Building Evergreen Insights: Hey Marvin’s Vision for the Future of Research

In this episode of the Greenbook Podcast CEO Series, Leonard Murphy sits down with Prayag Narula, Founder and CEO of Hey Marvin, to explore how research can finally evolve from a functional activity into a strategic business asset.

Narula shares his journey from computer science and human-computer interaction to building an AI-native research repository designed to break down silos, democratize access to insights, and unlock the full value of organizational knowledge. Together, they discuss why context matters more than data volume, how AI enables true synthesis across research and customer feedback, and what it will take for insights teams to move from process management to decision impact.

The conversation also touches on leadership in times of rapid change, building companies during disruption, and why flexibility and trust are essential for modern teams navigating the AI era.

Transcript

Leonard Murphy: Hello everybody. It's Lenny Murphy with another edition of the CEO series. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to spend it with me and my guest. Uh and has been the trend lately um talking to people that I've never spoken to before and it's really cool and exciting. Uh and we're going to continue that uh today. So uh I am joined by Prag Narula the founder of Hey Marvin. Prague welcome.

Prayag Narula: I am very happy to be here. Thank you for having me, Lenny.

Leonard Murphy: Uh well, let's see if you uh Everybody says that and I always say, "Well, let's see if you think that at the end, right?"

Prayag Narula: So I say it in the beginning, then like you know repeat it in What did Lenny get me into?

Leonard Murphy: I mean, you you know uh at the end you may say, "Oh my god, that was the worst 30 minutes of my life." Uh but based on our our pre-show conversation, I think that we'll uh I think we'll both enjoy it and I think our audience will as well. So, uh, with that said, uh, why don't you tell us kind of your origin story and then we can talk about Hey Marvin and then we can get into other fun stuff.

Prayag Narula: Awesome. Uh so my origin story uh I I I do need to start with Hey Marvin, which is a research repository and what we do we can we can talk about that in a in a minute. Um but I'm CEO of uh and and co-founder of uh of Hey Marvin uh research repository centralizing all of your research and insights. Um and my background is in research and we were talking about Lenny how a a lot of people in our space stumble into uh into this space and I uh I did too. My background was in computer science and then I was doing a lot of uh CS research and then I I I understood and found out something called HCI, human computer interaction and that got me into design research and and that became my life for uh for you know good five six years went to grad school uh actually at Berkeley not very far from where I where I live now. Um and then I started this business that was in the business of like HCI you know uh design research and that's that kind of somehow found myself in marketing tech and I ran that company for about about uh eight eight nine years and then um once I left that business I wanted to get back to my roots. It's like as we were joking, you know, I wanted to start something in in the research space and that's because I always felt that that's my home. That's kind of going to be my life's work. Nobody starts company in this space to get to get rich, you know? It's like it's it's a it's you do this to because you you love the space, it's because you love the community. And and that's kind of uh what led into um him. A lot of what we do um came from the challenges I faced at my previous organization. I was trying to access you know all of the wonderful research all of the wonderful customer feedback that across our board across everyone in our company was doing not just research team not just product team across the board. We were always talking to customers and I felt all of that was was was research and um we somehow uh I somehow had so much trouble getting access to it and that's the problem I I wanted to solve and that's that's kind of what was the the origin of origin of hey Marvin and you know four and a half years later we're we're still here.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah. Now, I also ask where the name uh I mean naming a company if for anybody who doesn't know, if you haven't experiences, naming a company is probably the single hardest piece of starting a company really.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: Uh uh so hey just hey Marvin give me uh give me the inspiration for that.

Prayag Narula: I am so glad you asked that question, Lenny. I know we didn't talk about it in a pre in a in a in a pre-con conversation, but um so Hey, Marvin. Marvin is named after Marvin the robot from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which which Yes, that's that's exactly right.

Leonard Murphy: Okay. Oh the little robot logo. I should have got that. Okay. Okay.

Prayag Narula: And it's kind of an obscure obscure reference even though it's a very popular book series. They even made a movie that didn't do super well. Um but uh keeping in like we actually uh talked to some some some of my branding friends and and they were like look like you said like naming is going to be you cannot market research your way to

Leonard Murphy: Yeah, no.

Prayag Narula: A good name right you it has to come from your heart so I and I started this company with my brother my co-founder is my my brother so I I was talking to him I was like you know

Leonard Murphy: No. Yeah.

