In this conversation, Madhurima Agarwal, Director of Engineering Programs and Leader at NetApp Accelerator shares are career journey with Chitra. She talks about -

• Her love for technology starting when she believed in grade 8 that she was the best programmer in the world
• Being an entrepreneur during her college days with her father as mentor and angel investor, building a product to automate member directory for the chambers of commerce and industry at Ranchi
• Learning empathy, self-discipline and confidence through her venture
• Understanding what entrepreneurs go through in early days from personal experience enabled her while mentoring entrepreneurs today and facing bias as a young entrepreneur
• Tech world a fair space where your work speaks for itself and need for women to speak about what they have done
• Finding the right product market fit, her rules of thumb

- Knowing the domain or asking experts

- Understanding pain points of customers

•  Developing an experimental mindset, encouraging and accepting failure, having a mentor
• Changing tracks and feeling confident to do so Support and communities between investors and entrepreneurs to build great products and encourage entrepreneurship
• Her 3 messages for technology and entrepreneurial aspirants

- Be the best at what you do;

-Don't be afraid of failing;

 -Be Optimistic

Madhurima Agarwal works as the Director for Engineering Program with global responsibility for leading NetApp’s startup program called NetApp Excellerator – startup.netapp.in. She also plays a key role in driving enhanced collaboration between engineering and market-facing functions across NetApp India and acts as the touch point for all external partnerships. She brings with her over 17yrs of experience spanning domains across the globe with leading financial firms. She’s been an entrepreneur and currently dons the hats of a mentor and advisor to startups.

An alumna of IIM, Ahmedabad, Madhurima enjoys driving innovation and taming the power of technology to achieve organizational growth.

She’s an avid reader and enjoys writing on topics around entrepreneurship. Madhurima is an advisor to the WIT (Women in Technology) group at NetApp and focuses on professional development of women in the workplace.

Reach her at :linkedin.com/in/madhurimaagarwal

Twitter : @MadhurimaAg