Three-year effort ends with new book by MBA student

In terms of writing a book, I always wanted to do something on technology. I spoke to a lot of professors, a lot of internet enthusiasts. They gave me a lot of insights into how the topics should be selected.

—Joseph Pulikkottil, MBA ’19

A three-year journey to tell the story of where technology is headed has concluded for Olin MBA student Joseph Pulikkottil with the publication of his new book, Grey Matter Dialogues: A Journey on Economics and History of Science and Technology.

The 185-page book covers a wide array of technological landscapes, from food to data storage, and transportation to finance.

With intriguing chapters such as “The Curious Case of Smart Contracts” and “Where Are We Evolving To?” Pulikkottil leverages his pre-Olin expertise in financial technology with 5nance.com, his background in banking with Citibank, and his education in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology in Calicut and the National Institute of Industrial Engineering in Mumbai.

“In terms of writing a book, I always wanted to do something on technology,” said Pulikkottil, MBA ’19. “I spoke to a lot of professors, a lot of internet enthusiasts. They gave me a lot of insights into how the topics should be selected.”

“The audience is people interested in learning about how technology is moving ahead,” he said, “and those who like to understand what technology is really about, what they should look for in the future.”

Pulikkottil started working on the book in 2014, took about two years to finish writing it, and the rest of the time getting it published. It was released in October.

He came to Olin to get his MBA after working at 5nance.com and decided he wanted to delve further into entrepreneurship in the fintech space. He concluded WashU is where he’d get the best preparation.

“After I was doing my fintech startup, I got quite excited about St. Louis,” he said. “There’s a lot of activity in fintech.”