Prayag Narula: Hey I like this Marvin the robot I always thought that that was such a funny such a such an amazing character and he's like Oh, you know that character also inspired uh the uh paranoid android song by um

Leonard Murphy: Yeah.

Prayag Narula: Uh by one of his f favorite band, Radio Head.

Leonard Murphy: Uhhuh.

Prayag Narula: So, he had found K. He's like, "Oh, I I know about this." And I'm like, "Yeah." So, that's kind of how uh how the the name Marvin stuck. And and you know, Hey Marvin is we um you know, it's the first line of the movie that as I said, it's not a great movie, but it's like starts with Hey Marvin. So like ah that's a great name.

Leonard Murphy: That.

Prayag Narula: Take my rest.

Leonard Murphy: Oh, very cool. All right, we're going to go off on a geek tangent just for a second. Um, as a as a geek proud, um, I love how there are so many great companies that are inspired by science fiction and fantasy, right? I mean, Palunteer, uh, and Anduriel from The Lord of the Rings, Grock, Stranger in a Strange Land, uh, uh, there's a company called Babelfish, uh, that does automatic translations uh, from obviously.

Prayag Narula: Yes. Yes. Translation. Abufish from also from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Leonard Murphy: Yes. All cyber hitchers. Yes. The, uh, uh, so it's it it the geek shall inherit the earth. Um, I think is uh, is the correct translation of that uh, that biblical passage. now and I'm just Anyway, so right right like Anderil or Palunteer, you know, like

Prayag Narula: I love it. No, I love talking to fellow geeks. I uh you know there was a lot of the problem with being a geek is when you're asked to name something you come up with like oh what lore do I want? Yeah. Like do I want a Lord of the Rings? Do I want like ancient ancient uh ancient Greek? That's what I was like I want to get ancient Greek name because I was reading about the Greek mythology and yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Yes.

Prayag Narula: So fellow

Leonard Murphy: Yes. The uh although I I do have to I have to say I I I really the appropriateness of Grock particularly, you know, to to know something in its totality. Um the uh it's like all right, that's probably the the most appropriate name I have seen from a a geek standpoint where it's like, yes, that that fits. Um although Hey, Marvin does too.

Prayag Narula: So in computer science though gro I I don't know if you know One of the thing even before Grock came one of the more popular ways of of saying oh I can learn this or I learned this or I know this is like do you gro it?

Leonard Murphy: Do you rock it?

Prayag Narula: So and then there's a Linux Linux command called gro that also like does uh does searches.

Leonard Murphy: Yes. Yeah.

Prayag Narula: So you know it's a long history.

Leonard Murphy: But uh shortly after Google launched, there actually was a search engine called Grock.

Prayag Narula: Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Um the uh uh and uh and it was very visual.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: I mean it was very ahead of its time.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: So, uh it anyway all right we we'll we'll we'll come back uh to that. So, you know, um it's it's it's understanding our our personas um what drives us.

Prayag Narula: Mhm. Exactly. We just keep talking about this. Why bother with market research?
 
Leonard Murphy: All right. So, you uh so you started in research and you had a little tangent off into uh into Martekch. uh came back to research and you solve problems that you wanted to solve.

Prayag Narula: Exactly. Exact Exactly. Um and the uh and and absolutely right that to bring down the silos to you know to synthesize all the information. I love that uh that you've you've used a broad stroke on what is data, what is information uh that can help derive insights and put all that in one place. Exactly.

Leonard Murphy: Um then along came well well step step back along came AI is what I was going to say there were lots of companies that were emerging you know to be platforms and and knowledge management and etc etc. Uh

Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: And with the launch of chatbt, one of my first thoughts was oh crap right now those businesses are going to face some challenges now. Um because the very nature of what you know uh LLMs can do. Um however the uh it seems as if that since that point um we've seen that context is king right in understanding the right information and building these solutions that are bespoke that are built for the business purposes that

Prayag Narula: Mhm. Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: May be powered by AI and I expect there's an awful lot of AI that's underneath hey Marvin um but that really is the differentiator is not just you know throwing this you have this one tool that sure it can do a lot but it doesn't mean it does it right or well or contextually accurate for your customers. Um, so did I just do your sales pitch for you on uh so but but talk about that. Right. You say you launched in I think 2020. Um also great time to launch a business.

Prayag Narula: You can you can you can come to my next uh next sales event anytime.

Leonard Murphy: All right. In uh uh um Okay.

Prayag Narula: Lenny. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Okay.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: Well, right. Sorry.

