From technical positions at Oracle and Google to founding and leading several of Silicon Valley's most successful enterprise software businesses, including Nutanix, Glean, and Rubrik, a small community of Indian immigrants has helped each other advance.

At Oracle’s former Silicon Valley headquarters in Redwood Shores, a select group of engineers convened weekly in 2005 for an intensive educational program resembling a mini-MBA. This program focused on essential areas such as product quality, customer support, and fundamental sales and marketing strategies.

Despite receiving numerous applications, only a dozen employees were chosen; several shared a background as immigrants from India and alums of prestigious Indian Institute of Technology schools.

While initially needing certain business fundamentals, such as constructing financial statements, the group rapidly acquired knowledge. The companies they subsequently founded, including cloud-based enterprises like Nutanix and Rubrik–expected to launch stock offerings–have since amassed significant combined market values in the tens of billions. Anshu Sharma, CEO of Skyflow, who participated in the program alongside Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha and former Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey, humorously remarked that a roomful of 12 engineers can outperform many classes at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business or Harvard Business School.

Rubrik, a provider of data security solutions, recently completed its IPO with an offering price of $32 and a valuation of $5.6 billion, marking a notable success amidst a scarcity of such public exits over the past couple of years.

Sinha and co-founders Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar, and Arvind Nithrakashyap view their recent achievements as significant. At the same time, investors such as Blumberg Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Greylock Partners see it as a favorable liquidity event. However, this success is neither their first nor final significant outcome within this small cohort of highly technical immigrant founders and executives. Two co-founders are already involved in new startup ventures, including enterprise search unicorn Glean and stealth data startup WisdomAI.

Initially underestimated for their technical prowess overshadowing their business acumen, the founders of Nutanix, Rubrik, and others now share a solid entrepreneurial bond. They have frequently invested in and advised each other's ventures, occasionally collaborated, and occasionally faced off in direct competition. Despite their busy schedules, they stay connected through barbecues, birthdays, and morning commute calls, as noted in Forbes. As some have successfully exited, the cycle of innovation and collaboration continues, inspiring a new generation of Indian programmers and founders who look up to them as role models.

The IIT Startup Mafia

Asheem Chandna, a partner at Greylock who pioneered Rubrik’s Series B funding round in 2015, elucidates that the cohort of entrepreneurs may seem akin to an expansive assembly of unicorns. Yet, it emerges from a rigorous self-selection process originating from IIT admissions and persisting through experiences in Silicon Valley.

Sinha initially entered the venture capital realm as a novice investor at Blumberg Capital, where he crossed paths with Pandey, who had transitioned from Oracle (ORCL: NYSE) to Aster Data Systems, along with fellow IIT Kanpur graduate Ajeet Singh and Mohit Aron, an IIT Delhi alum and former Google (GOOG: NASDAQ) employee. This collaboration led to their joint venture, Nutanix; Sinha and Blumberg Capital became early backers in 2010. As Sinha advanced in his career, joining Lightspeed Venture Partners, he continued to support Nutanix alongside Ravi Mhatre, a co-founder at Lightspeed, with the firm eventually investing a cumulative $40 million into the enterprise and elevating Sinha to an investment partner role.

However, subsequent years witnessed shifts within this network of entrepreneurs. Singh departed to launch ThoughtSpot in collaboration with another IIT Kanpur classmate, former Googler Amit Prakash, while Aron departed Nutanix in 2013 to establish Cohesity, a data management company.

In the eyes of industry observers, the activities of Cohesity seemed reminiscent of those undertaken by Rubrik. Aron, the co-founder and CEO, did not actively seek investment from Lightspeed when he established the company in 2013. However, Sinha, representing Lightspeed on Nutanix's board, likely became aware of Aron's plans during the transition period, leading to murmurs within Cohesity's circles that Rubrik's business model bore striking similarities. This evolved into what one report described in 2019 as "one of the tech industry’s most bitter rivalries."

Subsequently, both companies experienced substantial growth, earning spots on the Forbes Cloud 100 list. They also pivoted their focus towards data security: Cohesity's acquisition of Veritas’ data protection business in February resulted in a combined annual recurring revenue of $1.3 billion and a market value of $7 billion. Meanwhile, according to its IPO filings, Rubrik launched a cloud security offering in 2022 and reported a recurring yearly income of $784 million as of January 31, 2024.

Reflecting on Rubrik's journey to IPO, Sinha noted that iconic tech companies like Nvidia (NVDA: NASDAQ) didn’t adhere rigidly to one initial idea. Rubrik had begun developing a data security platform as early as 2016 or 2017, adapting its strategy as market demand evolved. Aron, now designated as "founder emeritus" at Cohesity, acknowledged Nutanix's role as a valuable learning environment but did not provide further commentary.

During the mid-2000s, when the 'IIT Mafia'—as they are colloquially known—were emerging in their careers, Indian CEO success stories in Silicon Valley were scarce. Established figures like Vinod Khosla and Rajiv Batra were making strides, while individuals such as Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian were rising within tech giants like Google and Oracle, respectively. Despite the prevailing expectations for Indian immigrants to defer to others in launching startups, figures like Sharma and Pandey have since defied those norms, contributing to the evolution of Indian entrepreneurship in the tech landscape.

In 2020, after twelve years in leadership at Nutanix, Pandey departed the company. His subsequent venture involved the launch of a new AI-based product development startup named DevRev, spurred by a conversation with Khosla, the initial institutional VC to support OpenAI. Recently, Pandey secured $100 million for DevRev in a significant seed funding round within the tech industry, although the exact valuation remains undisclosed.

As a figure looked up to by emerging Indian founders, Pandey reflects on the irony of seeking inspiration from more recent successes like Rubrik and Glean. He acknowledges the honor of being seen as a role model while feeling responsible for mentoring and contributing to the community. Notably, many of these founders who admire him have become investors in his ventures, leading to a reciprocal learning dynamic.

The influence of companies like Glean, led by Rubrik's cofounder Jain, is evident in the burgeoning ecosystem of new startups. Jain attributes their success to fostering a culture of transparency that involved early employees in strategic discussions and encouraged cross-functional collaboration with customers.

Meanwhile, another Rubrik cofounder, Mazumdar, has embarked on a new venture called WisdomAI. This venture is focused on leveraging AI for enhanced data insights within organizations. While funding details are not public, sources indicate substantial support.

Reflecting on Rubrik's journey to IPO, Sinha emphasizes the value of nurturing talent that eventually branches out to start their ventures. He perceives this as a testament to the potential for success stemming from a combination of technical expertise, entrepreneurial drive, and a solid educational foundation, believing such opportunities should be accessible to all aspiring entrepreneurs, regardless of background.