Rishi Mallik

Rishi Mallik is a Silicon Valley operator-turned-investor who currently serves as Chief Growth Officer at Workato, the enterprise automation and integration platform, where he oversees growth and revenue initiatives (per The Org, he has ~177 people under his organization). He began his career in consumer internet at companies including Mozilla and Cooliris (the latter acquired by Yahoo) before moving into mobile in 2007.

His defining operating chapter was Qik, which he joined as a founding-team member at age 21. He first ran business development — reportedly closing deals with six of the seven top mobile handset manufacturers and three of the four largest U.S. carriers — and later became Head of Product, leading the launch of one of the first mobile video-chat applications in the U.S. (~16M users). Qik was acquired by Skype for roughly $150M, after which Mallik became Principal Program Manager of Mobile at Skype, leading video initiatives across platforms including Skype Video Messaging (250M+ users). Microsoft subsequently acquired Skype for $8.5B.

Mallik studied at Stanford University, where he was VP of BASES (the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial/Engineering Students). Alongside his operating roles, he has been active in early-stage investing: he is co-founder and Managing Partner of HiFi Ventures — described as a boutique firm that builds and advises early-stage companies (co-founded with Rajveer "Raj" Singh Tut, ex–Credit Karma and also Stanford) — and has served as a Venture Partner / Venture Advisor at Spike Ventures, the Alumni Ventures fund investing in Stanford-connected startups. He has been recognized as "30 Under 30" by the Apex Society and among the "Top 25 Forward-Thinking Minds in Tech" by Techweek.

Note: HiFi Ventures now appears to be defunct — its website (hifiventures.co) no longer resolves to a live site, and Crunchbase lists the firm's status as closed. Mallik's investing activity today is best understood as personal angel investing plus his advisory/venture-partner affiliations.

• Stage: Seed / early-stage — angel checks into founding-stage companies.
• Sectors: Rooted in his operating background — consumer internet, mobile, and B2B SaaS / business-productivity software (his one publicly documented angel deal, Workato, is in that last category).
• What likely earns a "yes": Strong founding teams building product- and distribution-led companies. Given his career (BD → Product → Growth), he brings a go-to-market and growth lens rather than a purely technical one, so founders with a credible path to distribution and revenue fit his profile.
• Approach: Through HiFi Ventures he positioned himself as a hands-on builder/advisor — helping early companies with product strategy, pitch materials, and investor/partner introductions — not just a passive check-writer.
• Public sources indicate a small, selective personal portfolio rather than a high-volume angel program.