Conscious

CHAPTER 14Develop Your Google Mind

Ruchi Sanghvi is comfortable getting thrown into the deep end of the pool. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, she joined Facebook in 2005 as its first female engineer. Later she became the product manager for the launch of Facebook's News Feed. Upon leaving Facebook, she became an entrepreneur and started a company called Cove. She subsequently sold Cove to Dropbox, then became instrumental in transforming Dropbox from a 40-engineer company to an enterprise business with over 400 engineers.¹

South Park Commons is her next brainchild. It's a Silicon Valley learning community for mid-career technology movers and shakers. Sanghvi saw a gap in Silicon Valley for how people learn and have social impact. She wanted a place where experienced technologists (like herself) could safely learn to pivot into new ventures while staying connected to their tech community.

Everyone at the Commons is starting over. Members have achieved career success and are looking for their next big move. If someone wants to transition from infrastructure engineering to working on artificial intelligence, then this community is the place to be. It's a learning ecosystem made especially for technophiles where they can put their toe in the water before jumping into the deep end. Think of it as a Montessori school for engineers.²

Early on in her career, Sanghvi adopted a Google mind-set. An engineer by training, she learned to solve problems by working within ...