From Founding Engineer to CTO to CEO – At the Same Startup

Abstract

As a college sophomore, Trisha Ballakur founded Pointz, coding day and night to evolve from a dorm-room developer to CTO, securing VC funding while prioritizing the startup over classes. Following a co-founder breakup, she embraced the CEO role, skillfully applying her problem-solving and debugging expertise to navigate business deals and marketing, all while leading her engineering team for four years in their mission to simplify active transportation.


Speaker

Trisha Ballakur

Co-Founder and CEO @Pointz, Forbes 30 Under 30 2025, Previously @Techstars and @Adobe

Trisha is a Gen-Z tech leader dedicated to impactful advancements in mobile app development and AI. With experience as a former startup CTO and in engineering roles at Adobe and Nasdaq, Trisha applies her expertise to drive positive change. With a B.S. in Computer Science from Brown, Trisha founded Pointz to make urban biking safer and more accessible.

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