Los Angeles  ·  Open to 2027 opportunities

I go bySandy.

  • MBA candidate at USC Marshall
  • Computer scientist by training, Arizona State 2021
  • Growth strategy at American Express
  • Produced an indie short
  • Actor
See the work Résumé (PDF, opens in a new tab)
Sandilya Babbepalli, portrait

Where I've worked, studied, and built

About

I work at the seam between what's technically possible and what's worth building.

I started as an engineer. A CS degree from Arizona State, a security internship at McKesson, then four years at American Express, where I learned that the hardest problems in a 10,000-person company are rarely technical. They're questions of priority, incentive, and story.

So I went to USC Marshall for the MBA, and now I spend my time on the other side of that question: what to build, who it's for, and how it reaches them. That's meant AI commercialization strategy for an entertainment startup, franchise growth work for Duffy & Friends at Hong Kong Disneyland, and fan engagement strategy for USC Athletics.

The through-line is storytelling. I produced and co-wrote a short film. I trained in acting at Anupam Kher's Actor Prepares. I've hosted 50+ episodes of my own show. Strategy and storytelling are the same discipline wearing different clothes: figure out what matters, then make someone else care about it too.

  • Currently
    MBA Candidate (STEM)
    USC Marshall, May 2027
  • Previously
    B.S. Computer Science
    Arizona State, magna cum laude
  • Honors
    Dean's Scholarship
    GMAT 97th percentile
  • Leadership
    VP Community, Business of Entertainment Assoc.
    VP Partnerships, S. Asian Business Assoc.
  • Certifications
    Acting Diploma, Actor Prepares
    CompTIA Security+
  • Also
    Host, Soda with Sandy (50+ eps)
    Vegetarian cooking · Tennis
  • Résumé
    Open the full PDF (opens in a new tab)

Where I'm From

  1. India
    Born
  2. Australia
    First birthday
  3. India
    Childhood
  4. Arizona
    Adolescence to now
Sandy as a small child sitting at a desktop computer
Roughly two decades before the computer science degree.

Two continents before I could walk. A third before I could drive.

Born in India, in Australia by my first birthday, back in India for the years that actually stick, then to America as an adolescent, old enough to remember everything I'd left, young enough to have to start over anyway. What followed was a decade of running two operating systems at once: one culture at home, another the moment I walked out the door.

That's not a hardship story. It's a professional instrument. It's why I notice when a product's positioning only makes sense to the people who wrote it, and why Duffy & Friends reads completely differently in Hong Kong than it does in Anaheim, a distinction worth real money to whoever catches it first.

Media is a global business staffed largely by people who have lived in one place. I've been the outsider in three. It shows up in how I read a room, how I build a pitch, and what I choose to make.

Experience

  • Jun 2026 – Present

    Product Strategy Consultant

    Crossroads Media, Los Angeles

    • Built commercialization and growth strategy for an AI-powered entertainment startup, identifying 3 enterprise customer segments and pricing recommendations for launch.
    • Partnered with founders and AI consultants to prioritize roadmap decisions and align technology investment with business objectives.
    • Supported early-stage planning across pricing, partnerships, and technology cost optimization.
    • AI
    • GTM
    • Pricing
  • Jun 2026 – Present

    Strategy Consultant

    Carbon Silicon Labs

    • Advising an AI-native startup building workflow tooling for local businesses, helping small operators run leaner without hiring an ops team.
    • Work spans positioning, customer segmentation, and how an AI-first company sells into a market that doesn't buy software the way enterprises do.
    • AI
    • SMB
    • Advisory
  • Jun 2026 – Present

    Creative Partner

    Flick

    • Joined Flick in June 2026 to learn AI production from the inside, on a Figma-for-creatives workspace where the whole pipeline lives in one place.
    • Making animation was the childhood ambition; the tools finally caught up to it.
    • Write, direct, and appear in short-form work published as House of Babbepalli: what used to take a crew, a schedule, and a budget, now run by one person.
    • Every piece doubles as R&D: an honest test of where AI creative tools hold up and where they still fall apart. Studios are betting on that answer. I'd rather find it by hand.
    • AI
    • Short Form
    • Content
  • Jan 2026 – Present

