I was born in the United States to Indian parents, and we moved back to India when I was still in kindergarten. I came back to the United States when I was 17 to go to MIT.
While in college, I experimented by working in a NASA student research program, in a Computational Genomics lab, and at a hedgefund. Surprisingly, I had the most fun at the hedgefund because that’s where I discovered I was better at making products that generated immediate value, rather than longer term research which was better suited for people smarter than me.
After completing a couple of degrees, I worked as a software engineer at KAYAK. Eventually, I became a Director of Engineering for the KAYAK Mobile team. Surprisingly, my biggest learning from KAYAK was the incredible value of being able to build a superstar team, and learning how to be a good manager. I did several side quests like running KAYAK’s internship program, engineering recruiting, and hackathons.
On my personal time, I did some retail investing at first, with my first savings from my engineering job at KAYAK. When I left KAYAK, I took some opportunities to advise or invest in other startups - mostly as a learning tool to make me a better founder.
I started Drafted based on some of the ideas around referrals and network recruiting that I’d been thinking about over the years. The Drafted journey was long and educational. Our first consumer mobile app got featured in the news and we started getting 1000’s of users, but we quickly pivoted to serving businesses that wanted to augment their employee referral programs. I learned how to do enterprise sales and we got to 1M of ARR. Covid hit and we almost died - then pivoted to building a layoff network for talent getting laid off, which got 20,000 users in the first month and made national news.
In 2021, Instawork, the largest marketplace for hourly labor in North America acquired Drafted to power the referral and network effects engine. I stayed there till 2026, serving first as Head of Growth, then Director of Labs, and later VP of Product. In 2026 I left Instawork to take some time off after a decade long tour of duty since I started Drafted.
Since 2015, I’ve invested in over 50 startups. About half I have a relationship with, and the other half is via various platforms or funds. Investing has certainly made me a better thinker and more abundance-oriented, but more importantly it has given me a lot of community and learning opportunities.