“𝑰 𝒓𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒂 𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉 II 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆. M𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒎 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒁𝒐𝒐𝒎. 𝑺𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉 her 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 education, 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒖𝒎. T𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆.”

Meet Kirthiga Reddy, founder of Virtualness, and former Managing Director of Facebook in India. She has been featured in Fortune's "Most Powerful Women'' list from 2011 to 2016 and as Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business in 2013..

In this interview episode of ‘Wiping Out the Norm’, Kirthiga shares with us her inspiring journey from a small town called Nanded, to working at top US-based tech companies, leading the Facebook India team as their first employee and Managing Director and being the First Female Investment Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, one of the largest tech funds in the world with $130B under management

After completing her Engineering in Computer Science in Nanded, Kirthiga climbed the academic and career ladder by pursuing further education in the US, completing an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA at Stanford, where she graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.

From a student at Stanford, with her exceptional technical expertise and leadership skills, she went on to serve as Chair of the Stanford Business Management Board.

Balancing ambition with familial dedication, Kirthiga spoke about the pause she took in her career to prioritize her daughters and how it helped her to connect with new opportunities. In our conversation, Kirthiga highlighted

“𝑴𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍. She𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒔”. Despite coming from a background where her mother couldn’t finish her education, Kirthiga shattered glass ceilings and redefined what's possible for women in tech.

Watch our full conversation with Kirthiga as she shared with us many more learnings from her career.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/sC40BkqPPYE