Connie Etemadi
As an expert in conversational artificial intelligence (AI) and a two-time exited founder, Samriddho Ghosh is a proven innovator. With foundations in resilience, creativity, and empathy, Ghosh’s story stands at the intersection of technology and social impact, prioritizing human-centered design and effective infrastructure. Moving forward, Ghosh will continue to leverage his expertise in order to create impact.
Instilled With the Sailor’s Mindset
Ghosh’s upbringing was hardly a traditional one. Originally from India, he grew up on a merchant navy ship alongside his parents from the age of six to 13. Having seen whales in the Atlantic Ocean and pirates off the coast of Ghana, much of Ghosh’s worldview is influenced by what he calls the sailor’s mindset; from his perspective, this roughly means: “you never lose, if you don’t quit.”
“I wasn’t home-schooled,” Ghosh joked, “I was ‘ship-schooled…’ I started tinkering with technology at a very young age, seeing [my father] take care of massive engines on the ship. I guess that was the whole inspiration to be a ‘maker’ first.”
Inspired to Create Lasting Change
At 15 years old, Ghosh read Steve Jobs’ biography. Inspired by Jobs’ example, as well as his own experiences at sea, Ghosh spent the next four years working toward a startup. In 2019, he founded a deeptech clean water company in India. Through this venture, he built the nation’s first one-dollar water purifier and established a “water as a service” model to support more than 50 million Indians struggling with unclean drinking water.
Contributions During COVID-19
While supporting this company during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghosh saw an opportunity. He began work on a location intelligence platform to connect patients with medical resources. Within three months, the platform built a user base of more than 100,000 individuals. Having found success, he then gave his platform to the government for free, which it leveraged to make key decisions.
A Career in Experimentation
Ghosh exited his deeptech clean water company in 2023, but he did so to find a new direction. Recognizing the potential of AI technology, he launched an AI startup for sales enablement. This venture was quickly acquired by a major software company, and allowed Ghosh to build a new project. Today, he is developing the conversational AI application layer at Oracle.
“My journey has been a collection of experiments,” Ghosh explained. “I started my journey as an architect, built life-saving consumer hardware as a design engineer, studied design, HCI, and CS at Berkeley, built an AI sales enablement company… and now I lead conversational AI efforts at Oracle; none of them can be bound by a particular discipline, but definitely have one problem at a time.”
Ambition for the Future
Having already exited two startups successfully, Ghosh’s hunger for entrepreneurship is greater than it ever has been. He is currently focused on building the best possible conversational AI infrastructure for Oracle, and hopes to leverage his experience as a founder somewhere in the future. Relying on essential lessons and a wealth of expertise, Ghosh’s next steps are sure to make a difference.