Prerna Gupta

Prerna Gupta was born c. 1981/1982[4] to Dr. Sudhir and Shikha Gupta, in Shawnee, Oklahoma.[5] Her parents were Indian-American immigrants.[6]

In 1999, Gupta won the title of Miss Asia Oklahoma at a beauty pageant.[7][8] She also was mistress of ceremonies at Brad Henry's inauguration as governor of Oklahoma in 2003;[7][8] she had met his wife, Kim Henry, in one of her high school history classes.[1] Gupta graduated with a degree in economics from Stanford in 2004, earning the Phi Beta Kappa honor.[9]

Gupta's first job out of college was at the Monitor Group in San Francisco, a strategy consulting practice.[3] In 2006, she and her husband moved to Atlanta, Georgia[8] and created a dating site for young Indians called Yaari.[5] Gupta grew the site to two million users, before moving on her second venture.[3]

In 2009, Gupta and her husband started an app company called Khush,[10][11] which developed an iPhone app called LaDiDa that creates background music to a user's singing.[3] It became one of the most downloaded free music apps.[4] The company also developed the app Songify.[12] Khush was acquired by Smule in December 2011.[10][13] After the acquisition, Gupta became the Chief Product Officer at Smule,[14] staying there until 2013.[2] She also became involved in angel investing.[9]

After leaving Smule, Gupta went on a road trip and started writing a book,[15] fiction piece that took place in a futuristic Silicon Valley.[16] Abandoning the book, she and her husband created Telepathic Inc. and an app called Hooked, where users share 1,000-word pieces of fiction.[2][15] By 2017, Hooked was one of the most popular apps on the iTunes store.[1] In 2018, the company released its first feature-length story.[17]

Gupta married her husband Parag Chordia on March 16, 2009.[5] She lives in San Francisco, California.[18]

• Official website