He lost his father, skipped Kota and secured AIR 183 at IIT Delhi: Meet Pushpak Pujari

Pushpak Pujari's journey from a second IIT attempt to launching Harden traces a path through Sony, Amazon, Wharton and Verkada. At the centre of it is a pattern of starting again, from late-night JEE preparation with his mother to building security for autonomous AI agents.

In Short

• Pujari prepared at home after losing his father in Class 10
• His mother stayed awake till dawn, often beside his study books
• After Sony in Japan, he studied at Wharton and joined Amazon

Before Pushpak Pujari became an IIT Delhi graduate, an Amazon product leader and an AI entrepreneur, his journey began at a study table at home, not in a coaching centre in Kota. His mother would stay awake with him until 2 or 3 am as he prepared for the JEE entrance examination. Sometimes, she would fall asleep at the study table while Pujari continued studying beside her.

Pujari lost his father in Class 10, but chose to stay with his family and prepare for the exam largely on his own. He secured an AIR of 2,790 in his first attempt, but it was not enough to get the IIT programme and campus combination he wanted.

He decided to give it another shot. On his second attempt, he got AIR 183 and secured admission to IIT Delhi's Electrical Engineering programme.

Years later, his career would take him from India to Japan and the US, with stints at companies such as Sony, Amazon and Verkada, before he ventured into entrepreneurship. Today, Pujari is building Harden, an AI security startup that has raised USD 2 million in pre-seed funding.

IIT DELHI WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING

Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi became the starting point for a career that would eventually span several countries and technology companies. After completing his BTech, Pujari moved to Japan and joined Sony.

He has recalled that he was the only non-Japanese person on his floor at the time. To work effectively in that environment, he learnt Japanese. His experience at Sony gave him an early exposure to technology and product development in a different work culture before he eventually moved to the US.

Pujari later pursued an MBA at The Wharton School, moving to the US for the programme. After completing his MBA, he joined Amazon, where he spent around four years working on products, including those associated with Alexa.

His experience at Amazon gave him exposure to large-scale technology and product development. But it was not his final stop.

A COLD EMAIL THAT OPENED ANOTHER DOOR

Pujari next joined Verkada, a security technology company, as Director of Product. The route to the role was unconventional.

Rather than waiting for a conventional recruitment process, Pujari reached out directly to the company's leadership through a cold email. The outreach eventually led to an opportunity at the company.

After spending several years at Verkada, Pujari made another major career decision: he left employment to build a company of his own.

QUITTING HIS JOB TO BECOME A FOUNDER

In 2025, Pujari left his job and began working on an AI startup with a friend he had known for more than two decades.

The company did not immediately become what Harden is today. The founders initially explored vision-language models. But after speaking with customers and testing the idea, they decided to move in a different direction.

That pivot eventually led them to the problem Harden now focuses on.

WHEN CODING AGENTS CHANGED THE DIRECTION

As AI coding agents gained traction, the founders began experimenting with them. This led to a new question: What happens when AI agents are given the ability to act inside software systems?

Coding agents can increasingly write and modify code and interact with development environments. While this opens up new possibilities for companies, it also raises questions about what autonomous agents can access and execute.

That became the problem the founders decided to tackle. Harden eventually emerged as an AI security company focused on protecting organisations as they deploy autonomous coding agents.

USD 2 MILLION BEFORE THE PRODUCT

One unusual aspect of Pujari's startup journey is the timing of its first fundraising. The founders raised $2 million in pre-seed funding before they had a finished product.

The early capital gave them room to experiment, test different directions and eventually settle on the problem they wanted Harden to solve.

The journey from an initial idea around vision-language models to AI security also reflects how quickly the startup landscape around generative AI is evolving. Harden is now developing security tools designed to put controls around AI agents and the actions they can take inside software environments.

FROM IIT PREPARATION TO AI ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Pujari's career has taken him from IIT Delhi to Sony in Japan, Wharton and Amazon in the US, and eventually to Verkada and entrepreneurship.

But amid those milestones, one of his most enduring memories remains much simpler: his mother sitting beside him late at night as he prepared for the IIT entrance exam.

Those study sessions, sometimes stretching until 2 or 3 am, came after he had lost his father in Class 10. They also marked the beginning of a journey that would eventually take him across continents, technology companies and, ultimately, into entrepreneurship.

Today, Pujari is focused on Harden and the security challenges emerging alongside increasingly autonomous AI systems.

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