With every new startup announcement containing “AI” somewhere in the headline, how do you build a differentiated product that stands the test of time? In this episode of MindMakers, host John Kim sits down with Bhavin Shah, CEO & Founder of Moveworks, for a thought provoking discussion on what it really takes to move beyond hype and into real business transformation.
With every new startup announcement containing “AI” somewhere in the headline, how do you build a differentiated product that stands the test of time? In this episode of MindMakers, host John Kim sits down with Bhavin Shah, CEO & Founder of Moveworks, for a thought provoking discussion on what it really takes to move beyond hype and into real business transformation.
Bhavin shares the evolution of Moveworks, from its origins as a narrow IT help desk solution to the full-fledged AI agentic platform it is today. He walks through the technical and strategic inflection points that unlocked growth and proved stickiness, from early statistical models to the game-changing impact generative AI. But what really sets this conversation apart is Bhavin’s view on the business discipline behind the tech.
Together, John and Bhavin unpack why AI doesn’t just accelerate workflows, it accelerates the market itself. In today’s environment, startups no longer have five years to figure things out as AI forces a faster reckoning. You either prove product-market fit early and build real distribution, or the window closes.
Whether you're building in B2B SaaS, navigating the AI hype cycle, or trying to future-proof your organization, this episode is packed with strategic insight on what it takes to build AI that sticks and scales.
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Guest Bio
Bhavin Shah has spent 25+ years taking companies from inception to scale. Prior to Moveworks, he was CEO of Refresh.io, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015. He has an MA in Education, Technology & Business from Stanford University and a BS in Computer Science from UCSD.
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Guest Quote
“People think founding a company is about being a visionary. On some level it is, but most of it's execution. You can't have the right to think big unless you can execute in a local fashion. That’s how you earn the right to scale.” – Bhavin Shah
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Time Stamps
00:00 Episode start
02:15 Moveworks’ evolution from IT help desk to AI agent platform
06:45 Solving messy problems at scale
10:00 From BERT to ChatGPT
13:00 Product-market fit metrics that matter
17:00 Scaling with ServiceNow
20:45 Weak vs. strong ROI in Enterprise AI
25:30 How to transform business workflows
30:20 AI’s opportunity in the public sector
34:40 What it takes to survive as a modern startup
38:00 The cost of inference and the new competitive landscape
42:00 Bhavin Shah’s Human Prompt
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Links