Shirshanka Das — CEO

I grew up in a sleepy town in Bihar, India, where mathematics was practically in the water. My region of the country-bred some of the greatest thinkers of our time, including Buddha, Chanakya, and dozens of literary scholars and philosophers. It was inspiring, yet intimidating….trying to measure up to that level of greatness. My mother was a professor, and my father was an engineer who traveled the world. From their experiences, I developed an early interest in learning how diverse communities fit together and build connections. I first got a taste of computers one summer while hanging out on my mom’s campus. When no one was around, I’d slip into the only classroom with an IBM, and teach myself how to build a game. In the end, it didn’t work - but my passion was piqued. I earned my Ph.D. in computer science at UCLA - the “birthplace of the internet” - and from there, my career in software engineering has led me to some incredible companies, including PayPal, Yahoo, and LinkedIn. I spent 10 years navigating the complex data challenges that came up as LinkedIn grew to become one of the most influential platforms in the world. I was the lead engineer and technical architect behind LinkedIn's data platform, responsible for data and metadata management, including key projects like GDPR - with a team of 150 developers. As I learned more about the challenges that came with complex data ecosystems, I developed DataHub, an open-source metadata platform that helps address issues that arise when managing and leveraging data at scale. The more the platform grew - the more we relied upon it at LinkedIn - the more I knew I was onto something. In 2021, I worked with my former colleague and now business partner Swaroop Jagadish to launch Acryl Data, an enterprise version of DataHub. We brought together our unique experiences supporting data infrastructure at some of the leading companies in the industry to offer a developer-first platform for metadata management. In three years, we’ve raised $30 million+, and are helping clients like PayPal, Notion, Zendesk, and others do amazing things with their data. When I’m not in the midst of startup life - which is almost always - I’m swimming…I like to stay healthy too.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS and Data Infrastructure expert with a focus on scalable systems.

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Experience: 20 yrs 6 mos