A Decade of Gratitude: Reflecting on Shailesh Kumar's Recommendation

a deeply touching experience from nearly a decade ago. Back then, I received a heartfelt recommendation from Shailesh Kumar , which I had never shared publicly until now. Reading his words again today evokes strong emotions. It's a reminder that being recognized not only for your skills but also for your character and personality in a particular role holds immense meaning. Shailesh Kumar 's kind and lasting connection throughout his career journey leaves me feeling profoundly humbled and grateful.

From: Shailesh Kumar <> Date: Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:41?AM Subject: Recommendation To: Ancy Verghese <>

To Whosoever it may concern

Recommendation for Ancy Verghese

I have had the pleasure of knowing Ancy Verghese who helped me find the right opportunity with a startup recently. After working for various IT giants including Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google, I was getting ready to consider a move to a startup but I didn't know where to start, whether it was the right thing at this time in my career, whether I was ready to make a transition from a stable, high paying job in one of the best companies in the world (Google) to a startup, and which would be the best startup for me to join. It was during this time, that Ancy contacted me via LinkedIn about a startup opportunity. Her timing couldn't have been more perfect and in retrospect, the role and the startup she had in mind for me also couldn't have been any more perfect.

Over a period of about six months, I developed a lot of respect and admiration for Ancy's knowledge about the startup landscape, her ability to really understand my inhibitions about joining a startup and addressing them, finding the perfect startup and role for my skills, meticulously guiding me through the entire decision making process, her integrity and professionalism, and finally her ability to build a long lasting relationship and trust.?I can safely say that without her constant guidance and involvement it would not have been possible for me to make the transition both mentally and professionally.?

Ancy acted as a perfect bridge between me and the senior leadership of the startup. She seemed to have a lot of?rapport and accessibility?with the startup leadership and at the same time worked hard to build a lot of trust with me. She provided valuable insight into the startup, their vision, and leadership that helped me understand why this would be a great startup opportunity for me. She was very articulate, passionate, and genuine in addressing my concerns, communicating them to the startup leadership and helping bridge the gap between us in a very systematic fashion. I had not heard about the startup before talking to her and she acted like a great ambassador to the startup - something that really made a lot of difference in my decision making process.

Overall, since the first contact to the final negotiations, Ancy was always around to bounce off ideas, to help me ask the right questions to the startup leadership, and I really felt like she was on my side as much as she is on the startup's side. I have interacted with many recruiters in my 15 years of career but I have rarely seen someone as dedicated, genuine, professional, and trusting as Ancy. In the long term, if I ever have my own startup or would need career advise on my next move, I know where to go and whom to trust.?