Sunil Paul

Sunil Paul (born November 12, 1964) is an Internet entrepreneur who has founded companies such as Brightmail and Freeloader, Inc. He was the co-founder and CEO of Sidecar, an on-demand peer-to-peer taxi service that was billed as a rideshare community with operations based in San Francisco, CA.[1]

Sunil Paul
Born (1964-11-12) November 12, 1964
Punjab, India
NationalityUnited States
Alma materVanderbilt University
OccupationCEO at Sidecar
Children2

Early life and background

Paul was born in Punjab, India. At the age of 4 his parents immigrated to the United States where he was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Paul holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.[2]

Career

Before Paul became an entrepreneur he worked as a Policy Analyst at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, working on nanotechnology and information technology and work on NASA Space Station information systems. From 1988-1990 Paul served as a Senior Engineer for Booz Allen Hamilton. For the following three years he served as a Senior Analyst at the United States Congress, Office of Technology and Assessment. Starting in 1994, Paul served as an Internet Product Manager and Director of Corporate Development for America Online, Inc..

In 1996, Paul co-founded and launched his first startup with Mark Pincus, Freeloader, Inc., a web-based push technology service.[3] Paul served as the Chief Executive Officer from January 1996 - June 1996 when Freeloader, Inc. was acquired by Individual, Inc., for $38 million[4] and Paul became the President of Individual Inc. from June 1996 to July 1997.

In 1998 Paul founded Brightmail (previously known as "Bright Light Technologies"), an e-mail filtering company, and raised $55 million in three rounds of venture capital led by Accel, TCV and Symantec. Brightmail was acquired by Symantec on May 19, 2004 for $370 million in cash.[5]

Paul is a founding partner in Spring Ventures, a venture capital firm with investments in companies such as LinkedIn, Solazyme and has served on the board of Zynga since November 2011.[6]

In February 2012 Paul co-founded Sidecar, an on-demand peer-to-peer ridesharing service with Jahan Khanna, Adrian Fortino, and Nick Allen. Sidecar was based in San Francisco, CA [7] and raised $10 million Series A funding in October 2012 from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures.[8][9] Sidecar operated in Seattle,[10] Los Angeles, Austin, Philadelphia,[11] Chicago,[12] Boston, New York City[13] and Washington, D.C.. Sidecar closed on December 31, 2015.

He is also active in clean technology non profit projects such as Clean Economy Network, Gigaton Awards and Gigaton Throwdown,[14][15] Carbon War Room and MapLight.

Patents

Issued to Paul in 2002, Sidecar held the US Patent #6356838 which covers a method for accepting a transportation request for passenger pickup, determining location and directing a vehicle to the requested location.

Issued to Paul in 2000, Brightmail held the US Patent #6052709 which covers a system and method and system for controlling delivery of spam email messages.

Personal life

Prior to moving to San Francisco, CA Paul has lived in Nashville, TN and Washington, D.C..

References
  1. Constine, Josh. "Hail A Fellow Human, Not A Taxi With "SideCar" – The New P2P Uber". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  2. Fones, Mardy. "From Startups to Success: VUSE engineers thrive as entrepreneurs in businesses large and small". Vanderbilt Magazine. Retrieved March 2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. Sreenivasan, Sreenath (30 September 1996). "The World Wide Wait: Don't Get Mad, Get Off". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  4. "Individual buys FreeLoader for $38 million". Advertising Age. 4 June 1996. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  5. Fordahl, Matthew (20 May 2004). "Symantec to acquire anti-spam firm Brightmail for $370M". USA Today. Retrieved 20 May 2004.
  6. "Zynga Investor Relations Board of Directors". Zynga. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  7. Riddell, Lindsay. "Entrepreneur Sunil Paul launches ride-sharing app". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  8. Geron, Tomio. "Sidecar Raises $10 Million From Google Ventures, Lightspeed". Forbes. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  9. Gannes, Liz. "Sunil Paul's Sidecar Ride-Sharing App Will Flag a Stranger's Car for You". All Things D. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  10. Parkhurst, Emily. "Sidecar launches ridesharing service in Seattle". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  11. Geron, Tomio. "Sidecar Acquires Austin's HeyRide, Launches In Los Angeles, Austin, Philadelphia". Forbes. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  12. Robertson, Adi. "After suing Austin for the right to operate and failing, Sidecar expands ride-sharing to Brooklyn, Boston, and Chicago". The Verge. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  13. SLOANE, Garett. "Upstart Sidecar zips into Big Apple traffic". New York Post. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  14. Coben, Larry. "Time for the Gigaton Throwdown!". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  15. Makower, Joel. "The 'Gigaton Throwdown' and the Big Hairy Audacious Question". GreenBiz.com. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
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