Praveen Akkiraju

Managing Director

2020 - Current

Investments: Bardeen, Frontegg, LaunchDarkly, Liblab, Postman, Privacera, PlanetScale, Reco, RudderStack, Stampli, Setsail, Teleport, Workato

Board Advisor

2018 - 2020

Managing Partner

2018 - 2019

Investments: Automation Anywhere

Chief Executive Officer

2016 - 2018

Viptela is a fast growing startup that fundamentally disrupted the Networking industry by delivering a modern Cloud based SaaS platform for Enterprises to connect their users and applications. Lead the company to a 100M run rate prior to being acquired by Cisco.

Chief Executive Officer

2012 - 2016

Built a profitable $2.1 Billion business which grew at 45.3% CAGR by disrupting Enterprise IT and Data Center infrastructure buying patterns by creating a new Converged Infrastructure market segment. Acquired by EMC Corp. BUSINESS RESULTS: Defined an operating model for the company which aligned the team, board and partners to work efficiently and build one of the fastest companies to top $ 1 Billion in revenues and profitability. PRODUCT STRATEGY: Transformed VCE from a narrow Joint Venture into a true Cloud infrastructure company by expanding portfolio to cover branded, commodity and open source technologies & applications BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION: As a solutions company, focused on technology partnerships with IT vendors, Systems Integrators & Cloud providers to create differentiation, multiple routes to market & higher margin offers. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Revamped Marketing strategy and leadership to create an aggressive customer reference led campaign to establish a new market segment and highlight VCE unique differentiation

Member, Senior Advisory Board

2010 - 2015

Sponsor industry experience for High School STEM teachers in technology companies

Senior Vice President & General Manager, Enterprise Networking & Cloud Infrastructure

2009 - 2012

Global P&L responsibility for a 5+ Billion Enterprise technology group with the primary task of reversing 3 years of declining growth and margins by revamping the products, team and GTM strategy BUSINESS RESULTS Turned around $ 2.8B Enterprise Routing business delivering net 10% growth while managing complex portfolio & technology transitions across a mix of products in Enterprise Access segment. PRODUCT STRATEGY Created a unified strategy combining Cisco's assets in Enterprise access routing, Security VPNs, Wireless Access and Application acceleration to create a "Branch-in-a-Box" offer to reignite growth. BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION Championed and launched Cisco Cloud Service Router : Industry’s 1st vCPE & SD-WAN solution delivered in a Software-as-a-Service model for Service Providers and Enterprise customers TRANSFORMATION Completely rebuilt the product strategy and leadership team bring on a rockstar VP of Engineering to revamp the platform architecture and software stack.

Vice President & General Manager - Service Provider Infrastructure Business

2006 - 2009

Lead Cisco's $3 Billion Service Provider business back to No. 1 market share by delivering the ASR9000 platform to address market share lost to competitive disruption BUSINESS RESULTS Grew the Service Provider Routing business at a CAGR of 20%+ over my tenure as General Manager while regaining No. 1 market share in Core and Edge routing market segments. PRODUCT STRATEGY "Badge on the table" bet to develop and deliver Cisco's flagship ASR9000 Mobile/Broadband edge platform in startup mode, unifying the software strategy across the portfolio. TRANSFORMATION Integrated 3 distinct product lines, teams and cultures to build a unified product strategy to reestablish Cisco's No. 1 market share leadership while dealing with 20% cost reduction objectives

Senior Director, Product Managment

1998 - 2006

Drove the product definition of flagship Routing platforms (CRS-1, ASR9000), managed products thru the full Life Cycle including driving design tough tradeoffs, product launch & sales enablement

Board Of Directors

2009 - 2010