLLOW AMIT ON: ⤵︎ LinkedIn: @amitchandak YouTube: Amit Chandak ✉︎ FO… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/leman-tech-leadership-podcast-7045357/episodes/170-from-startup-garage-to-microsoft-mvp-how-continuous-learning-builds-unbreakable-tech-leaders-w-amit-chandak-ex-oracle-kinerika/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/leman-tech-leadership-podcast-7045357/170-from-startup-garage-to-microsoft-mvp-how-continuous-learning-builds-unbreakable-tech-leaders-w-amit-chandak-ex-oracle-kinerika.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.