The competitive spirit cultivated during school rivalries in Pune became the driving force behind Priyanka Tembey's remarkable journey to becoming CTO and cofounder of US-based cybersecurity venture Operant AI. Her story exemplifies how Indian talent is making global waves in the technology sector.
Academic Foundations and the Leap to Georgia Tech
After completing her Bachelor's in computer science from Cummins College of Engineering for Women in Pune, Priyanka faced a critical career crossroads. The choice was between joining IBM in Bengaluru or pursuing higher education in the United States. Coming from a family that valued academic excellence—her father being an IIT graduate and her mother a tutor—the decision leaned toward further studies.
The textbooks she used during her undergraduate years were authored by professors from top US institutions, sparking her curiosity to delve deeper into operating systems and distributed systems. This academic exposure motivated her to pursue a Master's at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, which she later followed with a PhD from the same prestigious institute.
Navigating Challenges and Career Milestones
Her initial experience in the United States presented challenges, particularly adjusting to Atlanta's safety concerns compared to Pune's familiar environment. The first semester proved particularly tense as she began without scholarship support. However, her situation transformed when she began working on her Master's thesis with professor Ada Gavrilovska, who provided research funding that eventually transitioned into PhD funding.
Priyanka's professional journey began at Qualcomm Research, where she worked on early machine learning applications for identifying malicious Android applications. After slightly over a year, she moved to VMware, marking what she describes as a career turning point. As part of the founding engineering team, she contributed to building VMware Cloud Foundation from scratch, gaining invaluable experience in zero-to-one product journeys. This was followed by a stint at Juniper Networks.
Entrepreneurial Leap with Operant AI
The acquisition of her green card provided increased flexibility and fewer constraints, coinciding with her exposure to Silicon Valley's vibrant startup ecosystem. This environment fueled her decision to venture into entrepreneurship. Together with former Qualcomm colleague Vrajesh Bhavsar and ex-Google ads strategist Ashley Roof, she founded Operant AI—a venture operating at the intersection of security and artificial intelligence.
Operant AI's unique selling proposition focuses on providing real-time, dynamic security by detecting and blocking threats during application runtime. This approach fundamentally differs from traditional security tools that depend on static rules and scanning mechanisms. The platform is specifically engineered to protect modern cloud and AI environments where threats evolve rapidly and conventional security measures often prove inadequate.
In the competitive cybersecurity landscape, Operant AI quickly gained significant traction. The venture achieved a major milestone in September last year by raising $10 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firms SineWave Ventures and Felicis.
Currently, Priyanka skillfully balances her responsibilities as a mother of two toddlers with her leadership role at Operant AI. She had her son around the same time the company secured its first seed funding round. Her strategy involves compartmentalization—working while her son is in school, being fully present with him when he's home, and logging back in after his bedtime. While acknowledging the arrangement isn't perfect, she confirms this structure helps maintain manageability in her demanding dual roles.
