How was your time at BITS and what were some of the most memorable moments?

For me, getting into BITS Pilani itself was a very proud moment. I have a very vivid memory of my parents, and me first coming to Pilani, seeing the joy on their faces and how proud they were of being unforgettable. Having come from a tier-2 city, going to a place like Pilani, though overwhelming, was a huge opportunity for me to get exposed to so many new things.

Simple things like hanging out with friends finding out what was going on around campus, and looking forward to getting good South Indian food at the mess are some of the memories I have. Overall, getting unmolded from where you are and getting used to Pilani’s cultural aspects is a part of the Pilani experience.

What’s something that you learned in the Institute that you think has helped you throughout your career?

Having a variety of people with diverse points of view all working together was a great learning experience. I learned how to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. I was quite overwhelmed at the start, and it was a bit of a shock for me coming from my background. But being at an institution that had the countrywide best of the brains all in one place, that exposure gave me a lot of confidence in meeting people and building good professional relationships. The foundation for the capabilities I developed over the last 20 years since I graduated happened especially in the first two years of my time at Pilani.

During your time in the Institute, did you ever think you would end up founding a startup? If not, when did that idea came to you?

I had a lot short-term goals coming into such a large environment, like BITS Pilani. I was more focused on getting by from semester to semester, and what I wanted to do immediately after my undergrad. My intent in college was to do very well in my EEE degree and do everything to get into a good Master’s school.

I wanted to be a part of startups came from experiences later on in life, but some of the foundational elements of what I got exposed to at BITS were helpful. I learned how to network with people and learned some aspects of how to work hard even when you’re not very good at something. Those are certain traits that are very important in the startup arena, and I can attribute them to my time at BITS.

How was your experience getting an MBA after coming from a technical background and then going into investment banking?

At some point during my time in my first job, I had a natural inclination to be more customer-focused. I wanted to be more business and finance savvy, which I didn’t have the skills for. So that’s what made me think of a business school. The previous experience I had working at large tech corporations became a good foundation for me to apply to business school.

Once I was there, the finance career track that I was going into during my MBA taught me the basics of finance, but I wasn’t applying them much. So investment banking became that job where I could implement all the new things that I was learning.

Having worked in both big organizations and early startups, what’s the biggest cultural difference you have noticed? How did your previous experience help you?

Going into large corporations right after college and getting early experiences, you’re in an existing organization that has a pre-set cultural fabric and you are somewhat inserted into that environment.

For me, working at those large companies is a case of getting a snapshot from a case study point of view. Working at Open Text, a small company that doubled during my time there, and then working at really large companies like Merrill Lynch and ARM, I learned what it meant for a company to be unique despite being so large.

I took all these experiences and they helped me in my last startup MinIO where I was the Chief Business Officer and in my current role where I am co-founder. The key aspect that I was central to in both cases was taking all these experiences and seeing what is that cultural formula you can set as an early founding member, which is something you cannot do at large companies.

What advice would you give to confused students who are trying to find the right path for themselves? What do you think they can do in these next 4-5 years of their life to make the most of their experience at BITS?

If you’re someone who’s super overwhelmed about what you’re going to do, you should know that it’s quite normal. Take it one day at a time, especially the first semester which can be a very volatile time, where there’s constant change and you’re trying to adjust.

Looking back, I would only ask the students to take a balanced view and understand which activities suit them the most. Try to enjoy the moments, and join clubs and extracurricular activities. It’s okay to not have any deterministic answers in the first year as to what you want to do. There’s a lot of exploration I would personally recommend that any student goes through, especially in the first two semesters, and then you can maybe get a better idea of what the next few years will look like once you’re in your second year.

It’s a tough place in terms of academic rigor, but if you’re not being challenged enough then it’s a sign that you’re not learning enough.