Startup addict: Ars interviews Microsoft’s Amit Mital
Monday, July 20, 2009
Amit Mital, corporate vice president of the Unlimited Potential Group and Startup Business Accelerator, should have his title scrapped and replaced with “startup addict.” You might be asking what a startup addict is doing at Microsoft, but even a software giant still needs someone to come along and turn ideas into new products.
During his 15 years with Microsoft, Mital has been in a leadership role for the shipping of 11 products. His most recent launch was Live Mesh, where he was a general manager. Once it had gotten off the ground, however, Mital was sent to a new team, the Unlimited Potential Group (UMG). Three weeks ago, the Startup Business Accelerator (SBA) was merged into his team as well. He seems to be enjoying his journey thus far:
I’ve been at Microsoft for a very long time but all the things that I’ve done within Microsoft have been startups. I’ve had a very unusual kind of entry. I’ve been very fortunate and have had an incredible set of experiences. And basically, every three or four years, initially I join a new team, which is a new sort of startup team. I’ll be the third or fourth person on the team. And then over the last several years I’ve started new teams, new organizations. It’s just kind of in my blood, that’s what I love doing. I love innovation. I love the thrill of identifying a new scenario for customers, developing it, making it real, building new organizations, building new teams, and then working with some very, very smart people and just making it happen. There’s nothing like it.
