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Kunal Batra
Founder - Onboto.com
Kunal Batra is a seasoned professional with a background in technology and developer relations. Currently working at AWSCloud in a Developer Relations role, he has held significant positions at Clarifai, Auth0, and SendGrid in the past. His educational background includes a BS in Computer Science from New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Kunal has been involved in various organizations, showcasing his leadership and entrepreneurial skills. He was a General Partner & Co-founder at HelloDX, a Mentor at Techstars, and the Founder of Onboto. His experience at Amazon Web Services (AWS) ranges from Managerial positions to Technical Evangelist roles. Similarly, at Clarifai, he held the position of Head of Developer Relations and at Auth0, he excelled as the Head of Developer Evangelism. Additionally, Kunal has been actively involved in developer advocacy and community building at SendGrid, where he served as both Team Lead for Community and Developer Relations and Developer Evangelist.
With a diverse professional background that includes founding and co-founding various companies like General Machines and Social Roots Inc, Kunal has established himself as a versatile leader in the tech industry. Prior to his current roles, he also worked as a Lead Developer at Known Access, showcasing his technical expertise and hands-on development experience.
Highlights
🚀 My wife(Annu Batra) just opened up a new role on her team at Novo Nordisk! She's looking for someone to work on their pipeline assets in Emerging Therapy Areas (Including Liver Health). If you're passionate about bringing innovative treatments to patients, check out the details here:
https://lnkd.in/eqJq5fRS
I’ve recently had the privilege of becoming a mentor for the latest class of Techstars NYC, an accelerator that has invested in over 4,000 companies 🚀. Supporting these talented founders as they tackle significant challenges has been a humbling experience .
While reflecting on this and the new venture I'm starting with Amit Jotwani, I wanted to continue down this path of giving and share a couple of principles I've acquired throughout my career that have helped guide me:
Be Contrarian: 🔄 Sometimes it’s uncomfortable to do things that others are not, but there's always opportunity to be found on the flip side. Back in 2013, API companies like SendGrid and others were sponsoring quite a few hackathons to help build awareness to developers. I made the choice to do the opposite in NYC and just attend as a dev to more authentically show our API. This in the long term brought more developers onto the platform than any sponsorship package could have for me.
I even had some virality in the apps I was building. One used the knapsack algorithm to maximize calories for the least spend, powered by the SendGrid email webhook. This got us invited to the Taco Bell HQ in California. Think Willy Wonka & the chocolate factory but with cheese 🧀. Taco Bell went on to become a customer.
https://lnkd.in/e6ig-PfV
Don’t Just Rely on Mentors: 🤝 While mentors provide valuable insights, over-relying on them can sometimes be limiting. It's like going to the gym: having a personal trainer is great for guidance and learning techniques, but working out with a buddy who’s at a similar fitness level can push you in different, and sometimes more effective, ways. In my career, I've discovered that insights from peers can be equally valuable. People who are navigating similar challenges often provide practical, real-time solutions that mentors might overlook.
Optimize for the Whole: ⚙️ It’s important to see yourself as part of a machine, recognizing how you’re interconnected with the other parts of the system you operate in. Understand how you, your team, your company, and your organization interact with each other and their place in the larger system. Decisions that optimize for the overall system are often the most rewarding.
Think in Experiments: 🧪 I’ve found a lot of value in thinking backwards from the outcome I want and the experiments I can conduct or bets I can make to get there.This lets me look at scenarios that have a higher likelihood of not being successful without outright dismissing them. Then see how you can increase the probability of success.Even if you can’t, if there is very little to lose with a very high return, why not?
When prioritizing these experiments, think in terms of the expected value of each experiment: Expected Value = (Probability of Success × Potential Return) − (Probability of Failure × Potential Loss)
Keep a lookout on the HelloDX blog for more content in the future. 📬
