Dhiraj Mukherjee

Dhiraj Mukherjee is a co-founder of Shazam, the world’s first mobile phone-based music recognition service that allows users to identify ambient music and which was acquired by Apple in 2017 for a reported $400m.

Recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s Top 50 technology entrepreneurs in 2015, and elected a member of The Digital Banking Club’s “Power 50” in 2016, Dhiraj was previously Head of Banking Innovation at Virgin Money, where he was responsible for developing new digital banking services, including one aimed at serving 2.2 million students in the UK.

He is now an active angel investor focused on emerging technologies and “Tech for Good”, and was selected for Smith & Williamson’s “Power 100” in 2017 for supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in the UK.

Dhiraj Mukherjee has a degree in Mathematical Economics from Dartmouth College, USA and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He regularly gives keynote speeches at conferences on innovation, entrepreneurship and emerging technology.

Across the two decades he spent building Shazam with his three partners, Dhiraj received a lot of advice and support from friends, colleagues, and mentors. However, the words that have guided him most through his career came from a very different source – his grandfather, who Dhiraj knew affectionately as ‘Dadu,’ and who served as an admiral in the Indian Navy.

As a young man, Dhiraj’s grandfather rose through the ranks of the navy at a time when discrimination was rife. Despite setbacks and challenges, he totally trusted in the power of self-belief. ‘

This mantra has guided Dhiraj throughout his entrepreneurial journey, he learned quickly when Shazam was starting out that persistence can be a powerful tool.

When Shazam first launched, before smartphones existed, users would need to dial a four-digit code to activate the service. These codes were in very short supply and providers were extremely selective with the start-ups they partnered with. One provider refused to engage with Shazam, but eventually Dhiraj and his business partners’ tenacity paid off. ‘We called them 44 times before finally getting a meeting and then getting the code,’ Dhiraj recalls.

In addition to his belief in resilience and determination, Dhiraj acknowledges how important surrounding yourself with people who have shared values and complementary skillsets is to uncover the ingenuity that can lead to success.

Dhiraj believes that success can’t be manufactured, and there‘s less value in planning for the future than working hard in the present, and enjoying the journey. Building off this, the advice he’d like to share with others usually involves questions like: are you surrounding yourself with people that you want to spend time with? And can you go with the flow? ‘That’s what I’d remind people to focus on.’

He received some great advice from his grandfather that’s shaped his entrepreneurial career to date and led him to learn his own lessons, like the power of shared values among co-founders or colleagues.

Patience is not something that’s typically valued in an entrepreneur. In fact, it goes against many of the traditional ideas around entrepreneurship, so when you need to slow down for the sake of your business, bringing everyone on board can be a challenge. At one point, Dhiraj declared himself ‘chief slowdown officer’ to help encourage his team to allow the space and time for certain things to come together and opportunities to reveal themselves.

The final advice Dhiraj says he would pass on to the next generation of entrepreneurs is to ‘enjoy the journey and go with the flow’. This is a mindset that embraces the value of relationships and learning from advice and lessons along the way.

Dhiraj Mukherjee is a popular and sought-after keynote speaker. He has spoken in over 15 countries and delivers keynotes in English, or incorporating French, Spanish or German for global audiences. He also delivers virtual talks from a studio in London, supported by his team using professional lighting, camera, and audio equipment with a 4K feed.

Shazam survived two major financial crises before achieving success thanks to two mental habits: tenacity and teamwork. Learn from Dhiraj ‘s experience with building resilient teams who are actively designed to thrive on uncertainty.

His main speech is titled ‘How to Adapt to the Future’.

How to Adapt to the Future
When Dhiraj and his team mates created Shazam in 2000, the internet was in its infancy, smart phones had not launched, and mobile apps had not been invented.

In the intervening 18 years from the original concept to Apple purchasing Shazam for US $400M, Dhiraj learned that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Since then, he has invested in over 250 tech companies, from AI to climate tech and much more.

Based on exploring the future, Dhiraj sees three main drivers; Tech, Green and Youth. Our global economy, financial landscape and society will be transformed in the next decade. In order to thrive, corporations need to transform themselves and embrace fluidity, and we need to transform ourselves to create the future we want to be part of.

Dhiraj’s keynote talk is built on “postcards from the future” from the start-ups he works with, and lays out a roadmap for how to adapt to our collective future. He draws on 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and intrapreneur to uncover how today’s corporations should adapt to the future.
 
Each session and its content will be uniquely curated by Dhiraj to align to each client’s individual needs. They can cover the above themes and also include any of the following:

• Shazam: From the Original Idea to Over a Billion Downloads (the Shazam origin story)
• High Stakes: Investing to Create a Better Future (how to collaborate with the change-makers of tomorrow)
• How to Build an Innovator’s Instincts
• Looking Over the Horizon: How to Anticipate the Future
• From Learning about Technology to Technology for Learning (EdTech and Gen Z)

Get in touch to book Dhiraj Mukherjee for a keynote talk, or to learn more about his work with Generation Z and emerging technology, and how it might impact the future of your business.