Fundraising Fox

Balu Masti

Investor

Ambassador at UC Berkeley Skydeck

India

About

Balu Masti is a technology strategist and ecosystem builder with over three decades of experience across the United States, Silicon Valley, and India, currently serving as India Ambassador and Advisor at UC Berkeley SkyDeck and Director of International Collaborations at RV University, Bangalore. He advises accelerators including CMU's Schwartz Center, AI @ Wharton, and Rutgers–Camden, and through HUM Consulting Services provides fractional CTO and advisory support to DeepTech ventures in areas such as AI/ML, data platforms, IoT, embedded systems, and SaaS. His earlier career included nearly two decades at Qualcomm and Intel and the co-founding of a DeepTech startup focused on energy optimization; he is also a Carnatic Veena artist and certified yoga teacher.

LinkedIn ↗

Experience

  1. Berkeley SkyDeckAmbassador & Advisorcurrent2022 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area & Bangalore
  2. Berkeley SkyDeckKey Advisorcurrent2022 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
  3. UX@BerkeleyAdvisor & Ecosystem Buildercurrent2024 — presentBerkeley, CA
  4. Atria UniversityEntrepreneur & Adjunct Facultycurrent2026 — presentGreater Bengaluru Area
  5. AI Entrepreneurs at BerkeleyEcosystem Advisorcurrent2023 — presentBerkeley, California, United States
  6. Swartz Center for EntrepreneurshipStartup Mentorcurrent2023 — presentPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
  7. Beta UniversityAdvisor / Mentorcurrent2025 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
  8. RV UniversityDirector, International Collaborationscurrent2023 — presentBangalore Urban, Karnataka, India
  9. RV UniversityAdjunct Professor2022 — 2023Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
  10. balumasti.comCo-Foundercurrent2016 — presentIndia & USA
  11. Vigyanlabs InnovationsCo-Founder & Director2013 — 2016USA & India
  12. Intel CorporationEngineering Manager of the Intel In-Target Probe (ITP) Run Control Bangalore team2010 — 2012Bangalore, India
  13. Intel CorporationEngineering Manager of the Graphics Tools Team2006 — 2010Bengaluru Area, India
  14. QualcommStaff Software Engineer & Tech Lead - Logging & Data Analysis Tools, Corporate R&D2000 — 2006San Diego, California
  15. QualcommSenior Software Engineer1997 — 1999San Diego, CA
  16. QualcommSoftware Engineer1994 — 1996San Diego
  17. University of Nebraska-LincolnTeaching Assistant1992 — 1994Lincoln, Nebraska Area

Education

  1. University of Nebraska-LincolnMS, Computer Science1992 — 1994
  2. University of MysoreBachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Computer Science & Engg1987 — 1991

Skills & more

Embedded Software27Unix20C++16Linux8Java7Python5ClearCase4C#3RTOS2Visual Studio2Solaris2Android2
+12 more.NETCore JavaJavaSEWindowsUMLTortoise SVNData SciencesSTEAM EducationStartup Mentor and AdvisorData SciencePython and ProgrammingIndustry Academia Collaboration

Languages English · Hindi · Kannada

  • Eureka! 2022 Mentor Gratitude — E-Cell, IIT Bombay
  • NASSCOM DeepTech Club - Mentor — nasscom

From Balu's professional profile.

Same school

Also attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln41

Jim BarsnessInvestor at FortySix Venture CapitalJennifer MirandaDesign Director at Red Cell IncubationJAMI HUNTManaging Partner at Alpha EdisonDerek MetherAnalyst at Hallstone VenturesEv WilliamsCo-Founder at Obvious VenturesDan HoffmanChief Executive Officer at Invest Nebraska

+ 35 more

Also attended University of Mysore12

Ullas KamathJoint Managing Director, Jyothy Laboratories at Sixth Sense VenturesShekhar KiraniPartner at AccelNagraj KashyapGeneral Partner at Touring CapitalSandhya SridharanManaging Partner at KFC VenturesSrivatsan LaxmanVenture Partner at Elevate CapitalSupriya RaoVenture Partner at Elevate Capital

+ 6 more

Shared employers

Also worked at Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship2

Peter SternVenture Partner | CEO, Voyant Photonics at Remarkable VenturesBaek KimPartner at Hashed

Also worked at Intel Corporation333

Jim GoetzPartner at Sequoia CapitalSundeep PeechuGeneral Partner at Felicis VenturesKarim FarisInvestor at GV (Google Ventures)Viswa SankaranarayananVenture Partner at Monta Vista CapitalJob SimonVenture Partner and CTO at Monta Vista CapitalAssaf ArakiInvestment Director at Intel Capital

+ 327 more

Also worked at Qualcomm66

Ben CoughlanInvestor at Moonfire VenturesHouman HaghighiPartner, Business & Corporate Development at Menlo VenturesBoaz PeerManaging Director, Israel & Europe at Qualcomm VenturesAlbert WangSenior Director at Qualcomm VenturesMarienne CaroMarketing Lead at Qualcomm VenturesAdry ElmiladyInvestment Principal at Samsung Catalyst Fund

+ 60 more

Also worked at University of Nebraska-Lincoln9

Dan HoffmanChief Executive Officer at Invest NebraskaBen HohenseeInvestment Analyst at Invest NebraskaNichole MacDonaldBusiness Manager at Invest NebraskaSebastian PucherIntern at Invest NebraskaJess HaradenAssociate, Caduceus TALENT at Caduceus Capital PartnersTyler CyboronChief of Staff, VP of Investment Operations at McCarthy Capital

+ 3 more

Colleagues at UC Berkeley Skydeck

Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli
EECS Professor (Strategy Council) at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Alec Opdyke
Business Development Manager at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Aleksander Kuczek
Ambassador, EMEA at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Allen Yang
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences; Executive Director, FHL Vive Center for Enhanced Reality (Faculty Advisor) at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Amy E. Herr, Ph.D.
Professor of Bioengineering; Faculty Director, Bakar BioEnginuity Hub (Faculty Advisor) at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Anca Dragan
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences; Director, Interact Lab (Faculty Advisor) at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Armando Fox
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (Faculty Advisor) at UC Berkeley Skydeck
Ben Fong
Head of Business Development at UC Berkeley Skydeck