Kirthiga Reddy

About Kirthiga Reddy

I’m a builder, turned investor, & now back to building. CEO, OptimizeGEO. Driven by the mantra “When businesses succeed, livelihoods flourish.” Building:Started career as an engineer at Silicon Graphics. Part of high-performance-computing technology shiftAs product leader, at the forefront of the mobile shift w Good Technology (acquired by Motorola)As business leader, led SaaS consumer security product line at Phoenix Technology (before SaaS was a phenomenon!)(acquired by Absolute Technology)Managing Director, Facebook India & South Asia for 6+ years, starting as their first employee in India— Started one of four global operations offices that now serve 3.6B+ people; built APAC SMB business & then focused on India revenue— Grew India business to $400M+ annual revenue & got investment buy-in for path to $1B. The team has since surpassed $2B— Subsequent experiences at Facebook focused on emerging and high-growth marketsCo-founder Liftery, social impact initiative focused on stepping up careers of ten million moms Investing:Founding Investment Partner of F7 seed fundPresident, Athena Tech II, third in series of all women-led SPACs bringing talent, access to capital & transaction experience to enable a market leader to access public equity capital marketsFirst female Investment Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA), manager of the $130B+ SoftBank Vision Fund— Deployed $1B in new investments, led a portfolio of $5B+ across 9 investments, two new unicorns, three companies publicly listed— My focus was fast evolving sectors like quantum computing, additive manufacturing, enterprise, health tech, gaming & web3— Served on IC of Emerge, global accelerator for brilliant companies led by underrepresented founders— LP in Perplexity Fund, 49 PalmsBoard roles including:WeWork (joined as part of biz turnaround), Fungible (acquired by MSFT), Collective Health, Pear TherapeuticsChair, Stanford Business School Management BoardBoard Trustee and Dean’s Leadership Council, College of Engineering, Syracuse UniversityTeach For India US Advisory BoardYPO Alcatraz Communications Chair My work has led to recognitions including:Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in BusinessFortune India’s “Most Powerful WomenLifetime Stanford Associate recognizing university’s most dedicated volunteersPassionate about K-12 education, next-gen leaders, mental health advocacy, tech for goodI’m a (slow) runner. Ask me about my next half-marathon. I love the outdoors & have hiked Mt. Everest Base Camp twice

Experience

1. Founder

   Ai Kiran

   Aug 2025 — Present

   Initiative with INK Global Foundation & Principal Scientific Advisor Govt. of India to enable million women, youth and differently abled in AI

Education

• Stanford University Graduate School of Business

  MBA

  2001 — 2003

• Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad

  B.E, Computer Science and Engineering

  1988 — 1992

• Syracuse University

  M.S., Computer Engineering

  1993 — 1995

Skills

• Integration
• Project Planning
• Customer Relationship Management (Crm)
• Mobile Devices
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Competitive Analysis
• Start-Ups
• Agile Methodologies
• Product Development
• Management
• Team Building
• Web Analytics
• Mobile Applications
• Analytics
• Security
• Enterprise Software
• Strategic Partnerships
• Software Project Management
• Crm
• Marketing
• Program Management
• Product Launch
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Online Advertising
• Saas
• Product Management
• Product Marketing
• Software as a Service (Saas)
• Digital Marketing
• Leadership
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• User Experience
• Strategy
• Cloud Computing