The First Welcome in Silicon Valley: Mala Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner, Progressive Ventures
As part of The First Welcome in Silicon Valley series, I have been asking founder friends to share their stories of the first welcome they experienced in Silicon Valley. These are the people, the moments, and the gestures that stayed with them.
In this stream, Mala Ramakrishnan, Founder and Managing Partner at Progressive Ventures, shared memories from her earliest days at Stanford. With more than 20 years of operating experience and a deep focus on actionable insights for B2B AI SaaS, Mala has built her career on technology and people, and her first welcomes in the Valley reflect both.
"My first job as a grad student, was driving a golf cart around Stanford campus installing computers in the undergrad dorm rooms. I don't remember the name of the staff who hired me, just his face... and I was ecstatic - driving a golf cart before I was eligible for a driver's license, earning $12 an hour, and doing the thing I loved most in the world at the time - installing computers.
The two people who touched my life most, were Anand Chandrasekaran (who we affectionately call AK) and Dan Turchin, who invited me to write a business plan that got first place from Guy Kawasaki and got me on stage and published in some famous magazines.
The prof who was kindest and I learnt the most from, was Prof Leonidas Guibas who taught Data Structures and Algorithms and kindly let me be his TA for a few quarters, which covered my tuition and helped me truly understand data structures and algorithms that I can clearly explain them even today, after 25 years. He even took us out to eat Indian food in Amber India at the end of the quarter for working in his class. Amber Los Altos is still my favorite Indian restaurant from those memories."
Mala’s story shows that the first welcome can come in many forms. A job, a mentor, a professor’s kindness, even a shared meal that becomes a lifelong memory. These are the moments that stay with us and remind us that the Valley is not only about companies being built. It is also about people creating belonging for each other.
