current entrepreneur / former actor / aspiring musician
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- co-founder & president at The Extraordinaries
- Product/Marketing Advisor or Investor at Kiva.org, Change.org, eduFire, goodreads and SocialEarth
- Past
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- co-founder at richrelevance
- Marketing Director at Kiva
- Founder at friendput
- Product Manager at MySpace
- Actor at Actor
- Product Manager at eBay
- Financial Analyst at JPMorgan H&Q
- Ventures Intern at Reactivity
- Investment Banking Intern at Broadview International
- Education
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- Stanford University
- Recommended
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5 people have recommended sundeep - Connections
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500+
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
sundeep ahuja’s Summary
** Bio **
Sundeep Ahuja is Co-Founder & President of The Extraordinaries, which delivers micro-volunteer opportunities to mobile phones that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot. Sundeep also advises several cause-oriented platforms, including Kiva.org, eduFire, and Change.org. Previously, Sundeep was Co-Founder at richrelevance, Marketing Director at Kiva.org, Product Manager at MySpace and eBay, Financial Analyst at JPMorgan H&Q, and an actor with spots on entourage & 24. Sundeep holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.
** Strengths **
- founder (The Extraordinaries, richrelevance, friendput)
- product (MySpace, eBay)
- marketing (kiva.org, richrelevance)
- acting (okay, I'm not that good but I've been on entourage & 24)
** Trends I dig **
- social networking (designed / co-built a PDA / web application called "TrustCircles" in 2000, pushed SN agenda at eBay, worked at MySpace)
- personalized recommendations (friendput, richrelevance)
- empowerment marketing (my blog post on it: http://thesunrising.com/?p=4)
- the emergence of cause-oriented platforms for change
** Other **
- I run a networking org called "awareness2action" for changemakers in SF
- I've spoken on or moderated panels at SoCap, NCVS, >play, others
- I've been interviewed by Wired, GigaOm, others
- I've authored / contributed to posts for TechCrunch, others
- I've been a judge for the global social venture competition (socialvc.net)
- I've been a guest speaker at Stanford's GSB re: helpvinay.org
- I've got a patent-pending on a "demand-driven reviews" (from friendput)
sundeep ahuja’s Specialties:
execution, web product experience, leveraging the social graph for social good, internet / empowerment / viral marketing
sundeep ahuja’s Experience
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co-founder & president
The Extraordinaries
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
June 2009 — Present (6 months)
The Extraordinaries delivers micro-volunteer opportunities to mobile phones that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot. To download the beta application, visit: http://www.theextraordinaries.org/download.html
Be Extraordinary! -
Product/Marketing Advisor or Investor
Kiva.org, Change.org, eduFire, goodreads and SocialEarth
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
February 2007 — Present (2 years 10 months)
Currently I'm:
- an Advisor at Kiva.org (platform for person-to-person microfinance)
- an Advisor at Change.org (social action network and media site)
- an Investor at eduFire (live video learning)
- an Investor at goodreads (myspace::music, goodreads::books)
- an Advisor at SocialEarth (think "TechCrunch" for Social Entrepreneurs)
Previously, I:
- advised Involver (brand marketing for social networks)
- consulted for WorldOfGood (marketplace for "good" goods)
- helped run the helpvinay.org and helpsameer.org campaigns -
co-founder
richrelevance
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
May 2007 — June 2009 (2 years 2 months)
richrelevance is the leading provider of next-generation personalization and product recommendation tools for enterprise-class eCommerce sites, including WalMart.com and Sears.com. The company’s suite of SaaS-based offerings, including richrecs™, richmail™, and myrecs™, are easily integrated and drive a range of key performance indicators by enhancing the entire shopping lifecycle, from interception through engagement to re-interception. Built on the enRICH™ platform, richrelevance products offer robust merchandiser control and employ over 30 different recommendation types with cross-placement optimization and a closed-feedback loop to display relevant, clearly-explained product recommendations. Founded and led by the former head of Amazon’s Personalization R&D team, richrelevance is headquartered in San Francisco.
In year one, responsibilities spanned fundraising, legal, product, marketing, sales, business development and even a little bit of web development (not pretty).
