Hey, I'm Haritha đź‘‹
I've spent my career at the intersection of tech, society, and literature. Currently based in San Francisco, I'm building a startup while exploring the worlds of product, engineering, and stories.
What I Do
🚀 Founder
I'm currently building something new in stealth mode, bringing together my experience in product development, engineering, and AI to create magic.
đź’ˇ Product
Most recently, I worked at Windsurf, where I led competitive research on the hottest space in tech - coding assistants and agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and more). I also led product direction for Windsurf's enterprise customers, shaping how teams use AI-powered development tools at scale. An eventful acquisition happened, and I decided it was time to build something of my own.
Before that, I was at Microsoft as a Product Manager for sales copilot and other customer research tools for Microsoft's sales teams. I was also on the creator team of GitHub Copilot for Voice (originally Hello Cody), exploring new ways for developers to interact with AI coding assistants.
đź’» Engineering & Open Source
Before transitioning to product, I was a full-stack engineer at Microsoft, building tools for sales teams using TypeScript, GraphQL, C#, and SQL.
My open source contributions have made it to some pretty cool places—including the GitHub Arctic Code Vault and Mars as part of NASA's Ingenuity helicopter project.
✍️ Writing
I've been an amateur writer throughout my journey, publishing short stories and poems. Writing helps me make sense of the world and explore parallel universes that exist right under our noses.
🔬 Research
During my undergrad days, I dove into machine learning research, focusing on deep reinforcement learning, neural architecture search, and multimodal learning. I published two papers: one on automated multimodal learning (Elsevier, 2022) and another on robotic adaptation systems (ACM, 2020) before realizing I'm not patient enough to be a researcher.
Background
- Education: MBA at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business (Class of 2025) | Bachelor's and Master's in Information Technology at IIITM, Gwalior (Class of 2020) | Google Women TechMakers Scholar
- Community: Founded Skysil, creating spaces for technical conversations and knowledge sharing for underrepresented groups
- Side Quest: I've been doing a Master's in English Literature on the side since 2020 (might be the longest somebody has been on a master's program)
- Life: I live between the Pacific Ocean and the bay but my life belongs to the Arabian Sea and the folklores of Kerala.
When I'm Not Working
You'll find me exploring cities — walking through neighborhoods, discovering their stories, and lying on grass.
Philosophy
I believe in:
- Interdisciplinary thinking - The best solutions emerge at the intersection of different fields
- Building with purpose - Technology can (and should) solve real problems
- Storytelling matters - Whether through code, product, or prose, good stories connect us and help us realize how we are all the same and yet so different
- Exploration > Stability - The world is endlessly fascinating when you keep exploring
Let's Connect
I'm always interested in connecting with fellow builders, writers, and explorers. Feel free to reach out to discuss startups, product development, or go for a loooong walk.
*This site is built with Claude Code, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. *