Founders Lab with Rao

Think Like an Investor. Build Like a Founder Who's Done It Before.

Building a venture-scale company takes more than a great product—it takes the judgment to make the right calls early, and the ability to communicate your vision in a way that gets people to believe in it.

Whether you're navigating a tough technical or business decision, prepping for your next raise, or trying to see your company the way an investor would, a conversation with Rao Cherukuri can help you move forward with more clarity.

This is a personalized 1:1 session focused on your biggest company-building challenge, with direct guidance from a technology innovator, entrepreneur, and seasoned Silicon Valley executive who has spent two decades founding and leading venture-backed startups.

Book This Session If You Need Help With

• Company-Building & Product Strategy — Getting the early decisions right, from product direction to go-to-market.

• Fundraising & Investor Readiness — Sharpening your story and pitch for venture-backed growth.

• Security, Cloud & Infrastructure Challenges — Working through hard technical problems in cloud security, IoT, edge computing, and next-gen application infrastructure.

• Evaluating Opportunities — Knowing what's worth building and what's a distraction.

• Board & Advisory Guidance — Getting perspective from someone who has sat on both sides of the table as founder and board advisor.

• Scaling a Venture-Backed Company — Making the calls that take a company from early traction to real scale.

Meet Rao Cherukuri
Technology Innovator | Entrepreneur | Executive | Investor

Rao is a technology innovator, entrepreneur, and seasoned executive in Silicon Valley. He founded and led venture-backed IT infrastructure startups that delivered award-winning products in networking, security, and analytics over the last two decades, and holds nine patents in Trusted Computing, Containers, and Security.

He has advised, invested in, and served on the boards of technology startups in Security, IoT, and next-gen application infrastructure. His specialties span trusted computing and PKI standards for device authentication and data privacy, cloud security, firewalls, VPN, routing and switching, NFV, IAM, PIM/PAM, blockchain, FIDO, and adaptive IAM, along with big data analytics for data center operations and cloud infrastructure, application mobility, and containers.

Rao's latest work focuses on cloud security, IoT security, edge computing, and AI/ML—bringing his background in trusted computing, security, containers, and cloud services to bear on the next generation of technology and business problems.

You'll Walk Away With

• Clarity on your biggest company-building or technical challenge

• Honest, operator-level feedback from a founder, investor, and board advisor

• Sharper thinking on your product, security, or infrastructure strategy

• A clearer sense of what would strengthen your company and your story