Prayag Narula: So we actually started in 2020, end of 2020 and we launched in 2020 2020 chair.

Leonard Murphy: All right. So, we get through you're you're building the business during the pandemic and then along came comes AI.
  
Prayag Narula: So about Yeah. We started working at 2020 2021. Yeah. Yes. Right. That's exactly what happened. The funny part is I don't know if if we talked about it our uh first investor the person who led the first round in the in the business and also our I think the still now the biggest outside

Leonard Murphy: Ah, all right. I've heard of that. I've heard of that guy. Uh interesting guy.

Prayag Narula: Shareholder is a gentleman named Samuel Altman or Sam Alman uh so yeah exactly so um no I love I love Sam I've known him for for for like over a decade at this point, right? Uh and I think I think I've always had deeper respect for him. Um and uh I think and I I don't honestly I don't think I think it was just because we just knew each other. We'd worked together before uh he'd been an investor in my previous company and that's kind of where that relationship and you know it was kind of a quick just like hey I'm starting this company.

Leonard Murphy: It It's good to have friends like that.

Prayag Narula: This is the idea. What do you think?

Leonard Murphy: Uh

Prayag Narula: And like next next morning like yeah that sounds good. let's start let's talk and figure out the terms and that that's kind of it was as as simple as that. Um so yeah you would be surprised though because uh when we were doing our launch press this was before or uh uh this is like before Chad GPD has launched like right before Chad GPD has launched and I was talking to the reporter and I was telling about like our investors and I was like that like investor type and he's also running some lab and like yeah he's like oh I I'll need to do by line

Leonard Murphy: Right?

Prayag Narula: On that because he nobody who knows Sam is.

Leonard Murphy: Right.

Prayag Narula: So, uh, which is true, like she was absolutely right.

Leonard Murphy: Isn't that funny? And now they're like Bono, right? You're like Elon, Sam, Peter, you know?

Prayag Narula: Nobody knew back then. Like, other than like a few people in the industry, people didn't know Sam.

Leonard Murphy: I mean,

Prayag Narula: Exactly. Exactly. No. Um, so, um, I think we were always even in the beginning, even before AI was launch. So we are AI native which which means that when we when we uh quickly right as we launched we were already building with AI and then we you know we were I think we were the first company in

Leonard Murphy: Okay.

Prayag Narula: Our space to really take the the the uh the value of AI and built it into our product and I think um one of the things that I've always so I I think there was a there has always been a techn technological challenge because of which research has always been an activity or a function but not a strategic resource right and I I think that's one of the um one of the challenges I see with research

Leonard Murphy: Yep.

Prayag Narula: Is we always kind of um you know you know imagine if an alien comes to the you know comes comes to earth and we're like hey there's this function that knows everything about your customers your market your competitor tors like pricing like what where would that fun like how important do you think that function is they like oh that function needs to sit right beside the CEO right like the CEO should be talking that has never

Leonard Murphy: Right. Right.

Prayag Narula: Really been the case I think the first time in a long time I think we have this ability to turn research whether that's market research or or or user research or UX research what whatever kind of research we're doing um to turn it into this evergreen source of insights that the entire team can rely on as part of their decision-m process.

Leonard Murphy: Yep. Yep.

Prayag Narula: And I think that's kind of what's fueling our growth. That's I think what's fueling a lot of investment in the research in the research space. And I think we are at a at a fundamental shift in terms of you know what research what what research is going to look like in the next next decade.

Leonard Murphy: I I I so you can now come to my next uh uh event and because I I didn't say that because I I agree and I think it's so I was actually talking to a uh one of my advisory clients earlier today and we were it occurred to me that this vision of uh of data synthesis obviously we've been talking about forever right that under We thought big data would deliver that for us. Um and uh and it was the three V's of big data, right?

Prayag Narula: Thank

Leonard Murphy: Variety, velocity, I forget what the third V was. Um uh but we didn't have a technology that that really unlocked that that synthesis and now uh creates that utility. And occurred to me that rather than three V's, now I think we're dealing with the three U's. Um uh so you hear here first audience um I'm going to I'm coining a term uh and in my mind it was uniqueness usability and utility and from a brand standpoint from a buyer a CEO perspective it's that utility that's the unlock right so we have all these unique data sets and it sounds like hey Marvin you know is able to incorporate that this is you know customer feedback back. This is, you know, so they recognized data as competitive differentiator. So that's why they spent a billion dollars a year on uh on research and they were early in trying to make this all accessible, but it was a big pain in the ass, right?
 
Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: I mean, it was expensive. It was hard. it was still you like here's our here's our competitive intelligence here's the research here's and the problem that you're solving and are getting value is that not only are you allowing those bringing out those silos bring it together

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: But also it's not just limited to the PGs of the world right yes so from a standpoint

Prayag Narula: Right. Right. And and and it's Yeah. And honestly, I think um you know, we we work primarily with with enterprises and you would be surprised how many enterprises kind of have this have that have that challenge because like you know I I I wasn't there

Leonard Murphy: Mhm.

Prayag Narula: When PNG built this up but I'm I'm assuming it took them years to kind of build up a practice like this. It was a it was a massive effort and here is another thing that I think u even somebody like PNG with such you know billion dollar investment um missed out. I think there is a lot of value. So we talk about um research with a capital R right like we talk whenever we talk about research we talk about like you know um big projects we are doing big studies we are doing you know big vendors we are we are working with um um but if you think about it right like on there are so many teams in our org that are interacting with our market our customers even our you know our community every every day and they are shared more and more. Exactly. And there is more and more uh channels on which this interaction is happening right like it's not in like just the customer advisory board anymore it's also happening on forum it's happening on like on it's happening in app store it's happening like like I I whenever I go to the airport and I get my uh my boarding pass from those those checkout machines there's always like hey what was your interaction like today and I always fill those out because I'm like oh there is somebody there who's actually like relying on me filling these out.

Leonard Murphy: Yes. And more and more. Yeah.

Prayag Narula: So, I'm I'm one of those people who like sitting there typing out my comment. What could be better? Right? But the point being like we are constantly interacting with our audience. Um and that is real data like that is data that that you know you might not call it like research with a capital R but that is a valuable pieces of feedback and information and data set that we have not been able to use because when we talk about like you know the the scale but that's like that's the richest thickest data set that we have and because we had so much of it we never utilize

Leonard Murphy: Okay.

Prayag Narula: It and I think thanks to I you that becomes accessible to everybody in the org as well and within you know there's always privacy and all of that and and that's I think that's the value out of a

Leonard Murphy: Yeah.

Prayag Narula: Company like ours or you know um or AI in general is being able to combine the research that we've always thought of as research with the data that we never kind of thought of as like oh this is this is like valuable insightful data and and and combining those together I think I think that's where the power lies
 
Leonard Murphy: Yep. Yep.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: I I agree with you 100%. And the uh mentioned in our our kind of pre-show chat the uh you know we do the the grit survey and we're about to release the newest wave of that and uh uh and we had seen a few trends over the past few years. one of the uh the expanded uh users of market research that were not sitting in the the market research organization.

Prayag Narula: Thanks.

Leonard Murphy: So product, brand, marketing, you know, they they were primary buyers of research focused around their specific areas.

Prayag Narula: I saying right.

Leonard Murphy: Um uh and and that just continues to grow. Um uh to the point where I I I actually am not sure that there is going to be a research organization the way we have thought about it in the past. Um I think there's likely to be a very distributed research function aligned to you know specific orgs in the business um that are relevant competitive intelligence usabil you know product design usability whatever the case may be I I think I think we're heading there um and the other great unlock and you kind of hint at this earlier uh for many years as DIY and then automation overall started to emerge.

Prayag Narula: Just do more.

Leonard Murphy: We thought that we would see this great shift from the functional role to be to move from being process driven to strategy oriented. Um, and we didn't see it. We just saw more process, right? The technology uh up till now I just you just were able to do more of the same stuff, right? Uh, and I'm not sure when this is going to be published probably after the release of the grit report.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: Uh so uh we for the first time we see that changing.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: So um and that is one of those unlocks for from platforms like hey Marvin and and other solutions is that uh we are not so bogged down with managing process and so we can manage insights that re I

Prayag Narula: Yeah, that's that's that's what that's the expectation. Now I think I I you know all um a lot of CEOs I know or execs I know are asking question right hey you know what can we do with AI and one of the first answers that they

Leonard Murphy: Love that research capital R uh uh from multiple sources to be able to drive new value and utility.

Prayag Narula: Come up with is like hey I have you know I have all this data how can I unlock value from this this government data and I think the the teams that are raising their hands be like hey we

Leonard Murphy: Uh, so I you we're preaching to the choir. Um, uh, it's that's not even Yep.

