Overview

• Recent profiles spotlight Kapoor, now leading DataStax, as he advises graduates to prioritize working with exceptional people—even if it means paying to do so.
• He began in the U.S. after emigrating from Kolkata in 1983 and landed an internship at NeXT, recalling he was “the guy that got coffee for the guy that made coffee” near Steve Jobs.
• Kapoor led Gluecode before its sale to IBM and later rebranded Apigee, won major clients like Netflix, Target and Walgreens, took it public raising $87 million, and sold it to Google for $625 million in 2016.
• He argues against grooming companies for sale, saying leaders should focus on building strong teams, products and customers, keeping an “open-for-business” mindset.
• Financial Express reports he served as a Google vice president from 2016 to 2019, and he has been CEO of DataStax since October 2019.