Samsara’s CEO Plans to Keep Investing Even as Economy Cools

In 2014, Sanjit Biswas was puzzled by something. Consumers were benefiting from new technologies like Nest smart thermostats—part of a category of online-connected devices known as the internet of things. But Biswas didn’t see anyone building a complete suite of software and hardware products to help businesses connect their trucks, cars and other equipment to the IoT.

Eight years later, the startup he co-founded to build those products, Samsara, is a publicly traded company valued at $6.5 billion that helps customers track online data from equipment—for example, Boston's transit authority uses Samsara's platform to track the location of its buses. With businesses pulling back on spending amid the turbulent economy, though, this is an uneasy time to be an unprofitable midsize tech company like Samsara, which has seen its stock fall 44% from its initial public offering price last December. But in an interview with The Information, Biswas didn’t sound like an executive in retreat.