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Suresh Shankar
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Crayon Data
Suresh V Shankar has a condition he calls the stupidity gene. It makes him start companies.
The latest is a new start-up. It builds AI agents that know a bank from the inside — its rules, its risks, its rhythms — and do real work there.
Before that came Crayon Data, in 2012, when few banks said “AI”. Its maya.ai got to know the bank’s customer: 65 million journeys at HDFC Bank, two-thirds of Myanmar’s GDP through KBZ Pay. He still runs it.
Before that, RedPill. An analytics firm in 2000, funded on maxed-out credit cards, bought by IBM in 2009. Before that, advertising and banking in India, and a hunch that data would change marketing.
The gene has no cure. Only persistence.
He graduated from IIM Calcutta in 1985 and has called Singapore home since 1997. For six years he led IIM Alumni Singapore, the largest IIM network outside India. He brought Prime Ministers, Presidents and global CEOs to its stage, and ran BreatheLife during India’s Covid crisis.
He hosts the podcast Slaves to the Algo, where leaders talk about how AI is changing their lives and work. He has also moderated sessions with business leaders such as Ajay Banga, Indra Nooyi and Nandan Nilekani, and with public figures such as Vivian Balakrishnan, K Shanmugam and Shashi Tharoor.
Speaking at SFF 2026
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3:30–4:05pmThu 19 NovFounders StageHall 2, Singapore EXPOPremiumModerator
Capital Rewiring
Will Radical Restructuring Break the Machine or Unlock Growth in 2027?
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Vince IswaraCo-founder & Chief Executive OfficerDANA
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Prajit NanuFounder & Chief Executive OfficerNIUM
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Rob SchimekGroup Chief Executive Officerbolttech
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Suresh ShankarFounder & Chief Executive OfficerCrayon DataModerator
About this session
The venture doctrine equating organizational headcount with enterprise valuation has permanently broken down. After Klarna leveraged AI automation to trim its workforce from 5,000 toward 2,000 employees, its annual revenue per employee surged over 70% alongside a return to profitability. Meanwhile, ultra-lean software firms like Linear capped their full-time team under 50 while scaling past tens of millions in ARR. This session explores the operational balance of deep workforce restructuring: identifying which functions to automate permanently, where human domain expertise is indispensable, and which specialized hires must be recruited immediately.
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