Prerna Gupta | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1981or1982(age 41–42) Shawnee, Oklahoma, United States |
| Alma mater | Stanford |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Spouse | Parag Chordia |
| Website | prernagupta |
Prerna Gupta is an American businesswoman. [1] She currently is the CEO of Telepathic Inc., which developed the smartphone app Hooked. [2] She cofounded several startups focusing on music, dating, and short-stories. In 2011, she was named one of the most influential women in technology by the Fast Company magazine. [3]
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, the 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 University in 2004, earning the Phi Beta Kappa honor. [9] While at Stanford, Gupta joined Kappa Alpha Theta. [10]
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 to her second venture. [3]
In 2009, the couples started an app company called Khush [11] [12] [13] which developed an iPhone app called LaDiDa creating 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. [14] Khush was acquired by Smule in December 2011. [12] [15] After the acquisition, Gupta became the Chief Product Officer at Smule, [16] 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, [17] a fiction piece that took place in a futuristic Silicon Valley. [18] 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] [17] 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. [19]
Gupta married to her husband Parag Chordia on March 16, 2009. [5] She lives in San Francisco, California. [20]
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