The Founder`s Code

The Founder's Code is for entrepreneurs, builders, and visionaries at every stage of their journey. Building a startup isn't easy—it’s filled with hard choices, constant struggles, and moments of uncertainty.Join me, Shamil Malachiyev, founder of FluidLabs, as I openly share my own journey of building my IT consultancy, learning weekly from honest conversations with some of the world’s most successful founders. We cover the tough stuff that all founders face: finding the right co-founders, hiring C-level talent, scaling your business, overcoming limiting beliefs, and even managing the mental

The Founder`s Code is a business podcast hosted by Shamil Malachiyev, with 37 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Shamil Malachiyev hosts The Founder`s Code, a business show with 37 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #6

  How FinTech Govern AI — Mounika Paruchuri, Best Egg (now part of Barclays)

  Aug 17, 20261h 2mS2

  "People assume any AI launch is a rocket. It looks more like a kitchen remodel, with inspectors watching behind you." Mounika Paruchuri sets AI strategy inside a regulated US bank, so she has a very grounded view of what enterprise AI actually takes. On The AI Floor, Shamil Malachiyev sits down with Mounika Paruchuri, Senior Director of AI and Emerging Technology Transformations at Best Egg (now Barclays Bank US), for a hype-free look at how AI actually gets built and governed inside a heavily regulated bank. Mounika has spent about 24 years in engineering leadership across fintech, e-commerce and payments, and now sets enterprise AI strategy with the executive board. In this conversation she breaks down why the model is only 20% of the work, how governance and guardrails let people move fast instead of tiptoeing, and why most AI ROI fails before it starts. Expect to learn: - Why an AI launch is a "kitchen remodel," not a rocket, and why the model is only 20% of the job - The real difference between governance and guardrails, and why guardrails set people free - Her "secure the whole building, not floor by floor" approach to paved paths for AI - How to choose models by use case: when open-source is fine, and when underwriting demands a locked-down private model - Why switching AI models should be "just a refactor," not a panic - How Databricks cut her prototypes from 2 weeks to 2 days and projects from 3 months to 1 month - Why most AI ROI fails: people insert AI where it doesn't belong, instead of rethinking the process - Why cybersecurity is the easiest AI ROI to sell any CEO, and why "this is not RPA, this is an intelligence" If you lead AI strategy, work in a regulated industry, or are trying to move fast without breaking compliance, this is the from-the-trenches version. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro: setting AI strategy inside a regulated bank 2:07 AI in a heavily regulated industry 2:56 "Kitchen remodel, not a rocket" and the 20% model 3:40 Governance vs guardrails, and why guardrails set people free 5:13 What a "harness" actually is 7:20 One front desk, not security floor by floor 11:00 Choosing models by use case: open source vs locked-down 14:00 Why switching models is "just a refactor" 17:13 Do we even need more powerful models? 20:37 Which work to give AI: the power of concrete data 26:49 Databricks: prototypes from 2 weeks to 2 days 31:46 Human quality gates and feedback loops 35:48 Acceleration, burnout, and the human story of AI 39:54 The future of work: utopia vs dystopia 44:52 Why AI ROI fails, and the Steve Jobs "rethink the box" lesson 47:53 Cybersecurity: the easiest AI ROI to sell 52:04 The return to on-prem and private hosting 56:05 Closing: evolve, don't resist, be smarter than the system CONNECT WITH MOUNIKA PARUCHURI Mounika Paruchuri ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/mounika-n-paruchuri/ Best Egg ► https://www.bestegg.com CONNECT WITH SHAMIL Shamil Malachiyev ►https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamilmalachiyev/ FluidLabs ► https://fluidlabs.com/ LISTEN to The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) Spotify ► https://open.spotify.com/show/7v6YOQ77R1xzbOiiHsDawd Apple ► https://podcasts.apple.com/sa/podcast/the-founder-s-code/id1797768317 SUBSCRIBE for more unfiltered, ground-level conversations with the people building AI inside the world's biggest companies. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) - honest, ground-level conversations with the people actually building AI inside the world's biggest companies. No hype, just what's real. #AI #EnterpriseAI #AIGovernance #Fintech #Banking #AIStrategy #MounikaParuchuri #TheAIFloor #Podcast

