Naveen Selvadurai

Naveen Selvadurai (born January 27, 1982) is an American internet entrepreneur and co-founder of location-based social networking site Foursquare.com.[1][2][3][4] Until recently,[5] he was working at startup studio Expa which was founded by co-founder of Uber and StumbleUpon - Garrett Camp, as a partner.[6][7] He was featured in Inc Magazine's 30 under 30 list in the year 2010.[8] He was also featured in Rediff.com's article - 4 NRIs among US's coolest young entrepreneurs.[9]

Naveen Selvadurai
Naveen Selvadurai in 2011.
Born (1982-01-27) January 27, 1982
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Alma materWorcester Polytechnic Institute, King's College London
OccupationInternet entrepreneur
Known forCo-founder of Foursquare

Early life

He was born on the January 27, 1982 in Chennai, India, to Kuppuswamy Selvadurai and Latha Selvadurai. He was their first child and has a younger sister Chindhuri Selvadurai.

Career

Selvadurai graduated in 4 years from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Computer Science in Worcester, MA.[10] During his time at Worcester, he spent 5 months in his junior year on a study abroad programme at King's College London.[11] He went on to work with Lucent, Sony, Nokia and Sun Microsystems before he started his mobile social-networking venture Foursquare, along with Dennis Crowley.

He has been on Fox Business Network, and CNN's special by Fareed Zakaria, "Getting American Back to #1," talking about how he became the person that he is today.[12][13]

Foursquare
Main article: Foursquare (company)

In 2009, Selvadurai co-founded Foursquare with Dennis Crowley. It is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users "check in" at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby.[14] Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application, and the map is based on data from the OpenStreetMap project. Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes "badges". The user who checks in the most often to a venue becomes the "mayor," and users regularly vie for "mayorships."

On March 4, 2012, Selvadurai announced on his blog that he will step down from his day-to-day operational role at the company later that month.[15][16][17] He said he will continue to serve as a board member and adviser to the company.[18]

Selvadurai joined the Expa startup studio, founded in May 2013 by former Uber and StumbleUpon founder Garrett Camp. Selvadurai joins Expa as a partner focused on New York operations for the organization.[19]

Controversy

According to Naveen, he was pushed out of his position in Foursquare. According to an article published in FastCompany,[20] he mentions that "There was pretty much no other role for me at the company. Beside the CEO, there's nothing a founder can really stick around to do. You don't know a lot of these things when you're starting off." and this was extensively covered by multiple sources[21][22][23] and it surfaced out that he sold his stock of Foursquare to Spark Capital before leaving the company.[24][25]

Personal life

Naveen married Diana Marie Hardeman in 2017.[26]

References
  1. "Bloomberg Profile - Naveen Selvadurai".
  2. "Foursquare's Naveen Selvadurai on Competition". Forbes.
  3. "Be There or Be Square: The Rise of Location-based Social Networking". Wharton School of Business - UPenn.
  4. "Naveen Selvadurai - U.S. South Asian Entrepreneurs". IIP Digital - US Department of State.
  5. "A New New Thing". naveen.blog. 11 February 2020.
  6. "Wall Street Journal - Foursquare Co-founder Naveen Selvadurai to lead expa capital in New York".
  7. "The Masterminds Behind Uber And Foursquare Are Teaming Up On A New Startup Venture". Business Insider.
  8. "Naveen Selvadurai, Co-Founder of Foursquare". Inc.com. 19 July 2010.
  9. "4 NRIs amongst US's coolest entrepreneur". Rediff Business.
  10. "Notable Alumini : Worcester Polytechnic Institute". Forbes.
  11. "Alumni | King's alumni | King's College London".
  12. "Mr. Naveen Selvadurai". ithistory.org. 21 December 2015.
  13. "Show Pages - Fareed Zakaria". CNN.
  14. Kincaid, Jason. "SXSW: Foursquare Scores Despite Its Flaws". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  15. "Checking In With the Foursquare Founder Parting: More "Tense" (Of Course)". All Things D.
  16. Shontell, Alyson (March 6, 2012). "Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai 'Tried To Fight' His Departure From Foursquare". Business Insider.
  17. "Cofounder Naveen Selvadurai leaves Foursquare". The Observer.
  18. Emerson, Ramona (March 4, 2012). "Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare Co-Founder, Is Leaving The Company". Huffington Post.
  19. "Foursquare Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai Joins Expa Startup Studio as NY Partner".
  20. "Fast Company : Foursquare Cofounder Naveen Selvadurai Opens Up About His Exit: "I Wanted To Stay"".
  21. "Business Insider : Who's Laughing Now? Fired Foursquare Cofounder Naveen Selvadurai Is Who".
  22. "Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai 'Tried To Fight' His Departure From Foursquare". Business Insider.
  23. "Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai leaving the company". Venture Beat.
  24. "Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare co-founder is leaving". GigaOm.
  25. "Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announces he is leaving the company to work on new projects". The Next Web.
  26. Mallozzi, Vincent M. (19 August 2017). "Turning Over a New Leaf, and Finding Love". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.