From Salesforce to Venture Studio: Building the Data & AI Ecosystem

Akshit is originally from Hyderabad, India. He moved to the US at 17 to pursue his undergrad at Purdue University, studying Entrepreneurship and Computer Science. He also studied at Tsinghua University in China. He always sought to be surrounded by entrepreneurial, like-minded individuals. His first major Silicon Valley experience was at a startup called Crux, which was acquired by Salesforce for around $800 million, where he began his deep dive into enterprise data and AI.

At Salesforce, Akshit worked in various roles including software engineering and product management, eventually becoming a Senior Product Manager for Agentforce. He launched several zero-to-one products for Data Cloud and Agentforce, and presented at over 50 Salesforce conferences. He engaged directly with Fortune 10 and Fortune 50 CXOs, CEOs, CIOs, and CDOs - advising them on the early stages of AI adoption and data strategy.

Festiva Capital is his venture studio and investment firm. The goal is to fund and incubate companies in-house while also investing in external founders. The thesis is to partner with founders who have deep industry expertise but need support with technology and go-to-market. Currently, Festiva Capital has three portfolio companies in active development - SkySync, Reeup, and Nicea Labs - with a team of over 20 people across the US, India, and Australia.

There are three main companies. First, SkySync, which is a data activation and AI consulting firm helping large enterprises with data transformations. Second, Reeup, which is building a unified platform for regulated industries like legal cannabis and medical supply chains. Third, Nicea Labs, which focuses on digitalized pre-birth care for parents. SkySync and Reeup are already generating revenue and in the scaling phase, while Nicea Labs is in earlier-stage R&D.

His biggest challenge is achieving operational efficiency. Having recently hired around 5-10 people in the past month alone, the focus is on stabilization - ensuring everyone is aligned to a process and a growth mindset. He describes it as getting everyone into a rhythm so the companies are set up for long-term, scalable success rather than just rapid, unstructured growth.