For almost eight years, Nikesh Mehata has been an integral part of thinkbridge’s functional processes. After years of plying his trade as a tech leader at a multi-billion dollar company, the opportunity to take part in the genesis of a new company was too good to pass up.
Nikesh has been a part of thinkbridge since just a few months after the company’s inception, and his rise to the top mirrors our own growth as an organization. Now our Managing Director, Nikesh came aboard in the summer of 2014 by making a decision intertwined with risk.
A simpler, safer course of action didn’t hold the promise thinkbridge offered, so after carefully weighing numerous offers, Nikesh became a think’er. There was inherent uncertainty joining a company that had only existed for a few months, but the vision and philosophy of the founders overcame any trepidation Nikesh had.
“The core message was that thinkbridge wanted engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset, people who charted their own path, and that’s what I was always looking for. I hail from a business family and was somewhat conditioned by virtue of that to take up ownership, be autonomous, and to think bigger and further more often than not. thinkbridge looked exactly like that opportunity. I had the freedom to work on things that truly mattered to the company, in a way which appealed to me, and not to sound cheesy, but I wanted to be in a place where I can be part of writing its destiny. Every minute, hour, day spent means something to the company and that’s where I wanted to go.” - Nikesh Mehata, Managing Director (nikesh@thinkbridge.in)
Taking on more managerial tasks wasn’t necessarily in the original vision, but as more responsibility became available Nikesh found himself proactively embracing new aspects of the company. Eventually the journey led to being named Managing Director in 2019.
In his current position, it’s become Nikesh’s responsibility to help with onboarding and educating other team members on the thinkbridge mindset. Our asynchronous, remote culture has allowed Nikesh and the rest of our staff to flourish, so schooling incoming think’ers on those principles is of the utmost importance. Our attention centers on the final product and overall efficiency, and that sense of self-responsibility has enticed Nikesh and others to join our team.
“The focus was on the work instead of the noise around it, and there was encouragement to do better and excel. That really does help. When you say entrepreneurship or autonomy, it’s nothing more than being completely accountable for what you do. This is my work and I’ll do whatever it entails to get it done. You need to be humble, but hungry at the same time. You need to be thinking along a broad spectrum and long term, not just about transactional gains. Not a lot of people can stomach that, but luckily, we got people who bought into this philosophy and have been a core part of the thinkbridge story.” - Nikesh Mehata, Managing Director (nikesh@thinkbridge.in)
Our company being remote, and the work procedures allowing people flexibility to work within their own time, means communication is of the utmost importance. Nikesh’s ability to regularly talk with a variety of team members meant that when it was his turn to embrace a new role, he was familiar with the responsibilities that came with it.
The responsiveness and impartiality of our communication system was another checkmark on the list of positives for Nikesh when joining thinkbridge. It’s a process we embrace and benefit from. Being remote means some aspects of communication, like facial expressions and body language, are lost. To make up for that, we work to regularly reassure one another while maintaining open lines of communication.
“The onus of communication falls on you, especially in a remote setup. Be it a new person or existing team members or even team leads, the importance of a clean, timely, and effective communication system can’t be emphasized enough. We keep on reinforcing to everyone that any time you need help, please reach out. From a (human resources) standpoint, this started with us taking up online, as well as offline, activities. We tweaked the onboarding process to make people more aware of their projects and team members to give them a sense of comfort in a new setting. We give them that comfort that even though you're remote, you're part of our community. We are all there to help, guide, support, and mentor. All you have to do is ask! We are truly a flat organization, there is no hierarchy. You just have different levels of people to help you if a problem doesn’t get solved.” - Nikesh Mehata, Managing Director (nikesh@thinkbridge.in)
thinkbridge as a venture is multidimensional, and we encourage our team members to seek out new avenues of improvement. Whether it be professional training or personal experiences enabled by our culture, think’ers are encouraged to explore all of life’s mysteries and grow from their experiences.
Nikesh’s professional growth has also included changes outside of the work space. Humans are more than what they do for a living. Our mission statement of “Think bigger. Move faster. Go further.” isn’t just empty words bandied out meaninglessly, but instead reflects our overarching goal. We’ll help guide you, but your path is your own to travel. To learn more, connect with our Associate Director of Global Talent Deepa Mukerjee (deepa@thinkbridge.com) and see how we go about enabling personal and professional growth.
“I’ll say personally, being here for the last seven, eight years one thing that has changed is it has made me more fearless. I, for the most part, like to be in the background doing my work, but being here has made me take on more responsibilities in dimensions other than just coding without being afraid of them. I began my journey as a technical lead, then started looking into client handling, hiring, operations, office buildup, finance, and various other aspects of running an organization. During this period, thinkbridge has given me the confidence and a push to keep on doing more, to keep doing better. Not only that, it taught me the significance of deep human connections. That it’s only people who can help each other become more than the sum of their individual parts. Because life and work both feed into one another, both being seamless parts of the same person, thinkbridge has helped me become a better human.” - Nikesh Mehata, Managing Director (nikesh@thinkbridge.in)
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