Building a Business Dream with L A Balamurugan

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 Thoughts L. A. Balamurugan, or Bala, began his career as a computer science engineer, studying in India and later completing his Master’s in the USA. After sixteen years building software products and leading teams, he moved into entrepreneurship, founding multiple ventures including BookMyTrainings, a well known training marketplace in India. Following the pandemic and the closure of the startup, Bala now works as a Delivery Coach helping software teams deliver better products faster. His entrepreneurial journey inspired his book, What I Wish I Knew Before I Started: A Founder’s Guide to Understanding One’s Blind Spots and Equipping Before Venturing. Bala’s Linkedin profile Link to his book:

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Building a Business Dream with L A Balamurugan is an episode from Software People Stories by PM Power Consulting.

This episode is 51:59 long.

This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

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