From Ham Radio to Cloud AI CEO: Leadership Lessons with Pradeep Pulipati | Ep023

Episode Information 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/ Connect with Career Downloads: Website: https://careerdownloads.com YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads X/Twitter https://twitter.com/@careerdownloads TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads Instagram https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249 #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 n...