Lakshmi Pratury is an entrepreneur, curator, and speaker. She is the founder and CEO of INK. She also is the host and curator of live events and inktalks.com. Lakshmi also serves as director of the SingularityU India Summit in association with INK, the first ever summit in Asia by Singularity University. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including being named as "Inspirational Icon" at the Audi Ritz Awards in 2015 and being included in Forbes Magazines 2010 list of "Women to Watch in Asia". Lakshmi has also spoken at conferences such as the TED conference in the US, the DLD Conference in Germany, and WIRED conference in UK. Prior to this, Lakshmi spent two decades in the technology, venture capital, and non-profit industries in the US. She has lived in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently splits her time between Bangalore and the Bay Area. History Life and career Lakshmi was born in Visakhapatnam, India. She studied at the Nizam College of Osmania University in Hyderabad where she received a Bachelor's degree and was awarded a Gold Medal in Mathematics as well as graduating at the top of her class. She went on to attend IIT Mumbai. She completed an MBA from the Bajaj Institute, India. She later earned a second MBA from Portland State University in Oregon. During this course of study, she minored in Theatre Arts. Lakshmi worked at Intel in US for 12 years in the fields of finance, marketing, business development and strategy. She worked with software developers, media companies and content companies to develop strategic relationships with Intel. She was also part of the team that started Intel's investments into a larger technology ecosystem; this later evolved into Intel Capital. In 1999, she went on to join Global Catalyst Partners, a VC firm in Palo Alto, California where she focused on connecting India's software-development community with the US tech community. She then moved to the America India Foundation (AIF) in 2000 and founded the AIF's Digital Equalizer program, offering technology education to approximately 80,000 children and 2,000 teachers across India. She also launched the AIF Summit to showcase social entrepreneurs and the annual AIF Gala Program to cultivate philanthropic giving by the Indian diaspora. Together with Anu Sethuram, Lakshmi founded a firm, Ixoraa Media, in 2005 "to create a bridge of intellectual exchange between India and the