Episode
Building a Business Dream with L A Balamurugan
- Podcast
- Software People Stories
- Published
- May 1, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3119
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Summary
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 Thoug…