Early Life
Kavitark Ram Shriram, born in Chennai, India, in 1956 or 1957, received a Bachelor of Arts/Science degree from the University of Madras. He then moved to the United States, where he embarked on a successful career in the technology industry. Shriram lost his father when he was only three years old. This early hardship shaped his resilience and drive.
Rise to Success
Shriram's career began at Bell-Northern Research. In 1994, he joined Netscape as a Vice President. Later, he served as president of Junglee, an online comparison shopping firm, before Amazon acquired it in 1998. Shriram then joined Amazon as a Vice President of Business Development. In 1998, he invested $250,000 in the fledgling company Google, becoming one of its earliest investors and a founding board member. This investment proved to be incredibly successful.
Key Business Strategies
After his time at Amazon, Shriram founded Sherpalo Ventures in 2000. Sherpalo invests in early-stage technology startups, with a focus on mentoring founders. His portfolio includes online invitation service Paperless Post, online HR service provider Gusto, and mobile advertising company InMobi. Shriram is known for his hands-on approach, providing guidance to the startups he invests in.
Philanthropy
Shriram and his wife, Vijay, are known for their philanthropy through the Dhanam Foundation. They have contributed significantly to educational initiatives, including the Shriram Center for Bioengineering & Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. They have also funded the Shriram Family Professorship in Science Education and the Shriram Family Fellowship in Science Education at Stanford Graduate School of Education. In 2014, they donated $61 million to Stanford University to further engineering programs.