Never Just a Business Leader | Dr. Sarbari Gupta
24m | Sep 1, 2026She could have become a full-time executive years ago. She refused to stop being an engineer.
Twenty-five years later, that choice still shapes the company.
Dr. Sarbari Gupta founded Electrosoft in 2001, walking away from a steady job with nothing else lined up. Twenty-five years later the company runs around 200 employees, and she is still a technologist at heart. In this conversation with host Chelsea Roberts, she covers the leap that started it all, winning early contracts on relationships rather than pedigree, learning GovCon accounting from scratch, the difference between RMF/ATO and Zero Trust, pursuing CMMC Level 2 as a cybersecurity firm, learning to delegate, and the two things she has never been willing to hand off: the customer relationships, and her own connection to the technology.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:01 From electrical engineering to cybersecurity
01:00 The leap of faith: founding Electrosoft in 2001
02:30 Early challenges: GovCon accounting and learning to sell
03:30 Why federal — PKI, NIST and NSA connections
05:00 Has the compliance load grown? CMMC and FISMA
08:00 RMF/ATO vs. Zero Trust, explained
11:00 Barriers, focus, and growth
12:30 Scaling and the mid-2025 rebound
14:30 Learning to delegate at ~200 employees
16:00 The two things she will never hand off
18:00 Staying a technologist, and betting on AI
20:30 What is next for Electrosoft
22:00 Where to find Dr. Gupta and Electrosoft
Resources:
Other resources:
• Resources page on Electrosoft's website
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