Our Story

A little about Meraki

Meraki’s mission is to bring affordable Internet access to the next billion people. Meraki’s new approach to wireless networking empowers individuals and groups to bring access to local communities, anywhere in the world.

Meraki has focused on changing the economics of access since its beginning as a MIT Ph.D. research project that provided wireless access to graduate students.

Using their research, Meraki got its start at a low-income housing community in the US. News about Meraki’s products spread by word of mouth into dozens of countries around the world. Every day, new Meraki networks bring access to locations ranging from urban apartment complexes in London to villages in India.

Meraki is based in Mountain View, California, and is backed in part by Google and Sequoia Capital.

The Name

Meraki (may-rah-kee) is a Greek word that means doing something with soul, creativity, or love. It’s when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing.

The Team

Sanjit Biswas, CEO and Co-Founder

Sanjit Biswas is responsible for Meraki’s strategic direction and day-to-day operations. He is currently on leave from the Ph.D. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he co-led the research project that won several academic awards and later became the foundation of Meraki’s wireless mesh technology. Sanjit holds a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford, and an S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

John Bicket, Chief Technical Officer and
Co-Founder

John Bicket is responsible for the technical direction and development of Meraki. John was most recently a Ph.D. student in the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group at MIT, where he co-led the research project that later became Meraki. John holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University, and an S.M. degree in Computer Science from MIT.

Hans Robertson, VP Product Management and
Co-Founder

Hans Robertson is responsible for Meraki’s product and service definition and strategy. Hans most recently led a product management team at EMC that brought a new virtualization system to market. He was also an early member of the sales and business development team at VMware, where he created their first partner programs. Hans began his career as a business analyst at McKinsey & Co. and holds an S.B. and M.Eng in Computer Science from MIT.

Michael McBride, VP Sales

Michael McBride leads worldwide sales at Meraki. In this role he oversees sales, professional services, and global channels. Prior to Meraki, Michael was National Director of Sales at Motorola Good Technology Group, where he led the Cingular/AT&T sales team that was responsible for nearly 50% of Good's revenue. Michael also held roles in strategic sales and product management at Good.

Earlier in his career, Michael was Director of Business Development at Be, Inc., an operating system software company. He was also Co-Founder and VP Marketing at StarCode Software and an investment banking analyst at Cowen & Company. Michael holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.B.A. from Stanford.

Technical Advisors

Dr. Robert Morris, Technical Advisor

Robert Morris is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at MIT, where he is a member of the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group. He has published extensively on wireless networks, distributed operating systems, and peer-to-peer applications. In 1988 his discovery of buffer overflow first brought the Internet to the attention of the general public. He has an AB and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard. Dr. Morris also started Viaweb, the first ASP, which became the Yahoo! Store.

Dr. Hari Balakrishnan, Technical Advisor

Hari Balakrishnan is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, where he leads the Networks and Mobile Systems research group. His research spans overlay and peer-to-peer networks; Internet routing, congestion control, and architecture; wireless and sensor networks; network security; and distributed data management.