Carnegie Mellon University

Alumni Profile: Amit Boob

After graduating in 2007 from the SSN India MSIT-SE collaborative degree program, Amit Boob started his own company. Well-meaning friends cautioned him against such a bold move, advising him to take a job, start the company in parallel if need be, and be prepared with a backup plan should things not go as expected. Not one to “sit in two boats” simultaneously, he returned to India with his newly-acquired knowledge and skills, confident in his future success.

It’s difficult to get your arms around Boob Softwares N Solutions. Unlike Amit, the business sits comfortably in two boats by providing its customers with “a solution for every problem and every need.” Amit’s business approach ties in directly to his experience in the MSIT program. As a student, he observed that generally his professors at SSN had backgrounds in the service industry whereas the CMU professors had government, military, or product based industrial backgrounds. “I’m guessing I got double what I would have had I attended” a degree program based entirely in one country. “Two different perspectives from a collaborative program with two distinct partners helped me immensely. I’m now in the service industry, but I also provide numerous products.”

In 2004, while an undergraduate at Amrutvahini College of Engineering, Amit and a group of friends patented a method that allowed mobile phone users to share data and send group messages. Although it was a terrific idea for a startup and he had the ambition to create one, he lacked the confidence to make it a reality. Instead, he investigated advanced degree programs that could prepare him take the next step. Carnegie Mellon’s MSIT-SE closely aligned with his short and long-term goals, which made the decision all the more apparent.

It was while learning about the technical and managerial details of software engineering that Amit gained the confidence he needed. “Each course gave me the confidence that [starting my own company] was something I could do, and that I could do it alone. The program provided me with not only technical expertise but managerial skills and exposure to international business practices as well.” Along the way, he realized that his being “tied to the local market” wasn’t a constraint after all, and that he was both capable and uniquely positioned to do business internationally.

“People thought I was a fool to return to India from the US and to start my own venture at the very beginning of my career. Hopefully they will recognize that it wasn’t a bad decision after all. The choices that I made were good ones for me. And for this, I’m very happy even today.”

Published in the Spring 2014 issue of Software Engineering Alumni Magazine