Rahul Agarwal

For three decades, I’ve built and led technology organizations — first as an engineer, then as a founder, and now as an executive who still gets hands-on with the work.

I got my start at RealNetworks in 1996, joining as an early member of the client engineering team just as internet streaming was being invented. Over seven years there, I helped build the Helix multimedia engine and its DRM systems for RealPlayer, contributed to the IETF’s RTSP streaming standard, and rose to Director of Engineering as the company went public on NASDAQ.

In 2003, I founded Adroit Business Solutions, an engineering consultancy that grew to 90+ engineers working with companies like Amazon, Samsung, and Qualcomm. A decade later, that work became the foundation for Syntonic Wireless, which I co-founded in 2013. As CTO and a board member, I helped build a platform that went live with 16 mobile carriers across 9 countries, took the company public on the ASX, and led it through a sale in 2020.

Since then, I’ve stayed close to the work — running Adroit as a technology advisory practice and building production AI systems with today’s agentic tools, because I’d rather understand a shift firsthand than advise on it from a distance.

Outside of work, you’ll usually find me on a golf course — working on a game that’s still very much a work in progress — or planning the next trip.