Pooja Sankar

Pooja Sankar

Pooja Sankar is the founder and CEO of Piazza, on online gathering place for students and instructors. She has worked at Facebook, Kosmix, and Oracle, and has degrees from IIT, UMD, and Stanford.

Palo Alto, California, United States
Member since July 05, 2011
Quote
I want to transform the way people learn and teach. Quote_down
  • About
Education
IIT Kanpur , BS , Computer Science
University of Maryland , MS , Computer Science
Stanford Graduate School of Business , MBA
I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to change the world.

My favorite startups:

Piazza, Palantir, Redfin, RelateIQ, PhenomList

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Frustrating: sometimes you're the only one in the world who cares about what you're doing. Rewarding: you care more than anyone else in the world about what you're doing.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

They don't ask enough questions.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

* Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. Entrepreneurship is about learning as you go along, not pretending that you know everything.
* Don't be afraid to ask for help. Especially if you're blessed to live in Silicon Valley, there are many helpful people. Get help and then help others in return.
* Follow your passion. You'll work harder and smarter if you're really passionate about what you're doing. Better still if this passion is based on your own experience.

Full bio

Pooja (Nath) Sankar is the founder and CEO of Piazza, a social platform for students and teachers. She has worked at Oracle, Kosmix, and Facebook, and has degrees from IIT, the University of Maryland, and Stanford. The genesis for Piazza and Sankar's passion for social learning came from her experience as one of a handful of women in the computer science program at IIT in the late 1990s. Sankar started Piazza while studying for her MBA at Stanford, where she failed a class in entrepreneurship because she was too busy running the business.