An edtech entrepreneur’s learning journey
Parul Gupta, co-founder and president of Springboard, talks about how to build a trusted education brand, cultivate a growth mindset and unlock the big opportunities that lie ahead in edtech
Aparajita (Opu) Bhattacharyya
Product Strategy & Monetization
Microsoft Azure, Seattle
Aparajita Bhattacharyya (Opu to friends) is currently based in cloudy Seattle, advancing the goal of bringing Windows to the Cloud. She leads product strategy and monetization and brings together multi-disciplinary teams at Microsoft to scale the virtualization business in Azure.
Prior to Microsoft, Opu’s work experience as a strategist and investor spanned the US and India and across multiple sectors, including technology, healthcare, consumer and education.
In her previous role, she was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in the US. During her time there, she advised numerous healthcare and consumer clients (ranging from F-500 companies to pre-IPO firms) on how to build and drive large-scale digital transformations and on their corporate development strategy.
Deeply passionate about the growing market opportunity in emerging markets, Opu spent the early years of her career working across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in India. She connected the dots across the investing, marketing and operations functions of HDFC Asset Management Company, as part of a three-year rotational leadership development programme. As a legislative aide to Dr. Ashok S. Ganguly (former chairman and CEO of Hindustan Unilever), Opu led his venture philanthropic investments (as a Member of Parliament) in quality education and healthcare for the bottom-of-the-pyramid.
Opu holds an MBA (with Honors) from The Wharton School, and bachelor’s degrees magna cum laude in Mathematics with a focus on Statistics (from Bryn Mawr College and Harvard College) and Linguistics (from Swarthmore College). She serves as one of the youngest board members of her alma mater, Bryn Mawr College, where she is an evangelist for the power of technology to transform society and for increasing the representation of STEM-trained women in technology.
Outside of work, Opu is a dim sum devotee, a novice glamper (exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest) and constantly curious about what makes people tick.
My contributions
13 articles written
Negotiate—because you’re worth it
Why women (and men) should negotiate to be paid what they think they deserve (the right way)
The human intelligence behind intelligent machines
A conversation with Prof. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, director of ISI, about discovering patterns, learning from data, collaboration across disciplines, and how to get girls to take the STEM path (it starts at the primary education level, she says)
Reinventing girlhood, one block at a time
Three ways that parents can help daughters open their minds to STEM paths
From Bombay to the Bay Area: The journey of “becoming a VC from nothing”
Shruti Gandhi, general partner and founding engineer at Array Ventures, talks about the power of people and relationships in building an entrepreneurial career from nothing, how to hustle when you know it’s the right time for you, and what it takes to be a constant learner
Six archetypes of leaders for a new normal
The post pandemic era will need fresh thinking and an ability to learn and adapt
Gaining ‘Tracxn’ in the startup world
Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn Technologies, talks about why she chose to be a generalist despite her techie credentials; how the startup ecosystem is evolving in India; and what founders ought to know about venture capitalists
What good leaders do right
As I reflect on the initial months of Hustle Fuel, here’s a curated collection of the wisdom and helpful life lessons I’ve picked up from the leaders I’ve interacted with along the way
Is it in the genes?
A conversation with Anu Acharya, CEO of Mapmygenome and former CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions, about why early influences matter, what it takes to scale two genomics companies in India, and everything else from Nutella cravings to an equal partnership at home and work
Firms, allies & other minorities can learn from the struggle for gay rights
In honour of Pride Month, I reflect on how the lived experiences of openly gay leaders in the corporate sector can help us all prepare better for parity in the workplace