Built to Enjoy: Aptify CEO Amith Nagarajan (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Amith Nagarajan co-founded Aptify in 1993. Aptify provides association and membership management software and solutions globally. Prior to founding Aptify, Amith worked in the R&D laboratories at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, with a concentration in business administration.

Sramana: Amith, let’s start with your background. Where are you from? What were your circumstances growing up? What are the roots of your entrepreneurial journey?

Amith Nagarajan: I am from California. My parents are from India and Europe, so I am a first-generation American who grew up in Silicon Valley. I grew up with a very ordinary middle-class life. I had great opportunities from an education perspective, and I grew up learning a lot about technology. My father was an engineer based in Silicon Valley, so you can imagine I had some insight into that ecosystem.

Sramana: What path did you follow for education?

Amith Nagarajan: I learned a lot about computer programming because of the environment I grew up in. When I went to college, I decided to study business. I had a belief that I would start a business of my own. When I was younger, I started a business as a teenager. I always had an interest in entrepreneurship. I decided to study business when I went to college because I already had a fairly technical background. I went to San Luis Obispo to study at Cal Poly. I studied a combination of finance and business systems as well as marketing. My concentration was in business administration.

Sramana: When did you finish college?

Amith Nagarajan: I graduated in 1995. I was in high school and I was taking college classes at the same time. I transferred into Cal Poly as a junior. I had already been taking college courses in parallel with finishing up high school. I did that in the earlier part of the 1990s. I also worked as an engineer in the Hewlett-Packard laboratories in Palo Alto. I had some unique opportunities. Frankly, high school bored me. I took some business classes which was a unique opportunity back then. I also competed in speech and debate competitively. I was primarily focused on the work I was doing at HP Labs, which was an incredible opportunity for someone my age, and my college classes. When I transferred to Cal Poly I was already a junior, and I was only 17 years old.

Sramana: When did you graduate from Cal Poly?

Amith Nagarajan: I finished my formal instruction after two years. I showed up at Cal Poly in late 1993. That was also the same time that I was starting Aptify. The company has been in business for 20 years now.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Built to Enjoy: Aptify CEO Amith Nagarajan
1 2 3 4 5 6 7