Where did you grow up, and where are you based now?

I grew up in Surat and did my schooling at Seventh Day Adventist School until 12th standard. Now, I live in Bangalore and have been here since 2012 – it has been about 13 years now. I moved here right after college for work, and now I'm settled here with my husband and our 1yo.

What's your educational background, and what were your previous work experiences before joining Prodigal?

I completed my Computer Science degree from Nirma University in Ahmedabad, graduating in 2012. Since then, I've had quite an exciting journey through the tech industry. I started my career with Tally, a mid-sized startup building ERPs, before moving to Samsung Research where I worked on browsers – the native ones you see by default in Samsung phones – using the Chromium open source codebase.

After that, I wanted to move into more consumer-facing work, which led me to Amazon. I worked on their identity services, handling everything from login systems to the services that store your credit card and address information. I also worked on advertising, which was a significant revenue source for Amazon in the Indian market, building products for advertisers to set up campaigns and run both branding and sales-focused ads.

After about four years at Amazon, I ventured into entrepreneurship with a travel tech startup. We raised some funding and were doing well until COVID-19 hit us hard. We had to consider pivoting into something very operationally heavy – which wasn't my forte. Around this time, Twilio reached out about joining their new team in India. I was among the first few members there as they looked to expand into the intelligent CRM space, which eventually led to Twilio's acquisition of Segment. However, as the team grew rapidly, the pace became slower than what I was looking for, and I found myself yearning to return to the startup world.

What attracted you to join Prodigal, and how has your role evolved since you started?

I was introduced to Prodigal through a friend at Accel, one of Prodigal's investors. I first spoke with Sangram and Shantanu, and I really connected with them personally. I deeply care about the people I work with, and found that perfect fit here – with the right team, you can achieve incredible things. I really enjoyed my conversations with them and was excited about their vision. The combination of fintech, SaaS, and AI was exactly what I was looking for, so I joined to lead the engineering team.‍

Can you share a significant project or achievement you're proud of during your time here?

One of my proudest achievements has been building our Bangalore office and team from ground up. When I joined, we were all working remotely, with an office in Mumbai's Vikhroli but no presence in Bangalore. As COVID settled, we decided to establish physical offices in specific locations. We started with our first office, and over time convinced remote team members to relocate to Bangalore. We also started hiring locally and built a solid team around this location. While there's always room for improvement, I feel deeply attached to the team we've built here.

What are your favorite hobbies or activities outside of work?

I'm an avid gardener – though being a new parent has made it challenging to spend as much time on it lately. I have a big terrace garden that I love tending to; it's incredibly meditative and brings me mental peace. I'm also a big fan of board games, especially Codenames and Catan. And I absolutely love traveling, particularly to beaches. I often find myself returning to the same places – there's something special about revisiting locations that hold memories. For instance, when I was three months pregnant, we went to Goa, and I made it a point to return to the same place when my baby was three and a half months old. It's like connecting with different versions of yourself.

Which of Prodigal's values resonates with you the most, and why?

Two values really resonate with me. The first is "bias for action," which I strongly believe in from my Amazon days. It means that if you own something – whether it's a project, team, or task – you're responsible for making it happen. You need to identify constraints, manoeuvre through them, and keep making progress.

The second is "radical candor," which I've really come to appreciate at Prodigal. Initially, I worried it might mean being overly critical and damaging relationships, but I've learned that you can be candid while building strong relationships and creating great products. It helps cut through the clutter and diplomacy, allowing for clear situation assessment and intelligent debates.

Is there an interesting fact about yourself that your colleagues might not know?

I have a guilty pleasure for RomComs! Despite being a big Star Wars fan and loving science fiction, I absolutely love watching rom-coms, especially Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston movies. It’s the perfect way to unwind!

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