The Quiet Force Behind Samsara and Meraki, John Bicket Named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year

Some founders seek the spotlight. John Bicket builds futures from the background and transforms entire industries while he is at it.

This April, he returned to the campus where it all began. Cornell University named him its Entrepreneur of the Year, recognizing a career that launched not one, but two billion-dollar companies. The honor was part of the university’s annual Entrepreneurship at Cornell Celebration, which brought alumni, students, and tech leaders together in Ithaca.

For John Bicket, co-founder and CTO of Samsara, the moment was more than ceremonial. It was personal.

“I’m grateful for my experience at Cornell,” he said. “It was a formative experience, and it has attributed so much to my entrepreneurial journey. I love being a part of this community and am so appreciative of this recognition.”

Two Startups With Billions in Impact

John Bicket might not be the loudest name in Silicon Valley. But he might be one of its most quietly effective minds.

He first made waves with Meraki, a cloud networking startup he launched out of his doctoral research at MIT. What began as a grad school experiment offering free Wi-Fi in exchange for network data scaled into a global platform connecting millions of devices in over 140 countries. Cisco acquired Meraki for $1.2 billion in 2012.

For many, that would have been the peak. Not for Bicket.

Alongside co-founder Sanjit Biswas, he launched Samsara soon after. The company now builds AI-powered platforms for physical operations industries like transportation, logistics, and manufacturing. Think of Samsara as the digital nervous system for the physical economy. It turns sensor data from vehicles, warehouses, and machinery into real-time decisions that improve safety, efficiency, and sustainability.

“We have been building Samsara over the past decade to transform how our customers operate,” he said. “This award is an awesome validation of our mission. I’m thankful to work alongside our customers, learning from them and building technology that makes a real-world impact at scale.”

Data, Purpose, and a Bit of Suffering

What makes John Bicket’s work stand out is not just its expansion, it’s the long-game vision.

Samsara was born from a sense that another transformation was coming. “Some people say the entrepreneurial journey is like eating glass, and it’s actually true,” John Bicket admitted during his Cornell remarks. “But there was a moment when we felt like we had a little insight. We knew the world was going to change, and we could see where it was going. Do we want to sit this one out or get back in?”

They chose to leap again. The name Samsara itself means in Sanskrit “the process of rebirth,” reflecting both the pain and promise of starting over.

“If a company ends up working,” he said, “the benefits are very meaningful. We felt almost compelled to do it again.”

That conviction has powered Samsara into one of the leading tech companies redefining operations. Its technology helps fleet managers reduce accidents, manufacturers track emissions, and logistics teams optimize fuel use. All from a dashboard, fed by real-time, AI-enhanced data streams.

A Cornell Story That Keeps Giving Back

John Bicket’s recognition by his alma mater speaks not only to his achievements but also to the role of academic ecosystems in shaping tech leadership.

“One of the things that gets lost… is the value for our economy and our quality of life of the innovation that comes from universities,” Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff said during the Ezra Event. “And today we get to honor an alum who has co-founded not just one but two billion-dollar-plus companies.”

John Bicket earned his undergraduate degree in computer science at Cornell before heading to MIT for graduate work. It was at MIT where he met Biswas, his long-time co-founder and collaborator.

“We found that we had a lot of similar interests and complementary skills,” Bicket said.

Today, as CTO of a publicly traded company serving thousands of businesses, Bicket still credits those early academic years for helping shape his entrepreneurial ethos.He is not one for overstatement, but his work speaks volumes. And for the next generation of founders eyeing the intersection of AI, connectivity, and impact, John Bicket just set the bar a little higher.