Sumit began his career in Silicon Valley over a decade ago as an entrepreneur while attending undergrad at San Jose State University, where he majored in Business Management and Film. His entrepreneurial efforts led him to Plug and Play Tech Center where he helped launch the iOS and Android accelerator program and worked directly with hundreds of entrepreneurs and analyzed and sourced deals for their Venture Arm. He describes this era as magical–smart: and passionate people were all trying to figure out how to leverage the smartphone and it eventually changed the world.
During Sumit’s time at Plug and Play, he helped numerous startups with their pitches and, organized small and large pitch events with top investors. During that time he realized the passion entrepreneurs have is infectious and the importance of being a sounding board for entrepreneurs in the early stages. Early startups need a champion that will sing their praises in the industry, make introductions for them, and listen to them when they run into a problem.
From there, Sumit became a pioneer in business development and sales in the mobile ecosystem working at Nokia and leading mobile ad networks. He was instrumental in the push and eventual standardization of the interstitial mobile ad product during his time at Greystripe (now Conversant) and other leading ad networks such as JetFuel (Vungle), and Mintegral. He also co-founded the first on demand delivery app for cocktails, 1806. Sumit holds an MS in Integrated Design, Business and Technology, an MBA from the University of Southern California and is an alumni of the School of Cinematic Arts.
