Who is Jyoti Bansal? The IIT Delhi graduate who moved to the US on an H1-B visa is now a billionaire after building AppDynamics and Harness.
Who is Jyoti Bansal is a question many people are asking after the IIT Delhi graduate entered the global billionaire list. Born and raised in a small town in Rajasthan, Jyoti Bansal’s journey from India to Silicon Valley is a powerful story of ambition, patience and belief in ideas.
Jyoti Bansal studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He has often shared that his life changed after seeing Bill Gates visit an IIT campus and learning about the success of Sabeer Bhatia, the cofounder of Hotmail. “That’s what brought me to Silicon Valley,” he once said, recalling the moment that inspired his dream.
At just 21 years old, Bansal moved to California with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He worked as an engineer for nearly seven years at technology companies that sponsored his H1-B visa. Life was not easy, but he kept learning and preparing for bigger goals.
Talking about the visa challenges, he openly shared his frustration. “The challenge unfortunately is if you’re on an H1-B visa, you’re not allowed to start a company and create more jobs, which I find very ironic,” he told Forbes. He added, “I had to wait for some time until I got a green card.” Jyoti Bansal later became an American citizen in 2016.
Once he was legally allowed to start a company, Bansal founded AppDynamics. The company became a huge success and was later sold to Cisco in 2017, bringing him both money and global recognition. This sale played a big role in shaping his billionaire journey.
After selling AppDynamics, Jyoti Bansal tried to step away from work and travel the world. But retirement did not excite him. “I tried to retire,” he told Forbes. Reflecting on that phase, he said, “People say, ‘Once I retire, I’m going to do what I enjoy.’ I asked myself, ‘Do I enjoy playing golf all the time or being on the beach all the time?’ I don’t really.”
That realisation pushed him back into entrepreneurship. He founded Harness, an AI-based software delivery platform. Explaining his interest in the field, he said, “The problem I was fascinated with at AppDynamics was when you ship software and a glitch happens or an outage happens, [our software] helps them fix it.” He also explained, “People don’t often realize writing code is just the first 30% of the job. Then you have the next 70% of the job to make sure you test that code properly.”
Harness recently raised $240 million from major global investors, taking the company’s valuation to a massive level. According to reports, Jyoti Bansal’s net worth is now around $2.3 billion, mainly because he owns about 30 percent of Harness.
The story of Jyoti Bansal shows how determination, education and patience can change lives. From a small town in Rajasthan to becoming a global tech billionaire, his journey continues to inspire young students and future entrepreneurs across India.
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