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Enabling Startups and SMEs to Build Technology-Driven, Future-Ready Organisations

Through senior technical leadership, strategic advisory and executive coaching.

Mahesh Tanwani, Founder & CTO of adnena

Mahesh Tanwani

Founder & CTO

What We do

Three engagements, one practice.

01 — Service

CTO-as-a-Service

CTO-as-a-Service solution allows ambitious startups, SMEs, and entrepreneurs to access competent technical expertise, for top-tier tech insights, without full-time in-house CTO with cost-advantage.

It is specifically designed to meet Startup and entrepreneur's needs, scope, and financial bandwidth requirements.

  • A human head rendered as a network of connected points, with data streaming into it
  • An instrumented vehicle on a city street, surrounded by concentric sensor sweeps
  • A classical institution inside a globe, ringed by icons for audit, assurance, privacy and people
  • A product sketchbook and pen beside a roadmap board of milestones and sticky notes

Areas of Expertise

Enterprise AI / ML / GenAI Adoption

Turning pilots into systems that hold up in production.

AI adoptionRoadmapValueROI

AI Standards & Frameworks

Governance built to the standards regulators actually check.

ISO 42001EU AI ActNISTAI VERIFY

AI Risk Management

Identifying where a model's failure mode becomes the business's.

Autonomous Driving

Safety cases and systems engineering for Driverless vehicles.

Product Development

RoadmapInnovationCost-optimisation

Safety-Critical Design Techniques & Methods

Functional safety discipline for systems where failure is not an option.

ISO 26262UL 4600ISO 8800ISO 21448

02 — Service

Strategic and Technology Advisory

Strategic and Technology Advisory enables startups and established enterprises translate strategy into sustained business value. The advisory partners with founders, boards, and executive leadership teams to shape AI and technology-driven growth strategies, refine GTM models, evaluate strategic investments, and align business, technology, and innovation priorities.

The advisory spans technology strategy, go-to-market strategy, artificial intelligence and Generative AI, AI adoption and governance, autonomous driving, investment readiness, and executive advisory. With a pragmatic, outcome-driven approach, organisations are empowered to innovate and build resilient, future-ready businesses.

Four quadrants — Strategy: make, align, advance. Technology: empower, innovate, scale. Advisory: startup, SME, board. Impact: measure, drive, deliver. At the centre, a lattice of connected nodes; below, three executives facing a lit path.

Where the advisory works

Technology & GTM strategy

Aligning what gets built with how it reaches a market.

AI adoption and governance

From pilot to policy, with accountability that holds.

Investment readiness

Diligence-grade answers on technology and team.

Executive advisory

A standing sounding board for founders and boards.

03 — Service

Thought Leadership and Executive Coaching

As artificial intelligence reshapes industries, the defining challenge is not adopting new technologies, but leading people through change. My executive coaching, keynote speeches, panel discussions, and executive forums explore the intersection of AI, innovation, leadership, and business transformation.

Drawing on global industry experience, I share practical perspectives on how organisations can harness emerging technologies while building the leadership capabilities needed to thrive in an increasingly autonomous and AI-driven world.

Technology does not transform organisations—leaders do.

Mahesh Tanwani leading the Whole-of-Government (Singapore) AI Adoption Workshop
Whole-of-Government (Singapore) AI Adoption Workshop

Most Requested Engagement & Consultation Topics

AI, ML, Generative AI

  • AI Governance, Responsible Adoption
  • AI adoption for Enterprise Value
  • Building an AI-Native Organization

Autonomous Driving & Emerging Tech

  • Future of Autonomous Vehicles
  • Safety-critical Software & Systems
  • Emerging Technology Trends
  • Growth Strategies

Technology & Thought Leadership

  • The Modern CTO: Leading Through Change
  • Building & Leading Engaged Team
  • Leadership in AI era

Latest insight

Scaling Beyond AI Pilot through Six-Move Capability Cycle

Why pilots succeed, why scaling breaks them, and what the Six-move Capability Cycle does differently?

Read the article

9 September 2026 · 5 min read

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60 Paya Lebar Road, #06-28, Paya Lebar Square, Singapore 409051