Overview
Sanjay Sathe is an accomplished corporate global executive and serial entrepreneur, who is on his third startup with the prior two being successful exits. Sathe has expertise in assisting early-stage startups to move from “survival” to “thrival,” by helping with fundraising, advising on product-market fit, go-to-market strategies, scaling, and acquisition. Sathe is also a Board Advisor and an active Angel investor, a LP with several VC funds and an advisor with several incubators including Plug & Play Tech Center, the world’s largest startup incubator/accelerator. Having lived and worked across the globe, Sathe considers himself a global citizen and is bilingual in English and Hindi.
Career History
Sathe’s is currently CEO and Founder of a third start up, SucceedSmart, a company focused on disrupting the $7B US traditional Executive Search space and restoring control of the process back to corporations and executives. With AI-powered solutions, including rich algorithms and proprietary matchmaking processes, SucceedSmart is poised to change the way impactful and influential corporations and executives maneuver to the forefront of their respective fields. His second startup, GenomeSmart, is an AI Genetics platform for risk assessment and early detection of hereditary cancers and reproductive genetic disorders. Sathe ultimately led the company through a successful acquisition by Konica Minolta Precision Medicine.
Sathe began his first startup RiseSmart through his realization that the traditional model of outplacement was broken. Thus, he decided to disrupt this $3B space and put America back to work. Sathe raised $1.25M in angel funding in 2007, built the technology platform, and then raised $25M from top tier Silicon Valley VC firms (Norwest, Storm Ventures and Accel-KKR) to support his building out the business and delivering strong growth. RiseSmart was later acquired for $100M by Randstad, a global $22B HR services leader. Though he negotiated an all-cash deal, Sathe stayed on for the next two years, helping roll out RiseSmart globally by building out a multi-language platform and launching the solution in over 100 countries in 20+ languages. Upon his successful exit, he went on to start GenomeSmart.
Prior to RiseSmart, Sathe was Vice President for Enterprise Data Management and ran Big Data globally for Sabre Holdings, a $2.5 billion global leader in travel commerce and the parent company of Travelocity. Before Sabre, he was SVP Marketing & President International for Brierley & Partners, a CRM and loyalty management company that serves global brands such as Hilton HHonors, Hertz #1 Club Gold, Sony, and Nokia, and led the efforts for launching Star Alliance’s Frequent Flyer offering globally. He also worked as a Marketing and Product leader at the global HQ of Lufthansa in Germany, and earlier in Asia with Lufthansa, HSBC, and other major corporations.
Sathe has received numerous awards over the years, including the Stevie Award for CEO of the year in 2017, and the Top 50 Outstanding Asian Americans of the Year in 2016 from the Asian American Business Development Center. He was the recipient of the Triple A Alumni Achievement Award from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in 2013, and is also an Executive in Residence at AIM.
Personal
Sathe graduated with an MBM from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines, and received certification in E-commerce Strategy from Wharton School of Business. He lives in the Los Altos, CA with his wife, Vandana, and has two adult children.