Prayag Narula: Can help you are you know research team whether it's market research design research product research ethos Right.

Leonard Murphy: Yep. Yep. I mean, even the, you know, uh, for a company like like Greenbook, right, that's that's fundamentally a publisher, but we have lots of content and therefore we have lots of data and and it's all and it's very specialized.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: It's about we have these podcasts. We have the crit report. We have blah blah. Yeah. We have all these uh data sources and we are unlocking new value. Yeah. We've built our own agent and and we're putting that out there. And it's not just answers. It's us better search. Um it's to leverage the information that we have.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: So a CEO like you going, hey, I wonder what other CEOs are saying about how they're adopting AI, right? Then we have this massive asset that we can go in and okay well and like anything else I'm going to build a persona. I want to build a persona of C of you know buyers of research that sit in you know the product organizations you know because we have that data we have that information um and so that that unlock of

Prayag Narula: Right? Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Utility um of value creation is just intrinsic now you know it it it's just it's table stakes um yeah and but Yes.

Prayag Narula: 100% and I think I think we talked about you know this this is what we're talking about in the in the in the pre-in chat as well. We're talking about like um you know knowledge management and I think this unlock goes beyond knowledge management. It's not like hey I can search my published reports better or I can search my vendor vendor output better. It's actually like, hey, I can I can combine that with these unique data sets and come up with completely new insights that might not have been unlocked if I didn't have the technology that would have been um uh

Leonard Murphy: Yes. Right. Yep.

Prayag Narula: So I think that's Yeah, exactly.

Leonard Murphy: Augmentation and enablement. Yeah. Yes.

Prayag Narula: Exactly.

Leonard Murphy: And that spurs whole new thinking. Right. Sorry, I didn't mean to talk over you product that I'm getting I'm getting all excited as we're there's a different dimension of our geekiness now that is manifesting the uh and is that so to that point I believe

Prayag Narula: Right. No, please. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Yes.

Leonard Murphy: There's certainly a a valid concern that um the the more we use existing information um the less the volume of primary research the primary research volume decreases. I I I would say that is almost inevitable.

Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: Um uh of course it is but the importance of new research increases exponentially.
 
Prayag Narula: Right. Right.

Leonard Murphy: Um and that process that is the process we're looking at now.

Prayag Narula: 100%.

Leonard Murphy: That's what we used to think of as secondary research. Right? Okay. one now we go here first and we explore concepts and we ideulate and we do some of those things with existing we answer those questions from the existing data and then we shift to okay there's a lot we don't know so uh and then we go forward with new studies so is hey Marvin uh part of that enablement process as well of of not just unlocking value creation with existing information but then also prompting and saying

Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: Okay you know here's the gaps now let's go conduct conduct new research.

Prayag Narula: 100%. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah.

Prayag Narula: And and that's look you cannot do one without the other if you're going to become like you know true source of knowledge for an organization. And there are two aspects to this. One is what you're saying which is really important. Learning uh this idea that you know not every information is going to be available in your in your in your database in your in your um AI models right like um so you and so what do you you need to do kind of two things one is you make it you want to make it really easy for people to contribute data and have you know that data be accessible to the to the to the AI model so that they can use this new data And it it it it needs to be accessible across the board.

Leonard Murphy: Yep.

Prayag Narula: So there is this democratization of not just um you know data read but data write as well right. Um so uh that's something that so so we we help with that. Um uh we can you know we we help with if you have vendors we can we'll work with the vendors. If you have um you know your team that's conducting research, we have all these agents that's going to make them a lot faster, a lot quicker, a lot more uh detailed and but while spending less time. So you can get like more out output spending less time. So we have bunch of agents. We have one agent that can just like go and talk to your to your uh to your participants completely autonomously and kind of you know just go and like you know the AI is going to just ask questions and show and it's actually it's going to show design it's going to show you some like some mind map and um does a you know it's very cool concept. So um and and so that's that's a really big part those agents are a really big part of our value proposition and one of the reasons that you have to provide that other than the the fact that you know that you will always need new data. You cannot just rely on existing existing research um is you want to make you want to give people reasons to why this database should be updated, right?

Leonard Murphy: Sure. All

Prayag Narula: Why should it keep keep getting updated? It's like oh because I will you know even if I am you know uh a vendor or if I am uh you know a contractor or if I'm like a junior person uh or an intern.
 
Leonard Murphy: Right.

