“What's past is prologue.”― William Shakespeare, The Tempest
A few months into my first post-undergraduate job, I learned my first major lesson about the career impact I wanted to have. I was working as an ASIC engineer in a company trying to reinvent flash memories. While I was learning new skills, the team I was on played second fiddle to the teams developing the core IP of the company. I aspired for more, and to achieve those aspirations, I knew that in the future, I would need to be part of the most influential teams and work on the most challenging technologies the tech world had to offer. Ever since, at every crossroad, I ensured that I joined teams which were at the epicenter of the most important projects in the company and that I would be working on the most exciting market transitions.
Since then, I've had the opportunity to join a startup developing its first silicon as the first ASIC Engineer and to see the impact of mobile on consumers globally. I also spent time as an associate in Amiti Ventures, where I discovered a passion for finding and helping early-stage startups. This role allowed me to start applying and weaving an enterprise and tech investor mindset into everything I do. I then went on to learn the go-to-market side at a company that mastered enterprise sales - Microsoft. There I worked in product, strategy, and BD roles in a group developing a small service in its infancy phase, the Azure Cloud platform, which is now a top franchise for the company and impacts millions of corporations and consumers. Lastly, I have spent the last eight years at Cisco, being part of a team that developed one of the world's most effective and elaborate enterprise M&A playbooks and where I focused on acquisitions and strategic corporate investments. I saw first-hand how smaller companies can make a long-lasting dent in the revenues, tech stack and culture of a large corporation. I had the privilege to partner with and invest in some of the best early-stage startups in the infrastructure space as those talented teams scaled their operations and delivered products that delighted their customers.