Guest bio
- Co-founder of Shazam, now an investor and speaker on technological change.
- Spent nearly two decades with his co-founders finding a sustainable business model for Shazam before it was sold to Apple.
- Became an early investor in AI companies, including OpenAI, after the sale of Shazam.
Dhiraj Mukherjee is a co-founder of Shazam, one of the defining consumer technology stories of the mobile era, and an investor and speaker on technological change. Shazam let people name any song playing anywhere, over a basic mobile-phone line, before the smartphone existed; it has since been used more than 100 billion times, and around 300 million people use it every month. He and his co-founders spent nearly two decades finding a sustainable business model, through the dot-com crash, the global financial crisis and the upheaval of the music industry, before Shazam was sold to Apple. He then became an early investor in AI companies, including OpenAI, and thinks for a living about how leaders and organisations adapt when the world moves faster than their operating model.
Show notes
What does it take to build an iconic technology company before the technology ecosystem required to support it even exists? In this compelling episode of Money Majlis, Suvo Sarkar speaks with Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam, investor, speaker and lifelong student of technological disruption.
Long before smartphones, app stores and streaming, Shazam began with a deceptively simple human question: “What is this song?” Dhiraj recounts how a group of ambitious entrepreneurs built a way to identify music from a few seconds of audio over a basic mobile-phone line, then spent nearly two decades navigating the far harder challenge of finding a sustainable business model. It is a story of conviction, reinvention and resilience through the dot-com crash, the global financial crisis and the upheaval of the music industry.
Dhiraj reflects on the tension at the heart of every enduring venture: holding a fixed vision while maintaining a flexible mindset. He shares why Shazam did not change its fundamental purpose, but repeatedly reinvented the way it created value: from paid SMS messages to music partnerships, advertising and streaming. His lesson for founders and leaders is refreshingly direct: stay relevant, keep learning and live to fight another day.
The conversation then turns to AI, where Dhiraj brings the perspective of an early OpenAI investor and a practitioner who believes technology must be experienced, not merely discussed. He explains why failed pilots should not automatically be seen as failure, why enterprises must move beyond simply layering AI onto outdated workflows, and why the greatest opportunities in banking may lie in the “big, boring problems” of compliance, risk, credit and operational efficiency.
For boards and senior leaders, this episode offers a powerful argument for curiosity, experimentation and adaptability. Dhiraj explores the importance of sandboxes and guardrails in regulated industries, the benefits of reverse mentorship across generations, and the need to build organisations around skills and learning velocity rather than static roles. He also makes the case that AI should elevate human capability, not absolve institutions of their responsibility to help people reskill and contribute at a higher level.
From the founding story of Shazam to the future of autonomous financial agents, quantum computing and AI-enabled work, this is a wide-ranging conversation about navigating uncertainty with optimism, humility and disciplined action. Dhiraj’s governing principle is clear: in an age when knowledge is abundant and change is relentless, adaptability is the capability that matters most.
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