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 thanks to Paul English. 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 from Bill O’Donnell.
Eventually, I started Drafted based on some of the ideas around referrals and network recruiting that I’d been thinking about over the years.
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.