Gagan Biyani | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 30, 1987 |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Sprig, Udemy, Lyft |
| Website | https://www.gaganbiyani.com |
Gagan Biyani (born May 30, 1987) is an American of Indian descent[1] serial entrepreneur, marketer, and journalist.[2][3] He was a co-founder of Udemy, an online education company, and was co-founder and CEO of Sprig, a food delivery company.[4]
Biyani was born to Indian parents in Fremont, California.[5]
Biyani attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received a bachelor's degree in Economics. He began his career working at Accenture before transitioning into technology entrepreneurship and journalism. As a journalist, he covered mobile applications and technology at TechCrunch.[6] While there, he wrote a number of investigative journalism pieces, including one about a PR firm that was writing fake reviews on the App Store.[7] He broke the story in TechCrunch. According to The New York Times,[8] the findings led to an FTC investigation and Biyani's findings were quoted by the FTC's official documents.
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Main article: Udemy |
In 2009, Biyani co-founded Udemy,[9][10] one of the first MOOC platforms.[2] Courses are offered across a breadth of categories, including business and entrepreneurship, academics, the arts, health and fitness, language, music, and technology.[11] Most classes are in practical subjects such as Excel software or using an iPhone camera.[12]
At Udemy, Biyani focused mainly on marketing, instructor acquisition, investor relations, finance, business development, and public relations.[13] As of 2018, the company claims to have over 24 million students and offers more than 80,000 courses[14] from thousands of teachers. As of 2019, Alexa counts Udemy among top 500 most-visited websites.[15]
After Udemy,[16] Biyani spent six months as a Growth Advisor at Lyft.[17] He soon left Lyft in 2013 to begin new ventures.
Biyani founded the Growth Hackers Conference in 2013,[18] which he co-founded with Erin Turner.[19] The event was in San Francisco and featured a number of well-known growth hackers, including Chamath Palihapitiya, Sean Ellis, Keith Rabois, and others.[20][21][22][23]
While at Lyft, Gagan came up with the idea for Sprig. While speaking with friends, he came up with the idea to start a food delivery service.[24] He left Lyft in 2013 to begin the venture into healthy home-cooked food. He partnered with a number of chefs, including Nate Keller, a former Executive Chef at Google's headquarters,[25] and Michelin-starred chef Kyle Connaughton, who served as culinary advisor.[26]
The concept for Sprig was to provide home cooked food via delivery.[27][28] The startup claimed to allow users to order a “balanced meal”, which was prepared in Sprig's industrial kitchen and delivered in 15–20 minutes. Sprig's chef was Nate Keller, Google's former executive chef.[29]
In March 2014, Sprig raised $10 million in Series A funding from Greylock Partners with Battery Ventures and Accel participating. As part of the funding, Greylock partner Simon Rothman joined Sprig's board.[30] A year later, the company announced it had raised $45 million via its Series B funding round.[31]
In 2016, Biyani and his co-founder Neeraj Berry were named by Forbes in its 30 Under 30 list for Consumer Tech entrepreneurs.[32] Gagan was also part of the Fast Company's Most Creative People list around the same time.[33]
Sprig raised a total of $57 million and had over 1,300 employees[34][35] at its peak, but announced in late 2017 that it would no longer be operational.[36][37][38] In his closing e-mail, Biyani cited challenges in the complexity of the operations as reasons for the closure.[39][failed verification] According to Biyani's Twitter story about Sprig, one of the causes of Sprig's failure was the rise of Uber Eats.[40] According to TechCrunch,[41] a number of other startups in the same industry also closed in 2017, including venture-backed SpoonRocket and Maple.[42]