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  Episode #5

  How Huge ERP System CEOs Think About AI - Domenico Cipolla, Xentral

  Aug 10, 202647 minS2

  "If you've got nonsense coming into a system, you've got nonsense coming out of it, no matter how powerful the system is." Domenico Cipolla runs an ERP that powers 1,800+ companies, and he's putting AI agents inside it - so he has a very grounded view of what enterprise AI actually does. On The AI Floor, Shamil Malachiyev sits down with Domenico Cipolla, co-CEO of Xentral, the German cloud ERP backed by Sequoia and Tiger Global, for a hype-free look at where AI adoption really is - straight from someone building it into the software that runs other companies' operations. Before Xentral, Domenico spent 15 to 20 years on the customer side operating and implementing ERPs. In this conversation he explains why AI is "just a means, not a value in itself," why most companies with a grand AI strategy are doing nothing internally, and how his team rebuilt a paid vendor tool over a single weekend once AI entered the picture. Expect to learn: - Why "garbage in, garbage out" is the real ceiling on enterprise AI, not the model - Why everyone has an AI strategy but almost nobody is actually doing anything with it - How they replaced a paid invoice-reconciliation tool by "vibe coding" a better one in a weekend - Why an ERP has to stay deterministic - the same process, run 1,000 times, must give the same result - The simple matrix for deciding where to apply AI first (how manual a task is vs how many customers touch it) - Why their biggest competitor isn't another vendor - it's Excel and dead legacy code - The AI agents they're building into the ERP: dunning, invoice reconciliation, reordering, support and returns - Whether the AI bubble is real - and how a Sequoia-backed CEO stays calm through the noise If you're leading AI adoption, running operations or finance, or building software into the AI era, this is the from-the-trenches version. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro: cutting through the AI hype 0:54 Domenico's path: 20 years on the ERP customer side 2:24 No grand strategy - and why "AI is just a means" 4:31 "Everyone has an AI strategy. They do nothing." Where to actually start 6:35 Why an ERP has to stay deterministic 7:48 The flagship use case: invoice reconciliation, rebuilt in a weekend 10:56 What SMEs actually want from AI ("no bullshit, what can you deliver?") 13:03 Natural-language reporting: no more SQL 15:45 The hardest part is adoption, not the tech 21:31 The real competitor: Excel and dead legacy code 22:45 Own agents vs third-party agents - and the data layer underneath 26:34 What people get wrong about AI (four things) 30:55 How to evaluate if you're AI-ready: pick one use case and hit the walls 37:38 Is the AI bubble real? 40:00 Bottom-up curiosity: letting teams automate their own work 42:06 Standardize the tools, or let people play? 44:24 The takeaway: filter the noise, don't panic, chart your own way CONNECT WITH DOMENICO CIPOLLA Domenico Cipolla ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/domenicocipolla/ Xentral ERP Software ► https://xentral.com CONNECT WITH SHAMIL Shamil Malachiyev ►https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamilmalachiyev/ FluidLabs ► https://fluidlabs.com/ LISTEN to The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) Spotify ► https://open.spotify.com/show/7v6YOQ77R1xzbOiiHsDawd Apple ► https://podcasts.apple.com/sa/podcast/the-founder-s-code/id1797768317 SUBSCRIBE for more unfiltered, ground-level conversations with the people building AI inside the world's biggest companies. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) - honest, ground-level conversations with the people actually building AI inside the world's biggest companies. No hype, just what's real. #Procurement #EnterpriseAI #AIAgents #AI #TheAIFloor #SorenPetsch #RootInsurance #ProcurementAutomation #AIAdoption #Podcast

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  Episode #4

  The AI Tsunami Is Here. You're Just Standing There | Sören Petsch, Root Insurance

