Nataraj Sindam

Senior PM at Microsoft Azure · Storyteller · Host of Startup Project — a podcast for people obsessed with building the future of technology.

By day I ship product on one of Azure's largest storage platforms. By night I tell stories — co-hosting the Azure Storage Talk Podcast and interviewing the founders shaping what technology looks like next. A dual degree in Computer Science and Mathematics trained me to ask the questions that get to the underlying system — and Startup Project is where all of it comes together.

I grew up in a small town in South India where the idea of building a company felt distant. Getting here changed how I see founders — every story like theirs is one more proof that where you start doesn't have to define where you go.

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80K+

YouTube subscribers

120+

Episodes published

$50B+

Raised by guests

10+

Unicorn founders

Career background

12+ years building products at scale across healthcare, enterprise productivity, and cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft

Senior Product Manager — Azure Files & Storage

2020 – Present

One of Azure's largest storage products serving enterprise customers worldwide
Led GTM strategy for Azure Files — owned positioning, messaging, and launch execution across enterprise and cloud-native segments
Drove growth through competitive differentiation, partner co-sell motions, and analyst relations (Gartner, Forrester)
Led AI strategy positioning Azure Files across Microsoft 365 & Azure AI ecosystem
Expanded to 2M+ Arc-connected machines via Azure Arc integration

Microsoft

Software Engineer — Microsoft 365 & Azure Stack

2017 – 2020

Built remote management capabilities for Azure Stack hybrid cloud
99% reduction in customer support reaction time
90% increase in user adoption with new product version
Delivered features serving millions of enterprise users on Microsoft 365

Epic Systems

Product Manager & Software Engineer

2013 – 2017

Designed copay payment workflow adopted by 150+ healthcare clients
Launched therapy scheduling product generating $2M in recurring revenue
Ensured DoD security and accessibility compliance

Angel investing

Since 2019 I've been investing in early-stage technology companies — primarily at Seed and Series A — across cloud infrastructure, AI, and developer tools.

My investing lens is shaped by building products at Microsoft scale and interviewing 120+ founders. I back founders who are unusually clear on their customer's pain and already learning faster than their competition.

How I help portfolio founders

Technical advisory

AI architecture, cloud infra, and product strategy from someone who builds at enterprise scale

GTM for B2B enterprise

Positioning, messaging, and go-to-market execution for founders selling into large enterprises

Founder network access

Warm introductions to the 120+ founders and operators in the Startup Project network

Get in touch›

10+

Startups invested

Seed → Series B

Stages

Focus areas

AI-native productsCloud infrastructureDeveloper toolsFintechEnterprise SaaS

Writing & speaking

100 Days of AI

Azure Storage Talk Podcast Co-host

Listen now ›

Official Microsoft podcast · Cloud architecture & enterprise storage engineering

From AWS to Azure: The Step-by-Step Migration Process That Saves Time and Reduces Risks

Unlocking the Power of Azure Storage Actions for Data Management & Cost Optimization

From On-Prem to Cloud: The Future of Energy Data Management with ADME

Provisioned v2 Billing Model for Azure Files Storage

Long-form articles 20+ published

Conference speaking

Microsoft & community events · 2023–2025

Microsoft Ignite 2024 — Speaker

Presented on Azure Files & Azure File Sync for Windows Server, covering hybrid migration, cost optimization, managed file services, and integrated backup and disaster recovery.

MVP Summit 2024 — Speaker

Delivered a session on Azure Files fundamentals and product innovation, covering storage tier strategy, pricing, performance, architecture across SMB/NFS/REST, hybrid access patterns, and the latest advances in redundancy, caching, migration, backup, and data protection.

BITS Unplugged 2025

CTO of Apps at OpenAI, Founder of Breakwater VC, and Co-founder of Boundary ML — building in Seattle.

BITS Sync 2025

Building AI applications with Sathish Talluri from a16z and Director of PM at Meta.

End 2 End Previous podcast · 2019–2020

Listen now ›

Deep dives into business models, tech trends, and the startup ecosystem — 13 episodes

Food Delivery Business

Ep.1

DoorDash, business models & the ecosystem

Ep.2

Unit economics, dark kitchens & the delivery wars

Ep.3

Global trends & customer behavior

Entertainment Media Business

Ep.8

Streaming wars — Netflix, Disney & the bundle

Ep.9

The cable collapse and what comes next

Ep.10

The not so underdog — HBO, Amazon & Hulu

Business & Tech Deep Dives

Ep.5

WeWork — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Ep.7

Revisiting 2019 Predictions in Technology Business

Conversations

Ep.11

Conversation with HackerNoon Editor Limarc (Part 1/3)

Ep.12

Conversation with HackerNoon Editor Limarc (Part 2/3)

Ep.13

Conversation with HackerNoon Editor Limarc (Part 3/3)

Why I started Startup Project

I grew up in a small town in South India where the idea of building a technology company felt like something that happened elsewhere — to other people, in other places. That feeling never left me. It's part of why I care so much about telling these stories.

I've spent over a decade building products at Microsoft that serve millions of enterprise users. Along the way I kept noticing the same thing: the founders solving the hardest problems had stories that were never told the way they should be.

Startup Project is my attempt to fix that. Every episode is a deep-dive into a real company — how they found the problem, how they found product-market fit, what they got wrong, and what they'd do differently. No surface-level takes. No PR scripts.

As an angel investor, I use the lens of someone who has to make actual bets. That shapes how I interview — I push founders on business model clarity, defensibility, and the things they're not talking about publicly.

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