CAREERS BLOG
CAREERS BLOG
Mar 22, 2022
Srida has a unique balance of extensive finance leadership experience over the last two decades and a formal education in computer science engineering and economics. Prior to Drishti, he was VP of SMART Modular Technologies, a global leader in memory modules, solid-state storage products, and hybrid solutions. Srida is based in Mountain View, California.
Drishti has been named one of the best startup employers in America by Forbes. It is an honor to be named on this list. Hundreds of thousands of startups pop up each year, working diligently to make their mark and find success, and of that group only a handful are are recognized by Forbes each year.
I think we’re pretty special, too! It’s not every day you get to work at a tech company with such a truly groundbreaking product. Our pioneering action recognition built on proprietary AI and vision systems are leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. We’ve attacked some of the hardest technical problems in the world. We may have actually tackled the hardest business problem — how do you use technology to empower people rather than replace them. We’ve chosen to use AI and vision systems, having to invent a whole new paradigm of use and much of the tech to do the job. We did it the hard way but ultimately got the best solution. It’s as deep as deep tech can get, and we are only getting better.
When I first saw the product, I knew how important it could be not only to our manufacturing customers that are the current beneficiaries but to the world of people at work as a whole. To date, our customers have experienced rapid and impressive results in efficiency.
For example, Drishti’s automotive and medical device manufacturing customers have experienced significant benefits, including:
Reducing defect rates by 50% on lines with very low escape defect rates (~0.001%), in just 3 months (vs. years)
Improving throughput by 15% on already optimized lines
Reducing scrap rates by 15%
Reducing time to train new line associates by 50%
Enabling deterministic root cause analysis in minutes (vs. months)
Achieving even a fraction of any of these figures would be impressive. Our customers are doing this and more every day. We are excited to show our product working, generating results and to share quantifiable results to back it up.
Many startups have a great idea, but cannot deliver a product to the market in a meaningful way, or build a business that scales to an enterprise level. The Small Business Association estimated that 90% of startups failed in 2019. This sobering statistic underscores how remarkable it is that Drishti’s product works, our customers see meaningful benefits to their operations within a few months and we have the business framework to execute at scale.
Drishti was built on one major philosophical principle: that people are the most important resource in business. From this philosophy stems our internal principles of honesty, thinking long and creating value. Our perspective also drives our product development: We don’t want to automate the worker away. The worker is so much more adaptable and resilient than today’s robots.
Empowering manual assembly is counterintuitive to much of the world. They think automation is the way forward. But automation is costly, prohibitive and, once designed, unmalleable. In a world where rapid change is guaranteed and consumer demand is higher than ever before, locking into rigid automation doesn’t make sense, especially when 72% of the world’s assembly is still manual. Those are a lot of hands to empower, and they haven’t come close to their potential yet. But with Drishti helping, they can. We already see the results for our customers, who make up some of the world's biggest manufacturers. The names that we are working with are some of the best and biggest partners globally.
We have a revolutionary product that empowers people, backed by investors who believe in what we’re doing while serving the biggest customers. But this list is about being the best startup employer. To make a product like this and build a business around it, you need super talent and an environment that motivates and aids in building it— and I can confirm that our people are incredibly talented, the best. In addition to our enterprise-level benefits and perks, here are some of the Drishti characteristics that secured us a position on that Forbes list:
Encouraging and promoting the best work can drive creativity from everyone.
Recognizing that great ideas come from everyone regardless of position, role or seniority.
Embracing diversity and highlighting the person behind each role, not just the work.
Encouraging balance between the personal and the professional life, realizing that you can do better work for the team by taking care of yourself.
Providing mentorship and opportunities to shine.
Truly valuing the skills a person brings to the team, recognizing that the individual could have brought their talents somewhere else but chose to work for Drishti.
On behalf of the whole Drishti team, I’m proud of the recognition from Forbes, and excited to see what the future holds for Drishti.
