Team

Smita Karhade, an Ex-physician who migrated from medicine to technology. She holds MS (CS), and Product Management from the HAAS School of Business. Smita has multiple patents pending with USPTO. Smita is a visionary person, empathetic listener, and inspiring speaker with high integrity & courage. She is passionate about translating conceptual ideas into unique products. A natural public speaker/communicator/presenter with strong leadership and relationship-building skills.

She is also a co-founder of a fundraising platform, Rungmunch - Theater with a Cause, that brings together artists of Indian origin for the betterment of the community. So far, the organization helped raise over $250,000 for various causes.

Madhav Karhade has very strong experience in designing very high performance systems. He worked at many companies and delivered flagship products, including, Juniper Networks, HP, AirTight Networks (Now Arista Networks). His experience ranges from Linux Kernel, Networking, High Availability Clustering Algorithms, AI, Virtualization, Network Security & Protocol Development etc. He has two security patents on his name (Juniper) related to Firewall Policies.

He holds Masters Degree in Computer Engineering from Silicon Valley University and BS from University of Mumbai.

He is also active on Stage and co-founder of Non Profit Organization, Rungmunch - Theater with a Cause.

Rahul Joshi has over 3 decades of experience in Computer Software design and development, with expertise in building Business, eCommerce, Stock Trading and CRM applications. He has worked and built software for Tata Unisys, E*Trade, HP, AT&T Wireless, Fujitsu, FDIC, USAFA (US Airforce Academy) etc. His experience ranges from building custom software run on prem or on cloud platforms.

Some of the notable products built by him are capacity management software for SEA-ME-WE III (Submarine optical fiber network operated by Singapore Telecom), E*Trade Pro, eCommerce website Shop2wear and numerous Salesforce CRM implementations.

He was also founder and CEO of Elif Systems, an e-Commerce business selling sports apparel.

Outside of work, Rahul enjoys riding his road bike, kayaking and paddle boarding.

With over a decade of experience as a dynamic Test Network Security Engineer, Manohar Bijor has excelled in delivering high-quality solutions to Fortune 100 clients and leading diverse teams across the US and India. His work has been pivotal in automation, improving testing frameworks, and enhancing product reliability in large-scale environments. Skilled in designing and executing robust test strategies. He is recognized for his strategic leadership, time management, and ability to thrive under tight deadlines. Manohar’s technical expertise is complemented by his PMP and Scrum Master certifications, which underscore his commitment to excellence and continuous learning. Currently, at Renteez.net, he focuses on UI/UX and Customer Escalations, striving to deliver a flawless user experience and a robust product.

Manohar has previously worked at Bay Networks, Nortel Networks, Juniper Networks, Stoke, and SonicWALL. Manohar has also been an entrepreneur, having ventured into a burger franchise that was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is also passionate about singing and has performed extensively in the Bay Area. Additionally, he has a strong interest in acting, having appeared on Doordarshan TV India and in various plays in the U.S. He is currently working on a couple of movies.

Shirish Sathaye is a General Partner at Cervin. He focuses on investments in next-generation enterprise software, cloud-based software, AI-powered businesses, wireless and wireline networking, data infrastructure and systems.

For 20+ years, Shirish has served as a General Partner across several venture firms. Prior to joining Cervin, he spent 10 years at Matrix Partners, 3 years at Khosla Ventures, and the remainder at Formation 8. His very first investment was Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) which had a multi-billion IPO and acquisition. Shirish’s investment career was preceded by 15 years as leader in category-creating technology companies. He was VP of Engineering and CTO at Alteon Websystems, growing the startup from 20 to 800+ employees and taking it through a multi-billion IPO and acquisition. In addition, he headed the largest engineering group at FORE Systems, which also had a multi-billion IPO.

Shirish has a Ph.D in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MSEE from Virginia Tech, and a Bachelor's Degree in Electronics Engineering from IIT-BHU, Varanasi, India.

Outside of the office, Shirish enjoys hiking, running, and reading non-fiction. He is also a foodie who enjoys trying new restaurants and cuisines.

With a diverse background spanning Telecommunication, Aviation, Healthcare and IT industries, Samir bring over three decades of experience to the table. As a former Telecommunication Engineer at Recruit Inc., an Airline Pilot at CARI Aviation, and a two decade long career as Sr. Vice President at Cisco, Samir demonstrated ability to build and manage billion-dollar businesses, lead global and regional channels, and possess deep technical expertise in IT management, software development, and data networking. Samir founded and served as CEO of FixStream Inc., where he built an innovative AIOPs (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) software platform, securing $10+ million recurring revenue from major Telco and Enterprise customers globally, which led to its successful acquisition. He also served as CEO and COO of two separate ventures in the Healthcare industry. With notable achievements, including growing business globally, establishing joint ventures, and building start up companies, Samir offer a unique blend of leadership, innovation, and proven success.

Aniket is a very seasoned product management executive with over 20 years of experience in eCommerce, marketplaces, omni-channel retail, consumer, and supply chain business and technology soultions. Aniket has played a key role in shaping products used by over BILLION people globally. His background includes work on major platforms like Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh, Google Search and Google Drive, just to name few.

Outside of work Aniket has passion for creative arts as an actor in theater and films and giving back via intellectual capital through teaching, mentoring, and education

Aniket holds BE Computer Science from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda; MS Computer Science from Virginia Tech and MBA from The Wharton School.