team-spotlight

Team spotlight – Diva

We’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on Diva Sharma, our passionate and entrepreneurial board member at Stanford Entrepreneurs and is the current President of Stanford Young Alumni Bay Area, reaching over 3000+ young alumni in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alongside the entire board, Diva plays a key role in shaping the vision of our community and driving forward the initiatives and events that bring our members together.

🇺🇸 / 🇮🇳 Location: San Francisco / Los Angeles / New Delhi

🚀 Claim to fame: Diva Amara Sharma’s journey began with building remote patient monitoring devices that she went on to present at the European Union and the World Bank. Her TEDx talk on women in STEM, selected by TED for the TEDxSpotlights Girl Power Playlist, garnered 80,000+ views and inspired her to launch a healthcare company backed by Y Combinator. Today, she’s spearheading the Alliance on AI in Sustainable Development Goals, in partnership with the Stanford King Center on Global Development, a community for alumni and students.

💼 Previous gigs: Diva’s career has taken her from venture capital fellowships at 8VC and Bessemer to hands-on experiences in big tech & medtech. She spent time at Auris Health (later acquired by Johnson & Johnson) building data products for some of the coolest advances in surgical robotics, and worked at Facebook on VR initiatives. She also jumped into the startup world with an Accel-backed company, diving deep into financial technology workflows. Along the way, she’s presented her work at the European Union and the World Bank. Most recently, her own healthcare venture made it into Y Combinator, no small feat given their 1–2% acceptance rate.

🎓 Stanford degree: B.S. in Computer Science

💡 Biggest lesson as a founder: I’ve learned that running lots of experiments is the best way to figure out what truly works in the market. Don’t be afraid to try new things and pivot when needed. I’ve also found it really valuable to share both the highs and the lows with my board of advisors so we can learn and grow together.

😎 Fun fact: Diva released her first song called “Aurora Hunters.” Listen on YouTube and Spotify.

🧠 On productivity: I learned the value of putting all your automatic, repetitive tasks on autopilot. With AI advances, you can finally do that, so aim for 110%.

📣 Startup advice: Experiment at every step, especially with economic incentives of all stakeholders involved. Break your product into small tests (A, B, C) and get real feedback as soon as possible. Keep your team lean until experiments work.

⛑️ Surprising hobby: I love digging into reports and surveys from the World Bank.

Entrepreneurial Journey

From Disney Posters to Presidential Awards: An Early Start

Diva’s entrepreneurial journey started in fifth grade. After winning a singing competition, she began selling Disney Channel posters she sourced online through eBay. It was a lucrative business for a fifth grader. Post that, she started several businesses & products.

The real turning point came in 11th grade when Diva began shadowing local hospitals in India. She built a platform to enable chronic disease patients track their physiological metrics. The work bagged an award from the President, presentations at the World Bank and the EU, and eventually IP. This translated to further work in digital health and health tech when she was admitted to undergrad at Stanford.

A Unique Path: From Family Business Calls to Stanford Innovation

When Diva was younger, she used to accompany her parents to their business, a trading business that they used to run. She would hear them conduct calls with international suppliers, which really got her thinking about business.

At Stanford, Diva got exposure into the world of tech ventures by working with incredible economists Susan Athey & Ilya Strebulaev’s initiatives and creating a new COVID class under the Lean LaunchPad with Professor Steve Blank during COVID-19. She was grateful for the experiences which eventually led her to understand how to spin up products and work with others to spin up completely new products and experiences. Then she got to work at bigger tech companies to see how to scale up processes. This really inspired her to hone in on understanding how to really launch products.

Diva also got a unique understanding from observing artists through her own music journey to see how they market and brand themselves. That really sparked her interest in being able to market and brand products. This combination of creativity and technological innovation helped spark her deep-seated interest in tech.

Key Insights & Advice for Aspiring Founders

Best Entrepreneurial Advice: Experiment at every step. Test everything, especially the economic incentives of all stakeholders. Break your product into small tests (A, B, C) and get real feedback as soon as possible. Keep your team lean until experiments work.
On Pivoting and Experimentation: Running lots of experiments is the best way to figure out what truly works in the market. Don’t be afraid to try new things and pivot when needed.
On Building a Team: Keep your team lean in the early stages. Only scale once you’ve validated your core hypotheses through rigorous experimentation.
On Seeking Guidance: Share both the highs and the lows with your board of advisors so you can learn and grow together.
On Productivity: Put all your automatic, repetitive tasks on autopilot. With AI advances, you can finally do that, so aim for 110%.

Unique Experiences & Hidden Passions

Beyond her entrepreneurial and academic pursuits, Diva is a music artist who channels her creativity into songwriting and performance. Her track “Aurora Hunters” showcases her artistic side and reflects her belief in the power of interdisciplinary thinking. You can listen to it on Spotify and YouTube.

Diva also co-founded the Stanford Alliance on AI in Sustainable Development Goals in partnership with the Stanford King Center on Global Development. This initiative represents her commitment to leveraging technology for global impact, focusing on how AI can address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

In her downtime, you might find Diva digging into World Bank reports and surveys, a hobby that reflects her genuine curiosity about global development and economic systems.