Bipul’s story is no less than that of a film hero. It will remind you of Manoj Kumar’s in 12th Fail, a film by Vidhu Vinod Chopra that topped most Bollywood Rating Charts.  His story shows how a person can change the fate of both himself and his family through his hard work. Bipul struggled a lot from Dhanbad to the US and he built a company whose valuation today is $4 billion. His biggest support system in this journey was his father who never left his side and inspired him to move ahead.

Bipul Background:

Bipul was born and brought up in Bihar. His father started his professional life as a sales manager in a pharmaceutical company Alambic in Mumbai but then he left him and started his own startup in his home Darbhanga and Madhepura Bihar. He started a venture but it didn’t  work then tried another but that also did not work. Bipul remembers that he and his brother got their education from Bihar government school, where there were no proper schools so they did not have proper education.

Struggles in Studies and 1st Attempt:

His father took a job in Dhanbad, his family lived in a place near Dhanbad called Govindpur, in a basement without bathroom and running water. Bipul did his plus 2 from PK Roy Memorial College, Dhanbad, his marks were not that good, with such marks Bipul’s father said that it would be difficult for him to get admission in any BSc program, it would be better if he stays at home and prepares for IITJEE, everyone said that he is crazy because he did not have proper education and did not have good marks but still he listened to his father and prepared but he could not qualify, even he Could not even qualify for local Bihar engineering college.

Father’s Support & 2nd Chance, Success at IIT Kharagpur:

His father did not give up and asked him to prepare for IIT again, he was very ambitious, Bipul said that it was good that he did not get admission in Bihar Engineering College, otherwise he would not have prepared for IIT again, at Bipul’s house his uncle and aunt said that both father and son must be crazy, Bipul started preparing again and he said that when you sit at home and no one tells you what to study, it becomes a bliss, in that environment sometimes you overprepare and get more interested in things. 

Whatever the reason may be Bipul’s hard work paid off, he got admission in the Electrical Engineering program at IIT Kharagpur, he achieved what everyone thought was impossible.

Beginning at United States & Early Job:

After his graduation, he was very clear that he had to earn money to improve the condition of his family. Then he looked at the United States and he got his answer. After a brief stint at Tata Information Systems (a Tata IBM joint venture), Bipul moved to Atlanta to take up a job as a software engineer with American Megatrends, a company specializing in PC hardware and firmware. After 2 years, he joined Oracle in Silicon Valley and became a director.

Bipul said that he had more than 30 patents in distributed computing. He has risen from management.During this period he gained that confidence that there is no way he is going back into poverty.

Transition Into Venture Capital:

With this confidence, he decided to switch from software engineering to venture capital, first to Blumberg Capital and then to Lightspeed Venture Partners. He backed numerous companies such as Nutanix, Bromium, and Braze.

Learning From Startup Investments & Birth of Rubrik:

This experience helped Bipul understand market gaps, how to market a product, and how to create demand for it. This inspired him to do something of his own. In 2014, he formed a company with three of his friends, Arvind Nithrakashyap, Arvind Jain, and Soham Majumdar, and named it Rubrik, with the idea of helping companies quickly overcome cyberattacks.

About Rubrik:

Rubrik is a platform that combines cybersecurity principles with backup and recovery principles. It keeps versions of a customer’s data securely, understands how far the attacks have been and what data has been attacked, whether there is malware that could reinfect upon recovery and solves the pure recovery process.

Bipul’s Success:

Bipul was a pioneering solution in the cybersecurity industry and he won clients  across industries including big banks including the likes of Goldman Sachs and Citibank. He also won the financial backing of Microsoft, Bain Capital ventures , lightspeed ventures ,greylock partners and khosla ventures. The last valuation of Rubrik was $4 billion.