# Pooja Sankar

> Pooja Nath Sankar is an Indian-American tech entrepreneur best known as the founder and former CEO of Piazza, an online Q&A and collaborative learning platform used by millions of students across 1,500+ universities. Born in a rural village in northern India with no electricity, she became the first girl from her hometown to attend an IIT, went on to work at Facebook, and left pre-IPO stock options on the table to attend Stanford GSB and build Piazza. She stepped down as CEO in 2022 to focus on family and teaching.

- **Role:** Former Founder & CEO at Piazza Technologies
- **Organizations:** Piazza Technologies, Oracle, Kosmix, Facebook, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- **From:** Rural village, northern India
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** B.Tech., Computer Science, IIT Kanpur (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur), M.S., Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- **Known for:** Founded Piazza, used by 2M+ students at 1,500+ universities across 90+ countries, First girl from her rural northern India hometown to attend an IIT, Won AnitaB.org Technology Entrepreneurship ABIE Award (2016)

## Career timeline

- **2002** — Graduated from IIT Kanpur with B.Tech in Computer Science - first girl from her hometown to attend IIT
- **2002-2004** — M.S. in Computer Science at University of Maryland, College Park
- **2004-2006** — Software Developer at Oracle
- **2006-2008** — Software Developer at Kosmix
- **2008** — Joined Facebook as engineer on News Feed team; attended Sheryl Sandberg's female employee meeting that would inspire Piazza
- **2008** — Left Facebook (and pre-IPO stock options) to attend Stanford GSB
- **2009** — Founded Piazza Technologies; built first prototype at Stanford
- **2010** — Failed her Stanford entrepreneurship class while actually running her startup
- **2011** — Publicly launched Piazza at Stanford in January; raised angel funding
- **2012** — Raised $6M Series A from Bessemer Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, Felicis Ventures
- **2012** — Named one of '8 Women Headed to the Top of Tech' by The Next Web
- **2015** — Raised additional funding; Piazza reaches millions of students
- **2016** — Won AnitaB.org Technology Entrepreneurship ABIE Award
- **2022** — Stepped down as Piazza CEO; Ethan O'Rafferty named successor
- **2022** — Relocated to Colorado; plans to teach at local colleges

## Achievements

- Founded Piazza, used by 2M+ students at 1,500+ universities across 90+ countries
- First girl from her rural northern India hometown to attend an IIT
- Won AnitaB.org Technology Entrepreneurship ABIE Award (2016)
- Named one of '8 Women Headed to the Top of Tech' by The Next Web (2012)
- Inducted into University of Maryland CS Alumni Hall of Fame
- Raised $15.5M total for Piazza from top VCs including Bessemer, Sequoia, Khosla
- Featured in Fortune, Entrepreneur.com, Stanford GSB, IEEE, Bloomberg
- Built Piazza as a solo founder with no co-founder or significant technical team

## Latest updates

- **2022-01** — Stepped down as CEO of Piazza after 13 years; Ethan O'Rafferty named new CEO
- **2022-01** — Published reflection piece on EdSurge about lessons learned from building Piazza
- **2022-01** — Relocated to Colorado with family; stated plans to teach at local colleges

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poojasankar/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/poojanathsankar
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealpoojasankar/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/pooja-sankar
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-25