Prayag Narula: The reason I should add my data is not because I care about this repository not because I care about the keeping the database updated.

Leonard Murphy: Mhm.

Prayag Narula: I do this because it makes my job better.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah.

Prayag Narula: It makes me do more with less. And that's the motivation because you have to kind of, you know, you cannot always lead from like it's going to make everybody better. It's for the greater good. The greater good goes only so so far. So you have to really be like it's going to make you better, make you look better.

Leonard Murphy: Mhm.

Prayag Narula: And as an as a almost a side effect of that, you know, this this data the data keeps getting updated. So that's one of the kind of the big reasons why we have all these agents. I I don't think we can we can do one or the other. And I think that's what we have gotten wrong in the past as an industry is this idea that like oh we'll centralize everything and that's the holy grail.

Prayag Narula: Well, yes, maybe if you if you do the heavy lift and do it once, but like you have to have a distributed responsibility for everyone to keep adding new and new data sets and and you do that by

Leonard Murphy: Yeah. No, I I I love that thinking that the the uh it's because it it adds it's value creation.

Prayag Narula: By appealing to more base desire of doing just like going going home a little bit early and spending a little more time with the family.

Leonard Murphy: I I'm across the board data data is the new oil, right? Of course, the uh uh and we're all we're all wells.

Prayag Narula: And that's that's so much better than like oh do it because like do this extra work because it's going to help the organization two years from now.

Leonard Murphy: Um uh uh we're Yeah, we we are we are uh and the and the internet's the pipelines and you know companies like uh him Marvin are the refineries.

Prayag Narula: That just doesn't doesn't work.

Leonard Murphy: Uh anyway, we don't have to go.

Prayag Narula: Exactly.

Leonard Murphy: It it it does it does. All right. So, uh, uh, love loving the conversation.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: You and I, I think we could we could geek out about all this for for quite some time.

Prayag Narula: All of data. That's uh that's great.

Leonard Murphy: Um, uh, I don't know if the butts of our, uh, audience will adhere to that though.

Prayag Narula: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Leonard Murphy: So, uh, so lessons learned, you start, so you started a business during the pandemic, during a period of disruption.

Prayag Narula: Yeah, it works. It works at multiple levels. This analy definitely. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Um, kind of distill what you've learned as a CEO. uh the challenges, opportunities, surprises, wisdom, uh whatever you would like to share with uh with other folks.

Prayag Narula: Yeah. Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: What else?

Prayag Narula: Uh, look, I think it is probably not I would not be overstating that this is the most um disruptive is probably the right word or most like changeoriented times at least in my career.
  
Leonard Murphy: No. No. Yeah.

Prayag Narula: Like I have not things I've not seen things change this quickly in the last 15 15 years that I've been here. Um, and it's getting and and it's it's kind of almost scary because it's getting like faster. Uh, it's getting overwhelming. I think across the board it's getting overwhelming. And I live and breathe this space and I live for this space and I love this space and it's getting overwhelming uh for for for me too. Um, so I think the one thing I've learned is like it is only natural to feel overwhelmed. It is only natural to feel like you're not going to be able to keep up. Um, and it's like giving you the permission to be like, look, things are changing and I'm going to just like try my best and and you know, I I do it from the reason of like, hey, I don't want to do I I I'm doing this because completely changing. I think that's number one. Um, I hope there are like, you know, a lot of managers and CEOs that are that are listening and I I would say like, you know, remote work is a wonderful thing. I know there is a lot of big movement towards like back to office.

Leonard Murphy: Mhm.

Prayag Narula: We never went back to office. We started remotely. We are continues to continue to be remotely. Our company our company is distributed across the globe. And I will say I think I get the best work out of my people when they are relaxed, when they can spend time with they know they can spend time with the family, when they know that they have the flexibility of hey I can do I can take my daughter to uh the dentist today as long as I get my work done later during the evening and I don't have somebody like watching over me.

Leonard Murphy: Right.

Prayag Narula: So I know that there's this I'm going counter to what a lot of like uh tech and Twitter is saying like like let your people work from home.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah.

Prayag Narula: Give them the flexibility. I I think that's one one especially in the time that are like you know massively changing kind of give them that flex giving that flexibility would be really really helpful.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah.

