‘IIT academia stuck in the past’: Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia says innovation comes from doing, not just studying

The 56 year old veteran entrepreneur who is also a Stanford alumnus said that he “got into Apple on my grades, but built Hotmail by learning on the job.”

Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail, which is now known as Microsoft Outlook, said that while “Stanford teaches what’s happening now, much of IIT academia is stuck in the past” and that “free knowledge from internet is the real teacher.”

Sabheer Bhatia co-founded Hotmail in the July of 1996 with Jack Smith, a colleague from Apple.(Sabheer Bhatia/LinkedIn)

The 56 year old veteran entrepreneur who is also a Stanford alumnus, said in a post on X that he “got into Apple on my grades, but built Hotmail by learning on the job.”

“Innovation comes from doing, not just studying,” he added.

Bhatia isn't alone with this view. India's G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had also said in August last year that the IIT curriculum is outdated and needs a significant overhaul to align with current industry demands, especially when it comes to areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science.

Who is Sabeer Bhatia?

Though Bhatia talked about the curriculum at the Indian Institutes of Technology being outdated, he studied at the Birla Institute of Technology And Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) for two years before transferring to the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a BS in electrical engineering.

He then went on to complete his MS in electrical engineering from Stanford, after which he worked as a chip designer at Apple for a year and a design engineer for another year.

He then co-founded Hotmail in the July of 1996 with Jack Smith, a colleague from Apple.

Bhatia led Hotmail as its President and CEO till Microsoft acquired it in 1998 for $400 million reportedly. It was then renamed to Outlook in 2012, and is the mailing service we know of today.

He also co-founded ShowReel in 2021 which initially focused on connecting job seekers and founders through short videos, but it has now become an AI-based learning platform.