Ruchi Sanghvi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ruchi Sanghvi
|
|
|---|---|
Ruchi Sanghvi in August 2014
|
|
| Born | 20 January 1982 Pune, India
|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University - CMU |
| Spouse(s) | Aditya Agarwal |
Ruchi Sanghvi (born January 20, 1982) is an Indian computer engineer and businesswoman. She made history as the first female engineer hired at Facebook. After leaving Facebook in 2010, she started her own company called Cove in 2011. Cove was later bought by Dropbox in 2012, and Ruchi joined Dropbox as a Vice President. She left Dropbox in October 2013.
In 2016, Ruchi created South Park Commons. This is a special place for people in technology to live and work together, like a hackerspace.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Ruchi Sanghvi grew up in Pune, India. When she was young, she planned to join her father's business after finishing her studies. She went to Carnegie Mellon University where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical computer engineering.
Her Career Journey
Working at Facebook
After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, Ruchi first thought about working in New York City. However, she decided to move to Silicon Valley instead. This was where her college friend, Aditya Agarwal, worked. They were dating at the time. Ruchi first got a job at the Oracle Corporation.
In 2005, Ruchi and Aditya both started working at Facebook. Ruchi Sanghvi was the very first female engineer to be hired by Facebook.
Ruchi was a key person in creating the first version of Facebook's News Feed. This feature was launched in September 2006. She even wrote the blog post announcing its release. The original News Feed showed a constantly updated summary of what friends were doing. This idea was quite new back then, as Twitter had only launched a few months earlier.
The News Feed feature faced a lot of criticism when it first came out. Some of this criticism was even directed at Ruchi herself. To fix this, Facebook added new privacy controls. These controls allowed users to decide what personal information would appear in their friends' News Feeds. Ruchi and other Facebook engineers, including Chris Cox and Andrew Bosworth, worked for 48 hours straight to code these new controls. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, then announced them in a blog post.
Starting Cove and Joining Dropbox
In late 2010, Ruchi Sanghvi left Facebook. In 2011, she co-founded a new company called Cove with Aditya Agarwal. Cove was a startup focused on collaboration. In February 2012, Dropbox, a company that helps you store and share files online, announced that it had bought Cove. Ruchi and Aditya then joined Dropbox. Ruchi later became the Vice President of Operations at Dropbox. In this role, she managed different areas like product development, marketing, and communications. In October 2013, Ruchi left Dropbox, but she continued to advise the company.
South Park Commons
In 2015, Ruchi Sanghvi started South Park Commons (SPC). This is a community for people in technology. It's also a shared workspace located in San Francisco. The community calls itself an "anti-incubator." This means it's a place for entrepreneurs, engineers, researchers, and others to work and share ideas. SPC has grown to include physical spaces in San Francisco and New York City. It now has over 450 active members and alumni around the world. In 2018, SPC raised $40 million to help new companies get started. This money came from community members. SPC raised a second fund of $150 million in 2021. Ruchi Sanghvi is both a co-leader of the SPC community and a general partner in the SPC Fund.
Board Roles
Ruchi Sanghvi is on the board of UCSF. She was also previously on the board of directors for Paytm.
Helping Others (Philanthropy)
Ruchi Sanghvi was one of the founders of FWD.us. This is a group formed in Silicon Valley to support immigration reform. It also works to improve education and help new technologies grow in the United States. The group officially started on April 11, 2013.
Ruchi's personal story was shared on the FWD.us website in a section called "Stories."
In an interview in November 2013, Ruchi explained her involvement with FWD.us. She said that Silicon Valley is a very idealistic place. FWD.us aims to do real work to boost the "knowledge economy." Immigration is one part of this, but another part is finding ways to help include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) studies in schools. She felt good about the progress on immigration reform.
Personal Life
Ruchi Sanghvi is married to Aditya Agarwal. They were colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University and later worked together at Facebook, Cove, and Dropbox.
Awards and Recognitions
In 2011, Ruchi Sanghvi received a TechFellow "Best Engineering Leadership Award" for her work at Facebook.
In 2018, Ruchi Sanghvi was a main speaker at HackMIT.
