Sanju K. Bansal is an Indian-American businessman, the co-founder of MicroStrategy, a worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence (BI), mobile software, big data and cloud-based services. He served as the company's vice chairman of the board of directors and executive vice president till November 14, 2013. From 1993-2012, he served as chief operating officer of MicroStrategy. Bansal serves or has served as a member of the board of directors of CSRA, a technology services provider to the US government, Cvent, a cloud-based event management software provider, and The Advisory Board Company, a technology research services company.
Early life and education
Bansal was born in Patiala, India and emigrated with his parents to the United States when he was two years old. The family settled in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. He attended Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia where he was a valedictorian.
His father, Ved Bansal, came to the United States in 1959 with $1. His father's work ethic and emphasis on math and science in childhood has been cited as the foundation for his later education and career.
Bansal received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from MIT and a Master of Science in computer science from The Johns Hopkins University.
Career
Directly out of college, Sanju Bansal worked for the technology and management consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton.
In 1989, with MIT classmates Michael J. Saylor and Thomas Spahr, Bansal co-founded MicroStrategy. Bansal helped build MicroStrategy with no venture capital, often working 80 to 100 hours per week to get the company off the ground. During this time, the company experienced rapid growth, increasing revenues by 100% every year between 1990 and 1996. In June 1998, MicroStrategy had its initial public offering and, on its first day of trading, the stock price doubled. By March 2000, the company had a market cap of approximately $24 billion, making Bansal and other company leaders billionaires on paper.
Later that month, MicroStrategy announced that it would restate its financial results for the preceding two years, which resulted in an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In December 2000, Saylor, Bansal, and the company's former CFO settled with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing by each paying $350,000 in fines. The officers also paid a combined total of $10 million in disgorgement.
Subsequently, the company's stock price plummeted, from a high of $333.00 in March to a low of $9.25 by December 2000. As chief operating officer, Bansal played a significant role in getting MicroStrategy back on its feet. He was instrumental in raising more than $175 million in the following 17 months to keep the company going and expanding business into China in 2002. The company employed more than 3,200 people worldwide and reported revenue of $594.61 million in 2012. As of 2013, the company has operations in 26 countries.
In 2013, Bansal co-founded Hunch Analytics with Aneesh Chopra, which currently contains one portfolio company: CareJourney, a healthcare data analytics firm.
Board memberships
Bansal serves as a board member for the following companies: SimilarWeb (NYSE:SMWB), as a member of the board of directors since 2021. SimilarWeb is an Israeli based software & data company specializing in web analytics, web traffic and performance. EverQuote (NASDAQ: EVER), as a member of the board of directors since May 2014. EverQuote is an internet marketing firm focused on applying mathematics and technology to auto insurance carriers’ customer acquisition programs. Everquote completed its IPO in June 2018. Vestmark, as a member of the board since January 2016. Vestmark offers a technology platform to enable broker-dealers, investment managers, RIAs, bank trusts, and other financial firms to deliver wealth management and advisory solutions. Verato, as a member of the board of directors since January 2016. Verato is a SaaS-based platform that cleans, updates, and links customer records within and across systems. CareJourney, as co-founder and executive chairman. CareJourney supports payer, provider, and life sciences organizations across the US by wringing insights out of claims data. CareJourney advises on network design and management, patient risk segmentation, spend and utilization trends, and provider, practice, and facility (acute and post-acute) performance. AIS, as a member of the board of directors since September 2020. AIS is a technology firm that helps organizations migrate to the Microsoft Azure cloud and modernize their applications.