# Vishal Sankhla

> Vishal Sankhla is the co-founder and CEO of Outmarket AI, which develops AI tools for insurance agencies. He previously co-founded Viralheat, acquired by Cision in 2015, and held product and engineering leadership roles at Uber, Meta, and Ethos. His entrepreneurial work began as a teenager with a handicraft business involving rural Indian artisans.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Outmarket AI
- **Organizations:** Outmarket AI, Viralheat, Cision, Uber, Meta, Ethos, Cisco, Network Chemistry, Section
- **Education:** BE, Electronics Engineering, Birla Vishwakarma Mahavidyalaya, Master’s, Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California
- **Known for:** Co-founded Viralheat, acquired by Cision in March 2015., Led product and engineering work at Uber, Meta, and Ethos., Co-founded Outmarket AI, which reported more than 300 agencies and over 10,000 users in September 2026.

## Career timeline

- **Teenage years** — Started a handicraft business working with rural Indian artisans; says it continues as a family-run business.
- **2004** — Completed a master’s in electrical engineering at USC.
- **Before Viralheat** — Worked in software engineering at Network Chemistry and Cisco.
- **By 2009** — Co-founded Viralheat with Raj Kadam; served as CTO. Public accounts differ on the exact founding year, but the product was available in 2009.
- **2015** — Cision acquired Viralheat; Sankhla joined Cision’s senior management.
- **2017-2019** — Head of Product, Core Platform at Uber.
- **2019-2021** — Director of Engineering at Facebook, now Meta.
- **2021-2022** — VP of Product at Ethos.
- **2023** — Started Outmarket AI with Anshu Jain.
- **2025-03** — Outmarket launched with $4.7 million in seed funding.
- **2026-05** — Outmarket announced a $17 million Series A.
- **2026-09** — Outmarket announced a $34.5 million Series B and Certificate Hub.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Viralheat, acquired by Cision in March 2015.
- Led product and engineering work at Uber, Meta, and Ethos.
- Co-founded Outmarket AI, which reported more than 300 agencies and over 10,000 users in September 2026.
- Outmarket announced $4.7 million seed, $17 million Series A, and $34.5 million Series B rounds.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Outmarket’s blog listed its participation as a supporting partner of the Big “I” Agents Council for Technology on October 15.
- **2026-09** — Outmarket announced a $34.5 million Series B led by SignalFire; reported 300+ agencies and 10,000+ users; introduced Certificate Hub.
- **2026-05** — Outmarket announced a $17 million Series A led by Permanent Capital Ventures.
- **2026-02** — Appeared on the Insurtech Leadership Podcast with Josh Hollander to discuss insurance AI workflows.
- **2026-01** — Appeared on Profiles in Risk, episode 781.

## Links

- Website: https://outmarket.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishalsankhla/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/vishals
- GitHub: https://github.com/vishals

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vishal-sankhla
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22