    Strategy Consultant: Cinelytic, Hong Kong Disneyland, USC Athletics

    USC Marshall Consulting Projects, Los Angeles / Seoul / Hong Kong

    • Conducted 20+ executive interviews to evaluate product-market fit for Cinelytic's AI platform, delivering commercialization and product strategy recommendations.
    • Developed franchise growth strategy for Hong Kong Disneyland's Duffy & Friends across consumer products, digital content, and fan engagement.
    • Built recommendations for USC Athletics on fan engagement, sponsorship, and content strategy to drive audience and revenue growth.
    • IP Strategy
    • Research
  • Jan 2022 – Jun 2024

    Strategy & Product Development, Cybersecurity

    American Express, Phoenix

    • Led an enterprise-wide access optimization initiative, eliminating 500,000+ unnecessary user permissions to reduce operational risk and strengthen regulatory compliance.
    • Redesigned project intake and cross-functional planning, cutting delivery timelines ~15% across multiple engineering teams.
    • Built an AI-powered recommendation engine for enterprise access management, driving adoption across 12 engineering teams.
    • Security
    • Fintech
    • AI
  • Jun 2023 – May 2024

    Producer & Co-Writer

    DDC Productions, Tempe

    • Produced and co-wrote Something About Him, leading a 15-person team on a $6K budget from development through release.
    • Film
    • Production
  • May 2020 – Aug 2021

    Cybersecurity & Platform Engineering Intern

    McKesson Corporation, Scottsdale

    • Automated infrastructure and onboarding workflows, reducing manual effort ~20%.
    • Selected as McKesson's ASU Campus Ambassador, leading campus recruiting and employer branding.
    • Security
    • Automation
  • 2018 – 2020

    Co-Founder

    Velocity Redesign, Tempe

    • Started my first company as an ASU freshman with my best friend from high school, building web presence for 5 local businesses that didn't have one.
    • Clients included family-run restaurants, a small sushi shop, and an independent yoga practitioner. The kind of operators for whom a working website is the difference between being found and not.
    • Founder
    • Web

Selected Projects

  • Franchise Strategy

    Hong Kong Disneyland

    Growth strategy for the Duffy & Friends IP across consumer products, digital content, and fan engagement.

  • AI Commercialization

    Cinelytic

    20+ executive interviews to pressure-test product-market fit for an AI platform in entertainment.

  • Fan Engagement

    USC Athletics

    Sponsorship and content strategy recommendations to grow audience and revenue.

  • Enterprise Security

    Access Optimization at Amex

    500K+ permissions eliminated; an AI recommendation engine adopted across 12 engineering teams.

  • AI Advisory

    Carbon Silicon Labs

    Strategy for an AI-native startup building workflow tooling for local businesses.

  • Founder & Host

    Soda With Sandy

    50+ episodes on life, love, existential stuff, and movies. Founded, hosted, and produced independently.

Film & Acting

Poster for the short film Something About Him

Something About Him

Producer · Co-Writer · Starring as Sid · 2024

An original short shot in the Arizona desert. I produced it, co-wrote it, and played Sid, which meant raising the money, hiring the crew, and then trying to forget all of it the moment the camera rolled.

Directed and written with Rajvir Singh and Jack Salowitz. Shot by Max Boissiere.

  • 15
    Person crew
  • $6K
    Budget
  • 2024
    Release
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Short Form: Flick

I grew up on animation. In June 2026 I joined Flick to find out what happens when you hand that love a new set of tools.

Flick is a Figma for creatives, an AI-native workspace where the whole pipeline lives in one place. Under House of Babbepalli I write, direct, and appear in the work. Odyssey, Tales from the Ramayana: the stories I was raised on, made the way I could only imagine as a kid.

Every piece doubles as R&D: an honest test of where these tools hold up and where they still fall apart. That answer is worth a great deal to a lot of people. But the reason I keep making them is simpler than that. It's fun.

Follow @houseofbabbepalli  ·  personal: @iamsandycheeksss

Contact

Let's make something.