  Jul 20, 202657 minS2

  On The AI Floor, Shamil Malachiyev sits down with Sören Petsch, Senior Director of Procurement at Root Insurance, for a ground-level look at what AI agents actually do inside a finance org today - the ones already in production, the receipts, and the 80-90% of procurement work that is pure administrative tedium. Sören has spent 15 years in procurement across software, retail banking and insurance. He's implemented workflow automation platforms multiple times over, built custom AI agents, and ran his own consulting practice focused on procurement automation with LLMs and multi-agent systems. His current system has cleared 42,000+ approvals and a mid-nine-figure spend across 145 users since a single June go-live. He also grew up in East Germany - "a country that doesn't exist anymore" - which is exactly why he refuses to treat today's status quo as permanent. Expect to learn: - Why "it's not about jobs, it's about tasks" is the reframe that finally unlocks automation - What Sören's own informal read of ~500 procurement job posts found - under 4% - and what the other 96% are still hiring for - What an "AI agent" actually is, explained through a real one: cross-checking a vendor's legal name across their certificate of insurance and their W9 registration papers, ~100 times a week - Why you start with orchestration and data flow, not "just implement AI" - and how "the system becomes the policy" - Where AI is genuinely good right now: legal-document review, InfoSec/SOC 2 checks, multi-PDF reconciliation - where Sören expects to cut reviews from 8-10 days to 3-4 - Human in the loop, human on the loop, full autonomy - and why a human still has to carry the accountability - The flagship build: fully autonomous certificate-of-insurance collection, from roughly 0% collected to 100% - Why he calls the confidential-data panic an overblown concern - ZDR agreements, local models, and what actually needs protecting CHAPTERS 1:35 Episode open & guest intro 2:28 A country that doesn't exist anymore - and the tsunami you can't stop 5:15 Under 4%: what ~500 procurement job posts really asked for 7:31 Start with orchestration, not "just implement AI" - "the system becomes the policy" 10:49 Where AI is genuinely good today: legal review, SOC 2, multi-PDF checks 13:05 What an "AI agent" actually is - the W9/COI cross-check agent 16:12 The InfoSec agent: aiming to take 8-10 days down to 3-4 16:43 Confidential data, ZDR & local LLMs: an overblown concern? 19:08 Craftsmen vs. Henry Ford: the white-collar production line 20:35 "It's not about jobs. It's about tasks." 22:56 Stacks of paper: digitizing the data flow 28:20 The tool landscape: P2P vs. intake-to-procure 34:20 Change management: what happens to Billy? 40:46 The receipts: 42,000+ approvals, 145 users, one June go-live 46:03 Accountability: human in the loop, on the loop, full autonomy 48:21 The flagship build: fully autonomous COI collection 51:03 The future: smaller teams, more roles & the fractional CPO 55:18 Sören's AI toolkit: ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini & Claude Code 59:16 What to do on Monday: "start doing something" + NotebookLM as a team training tool 1:01:59 "Nobody's behind. We're all at the start of the race." CONNECT WITH SÖREN PETSCH Sören Petsch ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorenpetsch Root Insurance ► https://www.joinroot.com/ CONNECT WITH SHAMIL Shamil Malachiyev ►https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamilmalachiyev/ FluidLabs ► https://fluidlabs.com/ SUBSCRIBE for more unfiltered, ground-level conversations with the people building AI inside the world's biggest companies. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) - honest, ground-level conversations with the people actually building AI inside the world's biggest companies. No hype, just what's real. #Procurement #EnterpriseAI #AIAgents #AI #TheAIFloor #SorenPetsch #RootInsurance #ProcurementAutomation #AIAdoption #Podcast

