“Anyone can become a filmmaker and launch their own Netflix,” says Anjali Sud. This small idea of her and a large amount of conviction has made Vimeo the world’s popular video-sharing website in which users can upload, share and view videos. At just 34, Anjali leads Vimeo as its CEO and is instrumental in its transformation from one of the many video-sharing websites to a unique platform which has 80 million members and 900,000 paid subscribers, each paying from $7 to $75 per month. And despite being ad-free, its revenues have constantly been going up.

With her roots in India, Anjali was groomed by University of Pennsylvania- The Wharton School and Harvard Business School. After successful stints in Sagent Advisors, Time Warner and Amazon, she joined Vimeo in 2014 as head of global marketing and became its CEO in July 2017.

So, how was it possible? In Anjali’s own words: “You don’t have to follow a traditional career path. There’s no rule book or playbook for success. Write your own roles. Don’t take people’s paths as the way that you have to do things. You have to do it yourself.” Tracking her journey, she says, “I did everything from investment banking to being a toy buyer to marketing diapers online to coming to Vimeo to do marketing and finding myself in my dream job now as the CEO.”

She is one among the ‘Fortune 40’ in the latest list, under the title ‘Media Moguls’. Fortune has listed Anjali as one of the most influential disruptors under 40. AD Week, which has placed Anjali in its power list, describes her like this- ‘This innovative leader has helped transform Vimeo from a YouTube wannabe into one of the world’s leading ad-free video platforms, with more than 80 million global members and close to 1 million paying subscribers for its professional hosting, distributing and monetizing tools. Last year, she oversaw the acquisition of Livestream, which nearly doubled the size of the company.’ It quotes her as saying: “Live video contributes to our goal of offering an end- to-end solution across a creator’s entire video workflow.”

Anjali made all these possible by offering more tools to creators, from immersive capabilities such as 360-degree video to less lashy features like click-rate tracking technology. And she did this by listening to them keenly. For, she knows fully well the customer, not content, is king.