Ruchi Sanghvi: From Facebook to facing the unknown

Posted on 18/3/12

Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook's first female engineer, decided early on to follow her intuition rather than let fear or convention dictate her decisions. From joining Facebook, to building Facebook Newsfeed, to quitting Facebook and embarking on her own startup, Sanghvi has continuously defied--and then surpassed--expectations. Her startup, Cove, was acquired soon after she gave this talk.

About the Speaker

Ruchi Sanghvi

Entrepreneur, technologist

Ruchi is the founder and CEO of Cove - a company she started with other early ex-Facebookers. Prior to starting her own company, Ruchi was the first female engineer at Facebook.

Just a few months out of school, Ruchi is credited with building one of Facebook’s key features - News Feed, a feature users rebelled against and then eventually came to love. She then led product management and strategy for Privacy, Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect.

Her current company, Cove, is a stealth Internet startup that recently raised a seed round of financing from investors like Peter Thiel, Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook), Kraft Family (owner of Patriots) and others.

PERSONAL JOURNEY: When I was in school, I heard an impromptu speech given by one of India’s premier entrepreneurs Rahul Bajaj. He said, “I ran the race, I didn’t also run the race but I ran the race”. I’d like to embark on a simple journey. I want to run the race, I want to be an active participant. I want to build a company that creates products that impact our lives in meaningful ways.