Smruti Patel

Questioner
DISC Type : c

SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL

San Francisco Bay Area, United States

Overview

Smruti Patel is the SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL, with over 16 years of experience leading teams at Stripe and VMware. She specializes in building data platforms, cloud infrastructure, and highly performant APIs. People who have worked with Smruti describe her as organized, solution-oriented, and a leader with a clear vision and strong interpersonal skills.

Originally from Mumbai, Smruti is passionate about mentoring, supporting women in tech, and creating inclusive cultures where teams can thrive. She is a featured speaker at the 2025 SheTO Summit. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys hiking and traveling with her two boys.

She led the development and release of VMwares first-ever (1. 0) solution for vSAN Data Protection.

Personality Overview

Value Seeker

Price-Sensitive

Not Easily Convinced

They generally do not appreciate an overfriendly approach and prefer to stay to-the-point.  They are more likely than others to negotiate on pricing and terms. They prefer to do thorough analysis of any situation.

Topics They Care About

API Platforms
As SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL, she leads teams building a widely adopted GraphQL platform for high-performance APIs and speaks often on platform engineering.
Data Infrastructure
At Stripe, she led the Data Platform organization, scaling the team from 30 to 180 people and managing critical big data and stream processing infrastructure.
Women in Tech
She is a speaker at the 2025 SheTO Summit, an event for women+ in tech, reflecting her passion for supporting and mentoring underrepresented groups in engineering.

Media Appearances

Smruti has no verified media appearances

Work History

1-2025
SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL
10-2022 - 12-2024
VP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL
2-2018 - 10-2022
Head Of Engineering, Data Platform at Stripe
8-2014 - 2-2018
Sr. Manager, R&D at VMware
2-2012 - 6-2014
Sr. Manager, QE at VMware

Education

2005 - 2006
Master's degree from Stony Brook University
2000 - 2004
Bachelor's degree from University of Mumbai

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 18 Location : San Francisco Bay Area, United States Job Level : Leadership Designation : SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL
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Insights For Selling To Smruti

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • If you have a lower priced product compared to the competition, call out the same
  • Emphasize on objective proof of ROI, help them do a thorough evaluation
  • Share as much information as possible regarding your product

DONT's

  • Don’t depend too much on anecdotal evidence, it reduces their confidence
  • Don’t try to be too friendly or informal with them
  • Avoid phrases like ‘do not worry about’, ‘no one compares to’ etc.

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Smruti is

  • Confidence that the product provides ROI, effective pricing and process adherence matter the most to them.

  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Smruti

  • It doesn’t come naturally to them but they can say no if they are not convinced.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Smruti move?

  • They can move at a reasonable pace while making their decisions if they have the necessary information.

  • Can Smruti take some risk or not?

  • They can take some risk if they are confident that they have analyzed the circumstances well.


You And Smruti

Personality Compatibility


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