Ruchi Sanghvi

{{Infobox person

| name = Ruchi Sanghvi

| image = Ruchi cover-2.jpg

| caption = Sanghvi in August 2014

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1982|1|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = Pune, India

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = Indian

| citizenship =

| alma_mater = Carnegie Mellon University - CMU

| website = {{URL|http://www.facebook.com/ruchi}}
{{small|(Facebook profile)}}

| spouse = Aditya Agarwal

}}

Ruchi Sanghvi (born 20 January 1982){{cite book |last1=Hamilton Waxman |first1=Laura |title=Computer Engineer Ruchi Sanghvi |date=2015 |publisher=Lerner Publications |location=Minneapolis |pages=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzsmDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Ruchi+Sanghvi%22+%22january+20%22&pg=PA5 |accessdate=24 October 2018|isbn=9781467757942 }}{{cite news |last1=Rai |first1=Aditi |title=Engineering her own rise : Ruchi Sanghvi |url=http://radicalnews.in/techies/29/engineering-her-own-rise-ruchi-sanghvi |accessdate=24 October 2018 |publisher=Radical News |date=March 3, 2015 |archive-date=24 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024073639/http://radicalnews.in/techies/29/engineering-her-own-rise-ruchi-sanghvi |url-status=dead }} is an Indian computer engineer and businesswoman. She was the first female engineer hired by Facebook.{{cite news | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/ruchi-sanghvi-facebook-female-engineer_n_961148.html | title=Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook's First Female Engineer: 'It Was Difficult To Break Into The Boys' Club' | work=huffingtonpost.com | accessdate=7 October 2011 | date=2011-09-13}}{{cite web | url=http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-15/tech/30159050_1_engineers-facebook-break | title=It Was Hard For Facebook's First Female Engineer "To Break Into The Boys' Club" | website=Business Insider | accessdate=7 October 2011 | author=Lichaa, Zachary | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402131113/http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-15/tech/30159050_1_engineers-facebook-break | archivedate=2 April 2012 }} In late 2010, she quit Facebook and in 2011,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64AaXC00bkQ|title=Ruchi Sanghvi: From Facebook to facing the unknown|date=20 March 2012|accessdate=21 February 2019|publisher=YouTube}} she started her own company Cove, with two other co-founders. The company was sold to Dropbox in 2012 and Sanghvi joined Dropbox as VP of Operations. She left Dropbox in October 2013.

In 2016, Sanghvi established South Park Commons, a residential and professional tech space that functions similarly to a hackerspace.{{cite magazine |last1=Konrad |first1=Alex |title=At South Park Commons, A Throwback Techie Collective Raises A $40 Million Fund |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2018/04/26/south-park-commons-raises-fund/#547cc25a25ef |accessdate=24 October 2018 |magazine=Forbes |date=Apr 26, 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Metz |first1=Cade |title=The South Park Commons Fills a Hole in the Tech Landscape |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/business/tech-scene-south-park-commons-san-francisco.html |accessdate=24 October 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 2, 2017}}

Early life and education

Sanghvi was raised in Pune, India. When she was young, she intended to join her father's business after completing her studies.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.marieclaire.com/career-money/advice/ruchi-sanghvi|title = Ruchi Sanghvi|magazine = Marie Claire|accessdate = 2013-04-23}} Sanghvi pursued her bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.{{cite web|url=http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/computing/2010/fall/engineering-facebook.shtml|title = Engineering Facebook|publisher = Carnegie Mellon University|accessdate = 2013-04-23}}

Career

=Facebook=

After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, Sanghvi initially planned to work in New York City, but decided instead to move to Silicon Valley where her former CMU colleague Aditya Agarwal, whom she was dating, worked. She got a job at the Oracle Corporation.

In 2005, Sanghvi and Agarwal both started working at Facebook. Sanghvi was Facebook's first female engineer.Kirkpatrick, David (2010-06-08). The Facebook Effect (pp. 132). Simon & Schuster.

