AI fluency is now a CEO’s job. Most are still stuck in 1984

What do you do after building one unicorn? Well, if you’re Dheeraj Pandey, you build another. In this episode of Tie Talks, I sat down with Dheeraj, the founder of not one but two unicorns—Nutanix and now DevRev—to unpack what really drives him. It’s not the funding rounds or the fancy valuations—it’s building things people love. From transforming IT infrastructure to reimagining customer experience with AI, Dheeraj shares how purpose, design, and empathy have shaped his journey. We also talked about burnout, mentorship, and why his team keeps coming back for round two.

Discussion Topics: AI fluency is now a CEO’s job

• Building two unicorns – still not the most impressive thing Dheeraj has done
• What if business success wasn’t the end goal at all?
• Could AI actually give us our weekends back?
• When your company creates thousands of millionaires, then what?
• Scaling globally without a single office in Antarctica
• The part of AI no one’s talking about—but every company needs
• Can AI become your brand’s secret weapon?
• Forget outsourcing—here’s how to bring it all back, smarter
• The AI hype is real—but who’s going to survive the crash?
• Why CEOs must finally log in and get fluent in AI
• Can natural language finally break the boardroom-tech barrier?
• The next big disruption? Not what you think.
• The mental game of leadership: cricket, cortisol, and quiet time
• Scaling a startup? These are your non-negotiables
• Burnout is real—here’s how Dheeraj avoids it (and still smiles)
• The one thing Dheeraj tells his 30-year-old self—no regrets
• Could DevRev be the 12th company to change tech history?

Our Guest: Dheeraj Pandey

Dheeraj Pandey is the Founder and CEO of DevRev, recently raised a Series A funding of $100 million.

He previously founded Nutanix (Nasdaq: NTNX), a global leader in enterprise cloud software and hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, and currently sits on the board of Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) and is a member of their audit committee.

Dheeraj co-founded Nutanix in 2009 and led as its CEO and Chairman for 11+ years. Boasting the largest software IPO in 2016, Nutanix is now a multi-billion dollar company with thousands of employees in over 60 countries. Pandey has been recognized with prestigious industry awards, including Dell’s Founder 50 and the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, Silicon Valley.