Naveen Selvadurai

Naveen Selvadurai (born January 27, 1982 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) is an American internet entrepreneur and co-founder of location-based social networking site Foursquare.com.[1][2][3][4][5] Until recently,[6] he was working at startup studio Expa which was founded by co-founder of Uber and StumbleUpon - Garrett Camp, as a partner.[7][8] He was featured in Inc Magazine's 30 under 30 list in the year 2010.[9] He was also featured in Rediff.com's article - 4 NRIs among US's coolest young entrepreneurs.[10]

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.[11] During his time at Worcester, he spent 5 months in his junior year on a study abroad programme at King's College London.[12] 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.[13][14]

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.[15] 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.[16][17][18] He said he will continue to serve as a board member and adviser to the company.[19]

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.[20]

Controversy

According to Naveen, he was pushed out of his position in Foursquare. According to an article published in FastCompany,[21] 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[22][23][24] and it surfaced out that he sold his stock of Foursquare to Spark Capital before leaving the company.[25][26]

References
  1. "CrunchBase - Naveen Selvadurai".
  2. "Bloomberg Profile - Naveen Selvadurai".
  3. "Foursquare's Naveen Selvadurai on Competition". Forbes.
  4. "Be There or Be Square: The Rise of Location-based Social Networking". Wharton School of Business - UPenn.
  5. "Naveen Selvadurai - U.S. South Asian Entrepreneurs". IIP Digital - US Department of State.
  6. "A New New Thing". naveen.blog.
  7. "Wall Street Journal - Foursquare Co-founder Naveen Selvadurai to lead expa capital in New York".
  8. "The Masterminds Behind Uber And Foursquare Are Teaming Up On A New Startup Venture". Business Insider.
  9. "Naveen Selvadurai, Co-Founder of Foursquare". Inc.com.
  10. "4 NRIs amongst US's coolest entrepreneur". Rediff Business.
  11. "Notable Alumini : Worcester Polytechnic Institute". Forbes.
  12. http://alumni.kcl.ac.uk/page.aspx?pid=4135
  13. "Mr. Naveen Selvadurai". ithistory.org.
  14. "Show Pages - Fareed Zakaria". CNN.
  15. Kincaid, Jason. "SXSW: Foursquare Scores Despite Its Flaws". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  16. "Checking In With the Foursquare Founder Parting: More "Tense" (Of Course)". All Things D.
  17. Shontell, Alyson (March 6, 2012). "Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai 'Tried To Fight' His Departure From Foursquare". Business Insider.
  18. "Cofounder Naveen Selvadurai leaves Foursquare". The Observer.
  19. Emerson, Ramona (March 4, 2012). "Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare Co-Founder, Is Leaving The Company". Huffington Post.
  20. https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/22/naveen-selvadurai-former-foursquare-co-founder-joins-expa-startup-studio-as-ny-partner/
  21. "Fast Company : Foursquare Cofounder Naveen Selvadurai Opens Up About His Exit: "I Wanted To Stay"".
  22. "Business Insider : Who's Laughing Now? Fired Foursquare Cofounder Naveen Selvadurai Is Who".
  23. "Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai 'Tried To Fight' His Departure From Foursquare". Business Insider.
  24. "Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai leaving the company". Venture Beat.
  25. "Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare co-founder is leaving". GigaOm.
  26. "Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announces he is leaving the company to work on new projects". The Next Web.
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