Sanghvi was one of the main people working on the first version of Facebook's News Feed product, first launched in September 2006, and she wrote the blog post announcing its launch.{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/blog/blog.php?post=2207967130|title = Facebook Gets a Facelift|last = Sanghvi|first = Ruchi|publisher = Facebook (blog)|date = 2006-09-05|accessdate = 2013-04-23}} {{Cite magazine |last=Hempel |first=Jessi |title=Everyone Hated News Feed. Then It Became Facebook's Most Important Product |url=https://www.wired.com/2016/09/everyone-hated-news-feed-then-it-became-facebooks-most-important-product/ |access-date=2024-09-12 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}} The original news feed was an algorithmically generated and constantly refreshing summary of updates about the activities of one's friends. The concept was relatively new at the time, with Twitter having launched only a few months in advance.

The News Feed feature was greeted with a lot of pushback and criticism, including some that was directed personally at Sanghvi.{{cite web|url = http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2006/09/student_users_say_new_facebook_feed_borders_on_stalking|title = Student users say new Facebook feed borders on stalking|last = Moore|first = Brandon|accessdate = 2013-04-23|date = 2006-09-08|publisher = Arizona Daily|archive-date = 21 December 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191221071735/https://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2006/09/student_users_say_new_facebook_feed_borders_on_stalking|url-status = dead}} The criticism was dealt with through the introduction of new privacy controls in terms of what personal data would appear in friends' news feeds. These privacy controls were coded in a hectic 48-hour coding session by Sanghvi and other Facebook engineers including Chris Cox and Andrew Bosworth, and announced in a contrite blog post by Facebook's principal founder Mark Zuckerberg.{{cite web|url=https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2208562130|title = An Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg|date = 2006-09-08|accessdate = 2013-04-23|publisher = Facebook (blog)|last = Zuckerberg|first = Mark}}

=Cove and Dropbox=

In late 2010, Sanghvi left Facebook and in 2011, co-founded a stealth collaboration startup called Cove along with Aditya Agarwal. In February 2012, Dropbox, the file synchronization and backup service company, announced that it had acquired Cove and that Sanghvi and Agarwal would be joining Dropbox.{{cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/27/dropbox-buys-cove-to-bring-former-facebookers-ruchi-sanghvi-and-aditya-agarwal-to-the-team/|title = Dropbox Buys Cove To Bring Former Facebookers Ruchi Sanghvi And Aditya Agarwal To The Team|work = TechCrunch|last = Tsotsis|first = Alexia|accessdate = 2013-04-23|date = 2012-02-27}} Sanghvi later became the Vice President of Operations at Dropbox, managing product, marketing, communications and other functions. In October 2013, Sanghvi left Dropbox, but continued to retain an advisory role at the company.{{cite web|url=http://allthingsd.com/20131009/prominent-dropbox-executive-ruchi-sanghvi-is-leaving-the-company/|title = Prominent Dropbox Executive Ruchi Sanghvi Is Leaving the Company|last = Gannes|first = Liz|date = 9 October 2013|accessdate = 30 June 2014|publisher = AllThingsD}}

=South Park Commons=

In 2015, Sanghvi founded South Park Commons (SPC), a technical community and co-working space located in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco. The community describes itself as an "anti-incubator" and includes entrepreneurs, engineers, researchers, and others. SPC has since grown to include physical spaces in San Francisco and New York City, with over 450 active members and alumni globally.{{cite news |last1=Loizos |first1=Connie |title=South Park Commons, an 'anti incubator' founded by early FB and Dropbox engineers, gains momentum |url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/17/south-park-commons-an-anti-incubator-founded-by-early-fb-and-dropbox-engineers-gains-momentum/ |accessdate=23 December 2021 |publisher=TechCrunch |date=December 17, 2021}} In 2018, SPC raised a $40 million seed fund backed by community members. SPC raised a second fund of $150 million in 2021. Sanghvi serves as both co-head of the SPC community and general partner in the SPC Fund.{{cite web |url=https://www.southparkcommons.com/fund |title=Fund Team |website=South Park Commons |access-date=23 December 2021}}

