McCombs Graduate Eyes Global Entrepreneurial Career After Forty Acres

[Editor’s Note: In celebration of The University of Texas at Austin’s graduating class — who demonstrate every day that ‘What starts here changes the world’ — Texas Global presents a  series featuring graduating students  who leave a lasting impact on international education and their UT Austin community.]   

For Anjali Bathra Ravikumar, a senior studying business analytics and computer science, it was the nationally ranked McCombs School of Business that brought her to Austin for the first time from Madurai, India.  

Fielding job offers from Coinbase and Intuit, Ravikumar will graduate in May after just three years at The University of Texas Austin, an experience she describes as the best thing that could have happened to her.  

“I chose to attend UT Austin because, out of the 11 schools I was accepted into, McCombs offered the best business education, career management resources and, most importantly, a thriving community of peers and alumni who are working, leading and making waves in fields at the intersection of business and technology, which is exactly what I was looking for,” Ravikumar said.  

Ravikumar, a former software engineering intern at Charles Schwab, credits UT Austin for the experience and environment it provides to students. She also acknowledges the role her vast network of peers, mentors and alumni played in her rapid growth as an international student, budding entrepreneur and aspiring product manager.  

“UT has always offered the right opportunities at the right moment, be it in the form of student organizations, accelerator programs or grants,” Ravikumar said. “Moreover, UT has a thriving product management community and is a target school for many top rotational product management programs, which contributed to my success in securing the full-time product management opportunities of my dreams during my senior year.”  

Connecting with Supportive Communities  

Ravikumar draws inspiration from her mother, an academic, and from her father, whose entrepreneurial endeavors sparked her interest in the intersection of business and technology.  

“I've watched him build three businesses as I was growing up. I really aspire to be someone like him, but with a larger-scale impact,” Ravikumar said. “That's why I wanted to come to UT Austin: to not only explore different fields beyond the industries I saw him work in, but to also get a grasp for how these worldwide tech solutions are built at such a large scale.” 

Coming from a competitive academic environment in India, Ravikumar was expecting much of the same during her time at UT Austin. That set Ravikumar up for a pleasant surprise upon her arrival at campus, where she found tight-knit communities dispersed across campus.  

“Coming from India, it’s really competitive. You really compete neck-to-neck for opportunities because of the scale of our population and the resources that are available,” Ravikumar said. “I was well aware that McCombs is notorious for its competitiveness, as well. That environment is always going to exist in career fields like business. But, coming in, I was pleasantly surprised to know that the University has so much to offer in terms of supportive communities.” 

She added, “I appreciate how everybody here wants you to succeed. I did not expect that coming in. There are so many different people here who are really successful in so many different areas. It's mostly about growing together and succeeding together more than competing.” 

Building a Resumé on the Forty Acres  

Ravikumar built a network and a community through her involvement in a wide collection of student organizations, including the Women in Business Association (WBA); Texas Convergent, an entrepreneurial, product-building organization; Product@TX, a student-led organization for product management that provides students with mentorship to help them land internships in product management at top companies in the tech industry; and Texas Momentum, UT Austin’s premiere student-led startup accelerator. 

“The Women in Business Association is the first student org I was a part of. As a freshman, it helped me make my first — and now best — friends in college and cultivate a sense of belonging with students in my major,” said Ravikumar. “[Arriving at UT] was really an isolating experience, as it is for a lot of UT students coming into such a big school if you didn't go to high school in Texas, so WBA really helped fill in that gap for me.” 

Texas Convergent introduced Ravikumar to product management, while Texas Momentum showed her what goes into building a successful startup. As a member of the executive board for Product@TX, Ravikumar helped run summer fellowships geared to preparing fellows for the product management recruitment process through coaching, mock interviews and a guest speaker series.  

“Product@TX provided invaluable mentorship, resources and support that ultimately helped me land my full-time product management offers,” Ravikumar said. “I wouldn't have had successful recruiting experiences if not for that. Students hoping to have success in this field should definitely look into all of these organizations — but also expand their peer community beyond UT so that you get a fuller picture.” 

Visualizing the Next Chapter 

With job offers from tech juggernauts, Ravikumar is eager to immerse herself into a rotational product manager program that will allow her to grow as a product manager within the company she ultimately chooses.  

“I'm so grateful for those offers because this job market has not been easy at all,” Ravikumar said. 

Ravikumar is excited to move to the Bay Area after graduation, where her goal for the next two years will be to learn and absorb as much as she can about the industry. After a few years, she hopes to pivot from her corporate job and dive into the world of startups.  

“I look forward to using this learning experience and applying that to a more volatile and richer environment, taking products from zero to one as opposed to working in a big company,” Ravikumar said. “Then, eventually, I want to become an entrepreneur and set up my own business.” 

‘UT Has Been the Game-Changer’ 

For now, though, Ravikumar is taking a moment to revel in the final days on campus leading up to commencement. As she recalls her time at UT Austin, she is certain that what she will miss the most is the unique community she built in three short years and the dynamic environment where she flourished on the Forty Acres.  

“I learned that I have a lot more tolerance for risk than I initially gave myself credit for,” Ravikumar said. “That goes for all international students: You're literally moving across the world. I did it at 18 years old during the pandemic, all because I wanted to be at UT Austin to have this world-class education and community.” 

Reflecting further, she added, “This is all so bittersweet,” Ravikumar said. “I feel very grateful as well, particularly because UT has been the game-changer in my life. Career–wise, it really just elevated my trajectory. UT helped me grow into my fullest self.”