American Dreamers is a series of conversations with leading Asian American entrepreneurs and business leaders, where they reveal everything from their startup stories and company building to confronting racism and making it in America.
Neha Narkede is the founder of Confluent, a technology startup advisor and investor, an Indian-American entrepreneur and an all-round smart, insightful and successful leader. I’m excited to talk to her about our series of Asian-American tech founders and their journeys to establish some of the most important businesses we use to live in the modern world, round up the American Dreamers.
Before starting her own company, Neha worked at Oracle and LinkedIn, where she was part of the team that built Apache Kafka, software that enables LinkedIn to capture data in motion and consume it in real-time to provide a personalized experience to users. Eight years ago, she and her team decided to bring that technology to other businesses facing similar problems with user data, and founded Confluent, a data streaming platform, at last June’s IPod.
Along the way, Neha learns some important lessons about what it takes to be a founder and how to navigate her identity as an immigrant to America. “I’ve learned to embrace my own unique story that makes me who I am today,” she told me during our interview. “The more you’re comfortable with who you are and the more you look at ways you can add value because of who you are – that’s the right way to do it.”
How and why did you come to America? So this must have been 15 years ago, I moved to America to pursue a career in tech and work with some of the best minds around the world. I came here to get my master’s degree in computer science at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and moved to Silicon Valley – working at Oracle and LinkedIn and eventually starting Confluent. It’s been a fun ride, but once I got here I really appreciated all the differences, and I had to do everything myself – the little things like learning how to go grocery shopping without a car and the big things like how to pay my bills.
What were some of your first impressions when you got here? There were many cultural factors that made Georgia Tech a difficult transition. In Atlanta, people had guns. It’s okay to take the metro or walk home alone in the evening, there’s nothing like the culture of my hometown. Other than that, I was shocked at how big everything was, from the size of the parking lots to the amount of snacks you can eat! And everyone is friendly, but everyone is busy – people don’t sit in cafes and drink coffee, they have to take their coffee with them. I was excited about everything, but I thought it was very different.
How did that experience shape your career? As a founder, there are little things that people take for granted, like pop culture references, about how people build relationships and find them—I didn’t have that common language. And I often find myself the only woman, and definitely the only woman, in a room full of mostly white men. There are many unconscious or conscious biases that feed into the new role you are playing. There is also a lack of role models. I will say that it made some parts of the trip difficult.
Tell me a little about starting Confluent. Pretty much from the beginning I was a problem solver; I loved building a new solution to a problem and I was happier when people used it. So my journey to start a company is more internal. If I get a chance to create something valuable, I want to see everyone use it. I really did not fall into the group of young engineers who know that they want to start companies; It was more gradual and internal.
Have you ever been afraid to come to America or start a company? You don’t often strike me as someone who has panic attacks, but both are very scary decisions. I think both experiences have some degree of fear and anxiety, and I think that’s perfectly normal. Leaving where you grew up and moving to another country to establish yourself can be scary – and it should be. Starting a company without knowing anything about starting a company and taking responsibility for all the people you hire along with yourself can be scary. I’ve heard many entrepreneurs say that you need to feel anxious and scared every day, if not every day. It is important to accept that this feeling is normal, and then have the ability to turn it into strength and motivation. It is a learned skill; It didn’t come naturally to me.
What do your family in India think of what you are doing? How would you describe your job? I will talk about the best practices we have enabled in all database services. Uber’s real-time tracking is built on top of Kafka and Netflix’s recommendations are powered by Kafka – your credit card transactions are done in real time thanks to Kafka. Currently, I am very happy to be a role model for young Indian girls. They are very happy with this.
I didn’t have a role model in technology, but I remember when I was a kid my dad would sit and read me these books by female role models, leaders in their own positions. We read about Indira Noi, the first woman Prime Minister of India, about Indira Gandhi, who was the CEO of PepsiCo. They all built hope in me – a sense of resilience that I could do it too. But I’m still a few steps away from technology and the ability to see myself as a successful tech entrepreneur, so I feel like if we can have more people from different backgrounds as tech entrepreneurs, this will go a long way to bring about more change in the industry.
What did being an immigrant teach you about building a successful business? As an immigrant, I never take anything for granted and know that I have to work hard to achieve what I want. Especially as someone who grew up in India, growing up in a culture of poverty and migrating to a culture of abundance was an adjustment, but it allowed me to have the best of both worlds; The importance of family, community and group support and resilience, as well as the ability to both make the most of limited resources.
Both experiences helped me develop two qualities that I think entrepreneurs should have. The first is optimism, and the second is perseverance and hard work – this is my experience as an American immigrant.
How else has your family and upbringing influenced your journey and path as a tech founder? Having a growth mindset – this is something my parents instilled in me from a very young age. You will always face things that are new to you and seem overwhelming on the first day, but you have to try hard enough. That kind of thinking has helped me a lot because I still have a lot to learn, as a first-time entrepreneur, about building a big company. You have to be in this continuous pursuit of excellence and it requires you to have a certain mindset.
We’ve had a relatively difficult period of anti-Asian racism in the last couple of years. What impact has that made, and is there any impact on the business and recruiting and culture? The increased anti-Asian racism saddens and alienates me as it erodes the very foundations of America. I hope that we can eliminate hatred and discrimination and welcome and raise immigrants who have always contributed to the country’s productivity. I believe that a culture of inclusion and a real focus on that, along with role models, are two big ways we can change that dynamic. It’s really hard to do something big if you haven’t seen someone like you do it successfully before. I feel that finding role models will take a long, long way to do that and a culture of inclusion – we’re trying but we’re still a long way off.
Anyone have any lessons or advice for founders, especially immigrants to this country or women, or both? Choosing a co-founder is probably one of the three most important decisions you will make. That relationship will make or break the business depending on whether you have alignment on the value system that you can fall into. It’s hard to agree on everything, when you really have to stick to your values.
At Kafka, we are three co-creators of a system that has changed everything about how online businesses and their data work. So being smart, being humble, being compassionate — building that kind of team was something that Kafka could take to the next level, and that’s really done great things for conflict in the long run. It is also important to think about building a team with complementary skill sets; This is to ensure that there is a complete team after the problem.
What do you like about this country? One thing I’ve always loved about America is the abundance of opportunities and the fearlessness of dreaming big. Some of the best minds in the world and in many parts of the country coming together and having a cultural melting pot – these are all things I love about the country and I don’t think there is any other country in it. A world with all these things.
