Meet Punit Soni, an investor and advisor based in Silicon Valley. Soni is an ex-Googler and former Chief Product Officer of Flipkart, one of the largest e-commerce companies in India.

Disrupt and linear are two favorite words of Soni. We sat down to speak with him how he disrupted his life and pulled away from a linear career growth. How did he do it? What was the role of his parents, especially his mother, who encouraged him to take risks in his career.

Soni grew up in Mumbai (Bombay), India and studied engineering in India and the US. He got his masters at University of Wyoming and moved to Silicon Valley on the advise of his graduate advisor. He was all set on an engineering career when he decided to get a MBA degree. He did not make the cut the first time he applied to business schools. It took him 2 more attempts before he got into Wharton. What did he do differently the third time around that got him into Wharton?

While in his final year at Wharton Soni set his goal on becoming an investor in Silicon Valley. He quickly realized  he was unprepared for the role. He joined Google instead and that changed his life.

Google played a pivotal role in Soni’s career. At Google he worked on search, social and mobile. In 2015 Soni quit Google and left for India to become Chief Product Officer at Flipkart. Earlier this year Soni quit Flipkart and returned to Silicon Valley.

What is next for Soni? How does he want to disrupt his life? Tune in to find out.

This TV interview was sponsored by Zoho.