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  Episode #3

  The Only Way CEOs/COOs Get To Survive The AI Wave | Stan Hansen, Ignite

  Jul 3, 20261h 9mS1

  On The AI Floor, Shamil Malachiyev sits down with Stan Hansen, COO of Egnyte, for an honest, ground-level look at why "under-promise, over-deliver" beats the hype - and how a data-infrastructure company serving 23,000 customers turned AI into roughly a third of its new business.Before Egnyte, Stan spent two decades leading teams at Adobe, Domo, Pluralsight (which he helped take public) and Wells Fargo - running organizations of more than 1,000 people. In this conversation he breaks down how AI adoption really works inside a large company: why so many rollouts stall, how small quick wins build the board confidence to invest more, and why the biggest risk isn't the technology - it's your own data.Expect to learn:- Why "under-promise, over-deliver" beats the hype - the strategy that nearly cost Stan his job, then won- Why so many AI projects stall - and the quick-win model that delivers ROI in days- Why your data - not the model - is the real "step one" for AI (and why the #1 security risk is internal)- How to govern "shadow AI" and employee vibecoding without killing the momentum- Why "bring your own model" beats betting everything on a single AI ecosystem- The truth about AI and jobs: not elimination, but people who can do 3x more- The two skills that will matter most over the next five years - and why one of them isn't prompting- What every executive should personally do this week to earn a real seat at the table on AIIf you're trying to bring AI into your own company - or lead your team through the change without burning trust - this one's a playbook.CHAPTERS0:00 Promo0:59 Stan's path: Sprint, Wells Fargo, Adobe, Pluralsight9:12 What Egnyte is - and the "company-owned data" secret sauce12:19 Making sense of AI: the "tidal wave" moment14:59 Is your company ready? Data readiness as step one19:48 The #1 AI security risk is inside your own team21:33 Vibecoding & pushing AI to the front line24:35 "I thought I was going to lose my job": the under-promise pivot29:57 Why over-promising burns your champion34:03 "AI is coming for your job" - and why it's augmentation, not replacement39:56 Work less or more? The skills that matter next & the business process analyst44:09 Build vs. buy: why homegrown software ages out47:58 "Bring your own model": Egnyte's open-platform bet51:01 Rapid prototyping: deliver results in days, not months54:49 AI in the sales org: deal acceleration, rules of engagement & attribution1:02:39 The executive playbook: get hands-on, earn a seat at the table1:10:03 Real examples: construction photo tagging & document extraction1:13:31 "A startup starts inside your company every day" - and what's next👇 CONNECT WITH STAN HANSENStan Hansen ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/stan-hansen-6ba451a/Egnyte ► https://www.egnyte.com/👇 CONNECT WITH SHAMILShamil Malachiyev ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamilmalachiyev/FluidLabs ► https://fluidlabs.com/🎙 LISTEN to The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2)Spotify ► https://open.spotify.com/show/7v6YOQ77R1xzbOiiHsDawdApple ► https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-founder-s-code/id1797768317🔔 SUBSCRIBE for more unfiltered, ground-level conversations with the people building AI inside the world's biggest companies.ABOUT THIS CHANNELThe AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) - honest, ground-level conversations with the people actually building AI inside the world's biggest companies. No hype, just what's real.#Egnyte #EnterpriseAI #AIAgents #AI #TheAIFloor #StanHansen #AIStrategy #DataGovernance #AIROI #Podcast

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  Episode #2

  A Law Firm Billed Him £15,000. His AI Did It in 2 Minutes. Xavier - GC at OneAdvanced

  Jun 23, 202654 minS2

  A law firm charged Xavier £15,000 for half a page of legal advice. He ran the exact same question through an AI tool, got the same answer in two minutes – then negotiated the bill down to £2,000. Xavier is General Counsel at OneAdvanced, and instead of treating AI as a threat, he turned his 30-person legal team into an AI lab: he declared an "AI adoption month," ran a two-day "legathon," and shipped 15+ AI agents in 10 days. This is one of the most practical conversations on AI in legal we've had on The AI Floor. In this episode you'll learn: → How to spot which legal work AI should (and absolutely shouldn't) touch → Why building legal AI in-house usually fails – and when buying wins instead → How a £50,000 due-diligence review got done in 20 minutes at 98% accuracy → What junior lawyers must do now as entry-level work gets automated → The real cost nobody talks about: cognitive overload from instant AI output → The one legal tool no founder has built yet – and X says he'd buy it tomorrow Chapters: 0:00 The lawyer who builds his own AI agents 1:19 Why I declared an "AI adoption month" 3:19 The legathon: 15 agents in 10 days 7:57 Build vs buy: why we didn't build it ourselves 10:51 Where AI fits – and where it doesn't 14:00 How to actually learn AI (start here) 20:14 Will AI take legal jobs? An honest answer 24:45 What junior lawyers should do now 29:04 The hidden cost: AI overload and burnout 33:31 The £15,000 bill AI did in 2 minutes 39:05 £50,000 due diligence, done in 20 minutes 43:36 Where we really are on the adoption curve 46:50 The legal tool nobody has built yet 👇 CONNECT WITH XAVIER LANGLOIS Xavier Langlois ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavier-langlois-3860654b/ OneAdvanced ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/one-advanced/ 👇 CONNECT WITH SHAMIL Shamil Malachiyev ► https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamilmalachiyev/ FluidLabs ► https://fluidlabs.com/ 🎙 LISTEN to The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) Spotify ► https://open.spotify.com/show/7v6YOQ7... Apple ► https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for more unfiltered, ground-level conversations with the people building AI inside the world's biggest companies. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL The AI Floor (The Founder's Code, Season 2) - honest, ground-level conversations with the people actually building AI inside the world's biggest companies. No hype, just what's real. #LegalAI #LegalTech #FutureOfLaw #GeneralCounsel #AIadoption #AIAgents #EnterpriseAI #AI #TheAIFloor #LarryJin #ContractAI #ProductManagement #Podcast

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