Prayag Narula: So couple of couple of learnings like you know doing it for the right and and they they go hand in hand. If you trust your people, they are going to do things for the right reasons and that means that they're not going to be kind of um you know lost in this ground swell of innovation that we are that we are seeing and it's it's a good thing overall. This innovation is good thing. It's going to make all of us a lot more strategic in our role. Uh and uh but it is also very normal to feel to feel overwhelmed.
Leonard Murphy: Yeah, definitely wisdom. And I want to chime in on a couple things you said. One, I've worked from home now uh for 20 years. Uh and every company I've ever built has been entirely virtual.

Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: Um so I could not agree more with you.

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: Um the uh and especially I think it gets if if one of the effects of technological change particularly AI is that process is uh not nearly as important. Well shouldn't say that obviously process is important but process is now being done in a different way. Um and it's more on impact. Uh the more roles are focused on impact and that's the value creation. Yeah. What the hell does that have to do with uh with being at a central location?

Prayag Narula: Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: The uh now there's obviously broader implications and it's not for for some businesses manufacturing you know yada yada um but for any servicebased business or technology based business um Yeah.

Prayag Narula: Yeah. knowledge based. Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah. any any knowledge workers the u yeah focus on what's important and what's important is is impact and you know unlocking that so I'm going to echo that for all the the other leaders that are listening I I agree

Prayag Narula: Yeah. Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: with you wholeheartedly uh actually as we're speaking right this minute so my my son-in-law so I live in very we two and a half years ago we bought a small farm in uh south central Kentucky so middle of 

Prayag Narula: Oh, wow.

Leonard Murphy: Nowhere like my neighbors are Amish Okay. The my uh second old star and her husband moved with us. They have a house on our property. They have their own house.

Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: Um and my my uh son-in-law did tech support. Um and great because we're in the middle of nowhere, right?

Prayag Narula: Mhm.

Leonard Murphy: So, he did virtual export.

Prayag Narula: Great.

Leonard Murphy: Uh got laid off this morning. Um the No, it it'd be okay.

Prayag Narula: I'm sorry, man.

Leonard Murphy: Point is it brings up a very interesting point that you know uh the he he will likely now have to face the choice of potentially going back into an office uh and if he stays in IT tech support

Prayag Narula: Right.

Leonard Murphy: why right what is the point of that so yeah so it's just an interesting time juosition and all of that anyway the Yes,

Prayag Narula: Right. Yeah. What's the point of that? Yeah. Yeah. Don't don't listen to the the Twitter world is what my message is and and it's your message is too like like trust your team and it's going to you know it's going to it's going to let it's going to help us get through this uh this this time of events change.

Leonard Murphy: Absolutely. Um, anything that you want to touch on that we did not touch on?

Prayag Narula: Uh, no. I'm uh if you if anybody wants to check out Hey Marvin, we are hey.com. I hope it's okay to say that.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah, absolutely.

Prayag Narula: Um, uh, yeah, we are we are a bunch of people like me. We love we love the space of research. We are we are very geeky. We we we and if anybody wants to talk about research, I'm always available. And, you know, I I just I love this stuff. This is this is my life's work.

Leonard Murphy: Uh and it's obvious um and that's uh that's it's integrate when something is it's not just your job but it's kind of your avocation you know the uh yeah I think those of us who come into this it

Prayag Narula: Yeah.

Leonard Murphy: It becomes that it becomes our avocation

Prayag Narula: Yeah. No, it's the best that's the best part about this about this field is people do this for the love of it as we said in the beginning, right? Like nobody gets into research to to to you know to to make the big bucks. It's go to finance for that. It's legal for that.

Leonard Murphy: that. Well, maybe maybe not uh in the future for that.

Prayag Narula: Maybe not anymore. Who knows?

Leonard Murphy: Become an electrician. Uh excuse me.

Prayag Narula: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

Leonard Murphy: Um, where can people find you?

Prayag Narula: Uh I am active on LinkedIn. Priag.nar is my uh uh I am also on on X even though I don't post much. Uh Priagen is my handle there. Um but LinkedIn is actually connect me search on LinkedIn for my name. Uh I am I post a lot there. I I love a we have a nice community going of people uh and I love I post some uh spicy stuff. So hopefully people would uh come and like it's not everything that you would agree with. So I hope I hope people can uh can can find us and we can have a chat. Yeah, pretty much. Yes. Yes. Right. Right. Don't say that, man. Just be like, can it just be this? Like, you don't have to be. Yeah. No, I think so. It's Thank you for having me. I I I love the conversation. You know, hopefully we can keep keep talking if not on this podcast, but you know, offline.