Prasanna Sankar: The Visionary Technologist Behind Rippling’s Rise
In the fast-paced world of HR and IT automation, Rippling has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative platforms—transforming the way companies manage employee data, payroll, benefits, and devices. At the heart of Rippling’s technological brilliance stands Prasanna Sankar, the company’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). With a keen mind for engineering and a relentless drive to simplify complex systems, Sankar has played a pivotal role in shaping Rippling into a modern-day enterprise software powerhouse.
Born and raised in India, Prasanna Sankar's journey to Silicon Valley success is the result of deep technical roots and entrepreneurial ambition. Before co-founding Rippling, he sharpened his engineering acumen at Stanford University and spent years developing cutting-edge technology at high-growth startups. His strong academic background in computer science, combined with real-world experience, prepared him to take on the challenge of disrupting the fragmented world of employee management.
Sankar teamed up with serial entrepreneur Parker Conrad, best known for founding Zenefits, to launch Rippling in 2016. Their vision was bold: to unify HR and IT under one roof, allowing businesses to seamlessly onboard employees, assign devices, manage apps, and run payroll—all from a single platform. This was a massive leap from the siloed solutions most companies were used to.
As CTO, Prasanna Sankar spearheaded the development of Rippling’s robust backend infrastructure and its elegant, user-friendly frontend. His obsession with scalable architecture allowed the platform to grow rapidly, serving small startups and large enterprises alike. Under his technical leadership, Rippling built a highly modular system—one that’s easy to integrate, customize, and expand as business needs evolve.
What sets Sankar apart is not just his engineering skill, but his ability to blend technology with real-world usability. He is known for pushing his teams to think deeply about the user experience, advocating for design that’s as intelligent as the code that powers it. His commitment to this principle is evident in how effortlessly Rippling handles complex tasks like employee onboarding, compliance, and IT provisioning—processes that are traditionally riddled with manual work.
Beyond the platform, Prasanna Sankar is a respected figure in the tech community. He frequently speaks on topics like startup engineering culture, building for scale, and the future of enterprise software. His insights continue to influence a new generation of founders and engineers who are reshaping the SaaS landscape.
Today, Rippling is valued at over $11 billion, and much of that success is owed to the strong technical foundation built under Sankar’s guidance. As Rippling continues to expand globally and launch new product lines, Prasanna Sankar remains at the core of its innovation strategy—quietly but powerfully driving forward a revolution in how companies operate.
This write-up is brought to you by Hexadecimal Software, with support from Hexahome—bridging technology, people, and modern living.
What's Your Reaction?
