Meet Anjali Sud, CEO who failed many times in school, now leads billion-dollar company

39-year-old Anjali Sud is a high-profile businesswoman heading the popular online video platform Vimeo. However, it wasn’t all rosy for Anjali climbing to the top of the corporate ladder. Sud scripted her success on the back of rejections and failures.

The powerful CEO took a small-time company to a successful IPO and $6 billion (over Rs 45986 crore) valuation. However, her initial dream career was becoming a banker. But she faced rejections from every single bank of reputation, as per a CNN Money report. But that wasn’t her first failure.

Leaving home at the tender age of 14 to study at a renowned boarding school, Anjali ended up failing several times during her first year at the school, Business Insider had reported. However, the early failures were trumped by her unparalleled success later in life. 

Who is Anjali Sud?

The 1983-born CEO of Vimeo grew up in Texas. Her parents had migrated from Punjab to the United States. She later did her higher education in finance and marketing from University of Pennsylvania before getting a Harvard Business School MBA.

Starting her career in 2005, she worked for a number of firms including Amazon. Anjali came on board at Vimeo in 2014 as Head of Global Marketing. After leading the company’s branding for a couple of years, she was elevated to CEO in 2017. Her stewardship transformed Vimeo from a niche platform to an industry behemoth.

First, Vimeo bagged funding of $150 million in November 2020 at a valuation of $2.75 billion (over Rs 22,700 crore). In January 2021, the company’s valuation touched $6 billion (over Rs 45,000 crore) under her leadership when they raised another $300 million in funds. She then led Vimeo to a successful IPO in May 2021.

For her stellar achievements as a businesswoman, Anjali Sud has been recognised with numerous awards and accolades including prestigious ‘40 under 40’ and ‘100 Most Creative People in Business’ awards. She has also been named among the most powerful women in business. Anjali Sud is married and has a child. Her husband Matt was born and raised in Toronto.

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