In year two, responsibilities focused to primarily marketing and secondarily sales and business development. -
Marketing Director
Kiva
(Non-Profit; Computer Software industry)
March 2006 — June 2007 (1 year 4 months)
- Drafted and executed against a comprehensive (broadcast, grassroots, etc.) marketing strategy; included everything from partnership negotiations to Internet marketing to writing collateral to public relations
- Contributed to product definition / design, business strategy, and other core areas of the non-profit
- Set-up Kiva’s volunteer program and managed marketing, translation, and other efforts
- Managed several other various initiatives on an as-needed basis, including the Kiva-side of kivaB4B.org with Advanta
- I did the above working part-time (~15 hrs/week) -
Founder
friendput
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
February 2007 — May 2007 (4 months)
- With the help of a few friends, launched a "demand-driven review" service called friendput (a very early and bare bones but stable version is up at friendput.com)
- Attracted committed capital but decided to put venture on hold to co-found richrelevance
- One-liner: friendput helps people make quicker, better local service-provider decisions by providing a way to collect structured, collaborative input from friends (business method patent pending). -
Product Manager
MySpace
(Public Company; Internet industry)
March 2006 — January 2007 (11 months)
* Worked as one of four Product Managers for the whole of MySpace.com; product areas included photos, commerce, classifieds, search, recommendations, security, toolbar, and other “platform” products
* Responsibilities included development of product strategy, definition of product specifications, project management of product development, and feature ownership after live-to-site (for products outlined above)
* Served as go-to contact at MySpace for Fox Interactive Media’s (parent company of MySpace) M&A team; was included in most initial meetings with potential acquisition candidates relevant to MySpace
* Met with a new company nearly every week, evaluating their strategic and product fit with MySpace
* Pioneered efforts to increase communication between Marketing, Content, Biz Dev, and Product groups
* Led product efforts in the formation of MySpace's "Impact Channel"
* Worked on a daily basis with Founder/President, VP of Biz Dev, VP of Product, or other MySpace executives -
Actor
Actor
(Entertainment industry)
August 2005 — February 2006 (7 months)
- Full-time actor in Los Angeles, CA
- Speaking roles on "entourage" and "How I Met Your Mother"
- Featured roles on "24" and "Will & Grace"
- Commercial print spots for Microsoft and State Farm
- Roles in several short films and music videos
- Classes with Groundlings, Craig Colvin, and renowned theatrical coach Howard Fine (Brad Pitt was a former student)
- Represented commercially by top-agency AKA, and theatrically by boutique agency BKI -
Product Manager
eBay
(Public Company; Internet industry)
April 2004 — July 2005 (1 year 4 months)
* Promoted from Associate Product Manager after only 10 months
* Received strong quarterly and annual performance reviews from managers and colleagues
* Received two awards: “Impact” award for a registration project; “International” award for global efforts
* Primary product was registration; other products included toolbar, shopping cart, natural search, merchandising, buyer activity
* Worked with international, cross functional teams to manage global products through complete lifecycle -
Financial Analyst
JPMorgan H&Q
(Public Company; Investment Banking industry)
September 2001 — June 2003 (1 year 10 months)
* Received top performance reviews, June 2002 & June 2003; offered a third-year Analyst position
* Conducted strategic analysis of potential financing and M&A transactions for technology and telecom firms:
- Financing – worked with clients through instrument structuring and market positioning processes
- M&A – involved in strategic advisory, term sheet negotiation, valuation, and due diligence processes
* Worked directly with Managing Directors and Vice Presidents, often in an Associate role
* Extensive financial modeling experience included valuation, capital restructure, and accretion/dilution -
Ventures Intern
Reactivity
(Internet industry)
2000 — 2000 (less than a year)
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Investment Banking Intern
Broadview International
(Financial Services industry)
June 1999 — August 1999 (3 months)
sundeep ahuja’s Education
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Stanford University
BS , Computer Science , 1996 — 2000
- Activities and Societies:
- Sophomore Class President
Additional Information
sundeep ahuja’s Websites:
sundeep ahuja’s Groups:
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KIVA -
MySpace: current employees and alumni -
Stanford Engineering Alumni, Faculty and Staff -
The Extraordinaries -
Involver Family Members -
TEDx San Francisco Bay Area -
SocialEarth: Social Entrepreneurship Group
sundeep ahuja’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
