Smita has built and scaled products in Silicon Valley for more than twenty-five years, with experience running broad product portfolios at public-company scale. Most recently she was Chief Product Officer at Zoom, where she launched Zoom Workplace and three generations of AI Companion. Before that she was at Google, where she scaled Google Meet thirty times over through the pandemic while leading Voice and Calendar and growing Chrome OS by 60 per cent in a year. Earlier still she helped build Microsoft's IPTV platform, from the start through to deployments with leading telecom operators worldwide.
Her mandate at Zoom was to widen and renew the portfolio. She brought an AI-first perspective to both developing existing products and launching new ones, from agent-based voice and chat support to clinician notes, while navigating the complexity of AI from the largest customers to the smallest. She holds a PhD from UC Santa Barbara, a master's from Princeton and an undergraduate degree from IIT Kanpur, along with more than ten patents and contributions to ITU video standards.
Smita becomes Disruptive Ventures' first partner in the United States, bringing the portfolio her product, AI and investment perspective while helping portfolio companies open the American market.
As an operational investor with an AI-first approach, we combine capital with experience it would take founders decades to build themselves. Smita has led businesses through historic market shifts and driven product decisions at billion-dollar scale, and she has built AI-first products herself. Having an investor and partner of her calibre on the ground in Silicon Valley, with that rare combination of operational depth and investment judgement, is a real asset to our portfolio.
”We are extremely happy to welcome Smita to Disruptive Ventures,” says Niklas Jansson, CEO of Disruptive Ventures.
My career has been about scaling products and about building and leading portfolios. What drew me to Disruptive Ventures is the firm's AI-first focus, the operational model and the people, along with the Nordic ecosystem's exceptional talent in deep tech and engineering.
”I look forward to investing in the next generation of Nordic deep tech and AI companies, and to contributing both operational and investment experience working alongside founders who want to scale into new markets, including the United States,” Smita Hashim concludes.