Ankit Sobti
Class of 2013






Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I was very fortunate to be born into a loving family, through whom I had access to the best resources and education. However, I have been ever more fortunate to witness first hand, the rise of the person who has proven to be the biggest source of inspiration throughout my life, my father. I have seen him emerge from a very middle class background to become the Director at BHEL, one of the largest companies in the country, without ever compromising his drive and integrity.
Apart, from the genetically attained ones, I have tried to emulate some of his traits in my professional and personal life. It never hurts to have your role model at arm’s distance.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Professional Achievements:
Prior to joining ISB, I and a friend had, as a side project, developed a product called Postman. It was built to placate our own need of building connected software, in a more productive manner. We open sourced it for the world to use and collaboratively build. At the time I joined ISB we had 100 users, at the time I graduated we had 50,000. In the September of 2014, we decided to quit our jobs and work on Postman, full time. Today I can proudly boast of ~1.5 Million users, acquired purely organically on the strength of the product, usage in every country in the world, and adoption by organisations like Google, Microsoft, NASA, and Box, to name a few. We have expanded to a highly talented team of 8, and look to evolve the product quickly, and define the shape of an entire industry. It’s hard to fathom, that it has been only 6 months, every day of which has been a humbling learning experience like none other.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
Prior to ISB, I had worked as a developer at Yahoo for 2 years and Adobe for a year. At these roles, I learnt how to architect production quality systems at scale. I also managed to successfully file a few side projects as patents at these organisations.
Post ISB, I headed the Real Time Bidding business for Media.net (Directi) in the online advertising domain. At this role, I was really fortunate to be mentored directly by the CTO. We managed to turn around a laggard part of the business into a fairly competitive one, in less than a year. Since, I have been running Technology at Postman, and it’s been nothing short of a fantastic learning experience.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
In the beginning, ISB proved a very challenging environment, from both an academic and an inter-personal perspective. I came with a very narrowly-focused technology bent, and suddenly had a tonne of new concepts, ideas and people thrown at me. It helped me extend my boundaries in certain aspects, while carefully backtracking in others.
More than anything I learnt in the classroom, I underwent a subconscious shift that was possible only because of the environment ISB provided, where comprehending anything through a broadened perspective was now possible. From a more specific professional perspective, I used to make decisions based on the appeal of the technological complexity, while now I look at product, I look at marketing and strategy, to make a far more informed one. The intangible far overtakes the tangible, and I appreciate ISB for everything it has taught me, through an experience like none other.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
Everything, but mostly centered around scale and impact. Every decision you take, impacts a million and a half people directly, and since they’re essentially developers, innumerable indirectly, the feeling is such a rush. At times, it is intimidating, and there is tonnes to learn but I feel really fortunate to be in a position, where as a deeply entrenched product, you have the power to shape an entire industry.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
Currently, we are functioning as small-sized startup (< 10) with a significant user base, which makes my daily workload a lot more involved. These activities include, but are not limited to product management and development, strategy, recruitment, customer interaction and support, content writing and marketing. Every day feels like the first two terms at ISB, so you can’t complain too much :)

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
I work in a burgeoning world of APIs, the language that defines how softwares talk to one another. The more ubiquitous the “Internet of Things” becomes, the more relevance APIs will observe. Since being thrown into large scale prevalence, from the onslaught of mobile apps, APIs are now the products that businesses primarily sell, not just apps or services. I foresee a far more connected world, where data is not siloed inside a specific platform or technology, but flows freely across the gamut.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
I have the most hackneyed possible answer for this, but it is absolutely the people you meet at ISB. Being confined in a stimulating environment with smart(er) individuals, challenges you to learn and improve, every step of the way. And when these individuals grow on to become a support network for life, you continue learning every single day. Experiences are conveyed through even the most trivial conversations, and that is something I would always cherish about my year at ISB.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
ISB presents a whirlwind of opportunities and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything that is going on around you. Amidst these interactions, that commence much before you’re even admitted, it is rather easy to lose focus as happened with me multiple times during the year. Always remember why you came to ISB in the first place, the aspirations can and should evolve, but be cognizant of the changes.
I definitely did not achieve everything I should and could have in my year, but I can safely say that I graduated an evolved person, to a large extent for the better. And this was infinitely more possible through periodic reality checks.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
I’d love to interact with ISB students on a periodic basis, particularly to propogate the need to develop Product companies out of India. There is a real dearth, and entrepreneurship has a little too evidently, become synonymous with e-commerce, which is unfortunate. The biggest companies in the world are centered around Product, and it’s sad to not see even a single successful example out of India. The biggest compliment we at Postman often get, yet one that disappoints me no end, is the expression of surprise when we mention that our genesis was in Bangalore. It indeed was, and I will do whatever is in my power, to drive this change.


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