Board memberships

Sanghvi is on the board of [https://www.ucsfhealth.org/ UCSF] and was previously on Paytm's board of directors.{{cite news |last1=Gupte |first1=Masoom |title=When joining a startup, don't ask what position, what role: Paytm's Ruchi Sanghvi |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/when-joining-a-startup-dont-ask-what-position-what-role-paytms-ruchi-sanghvi/articleshow/48353782.cms |accessdate=24 October 2018 |newspaper=The Economic Times |date=August 7, 2015}}{{cite news |title=New directors join Paytm board: Ruchi Sanghvi, Neeraj Arora & Naveen Tewari |url=https://blog.paytm.com/new-directors-join-paytm-board-ruchi-sanghvi-neeraj-arora-naveen-tewari-709a1379f2c |accessdate=24 October 2018 |publisher=Paytm |date=June 24, 2015 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Philanthropy

Sanghvi was listed as one of the founders of FWD.us, a 501(c)(4) lobbying group formed in Silicon Valley to promote immigration reform, improve education, and facilitate technological breakthroughs in the United States.{{cite web|url = http://fwd.us/our_supporters|title = Our supporters|publisher = FWD.us|accessdate = 2013-04-17|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130416045611/http://www.fwd.us/our_supporters|archivedate = 2013-04-16}} The group launched on 11 April 2013.{{cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2013/04/11/fwd-us/|title = Zuckerberg And A Team Of Tech All-Stars Launch Political Advocacy Group FWD.us|last = Constine|first = Josh|date= 2013-04-11|accessdate = 2013-04-17|work = TechCrunch}}

Sanghvi's personal story was featured on the FWD.us website's "Stories" section.{{cite web|url=http://www.fwd.us/stories|title = Stories|publisher= FWD.us|accessdate = 2013-04-17}}

In an interview with Mint in November 2013, Sanghvi described her involvement with FWD.us as follows: "Silicon Valley is a very idealistic society. So FWD.us is a mission to step down from the idealistic world and do some real work. The mission is to boost the knowledge economy. Immigration is only one part of it, the other part of it is to figure out bipartisan policies to help include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) studies in the education system. Immigration is a really hot topic and I am very satisfied with the senate Bill. I am hopeful that immigration reform will pass, even though right now Washington is divided."

Personal life

Sanghvi is married to Aditya Agarwal, who was her colleague at Carnegie Mellon University and later at Facebook, Cove, and Dropbox.{{cite news|url=http://www.livemint.com/Companies/XmqafmHKXq3U45sB3LdsYL/I-just-happen-to-be-a-woman-who-is-aggressive-Ruchi-Sanghvi.html|title = I just happen to be a woman who is aggressive: Ruchi Sanghvi Facebook's first woman engineer on the US immigration Bill, her reasons for investing in firms such as Flipkart, and being a member of FWD.us|last1 = D'Monte|first1 = Leslie|last2 = Khan|first2 = Zahra|date = 29 November 2013|accessdate = 30 June 2014|newspaper = Livemint}}{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ruchi-Aditya-wedding/248466307840|title = Ruchi-Aditya wedding|publisher = Facebook|accessdate = 30 June 2014}}

Awards and honors

Sanghvi was awarded a TechFellow "Best Engineering Leadership Award" in 2011 for her work at Facebook.{{cite web|url=http://www.techfellows.com/engineering-leadership/2011/ruchi-sanghvi/|title = Ruchi Sanghvi|publisher = TechFellows|accessdate = 2013-04-23}}{{cite news|url=http://on.aol.com/video/techfellow-awards--ruchi-sanghvi-517287387|title = TechFellow Awards: Ruchi Sanghvi|last = Tsotsis|first = Alexia|work =TechCrunch|date =2012-03-04|accessdate = 2013-04-23}}

In 2018, Sanghvi was a keynote speaker for HackMIT.{{cite news |last1=Woltz |first1=Billy |title=Neural network visualization project wins at HackMIT |url=https://thetech.com/2018/09/17/hack-mit-2018 |accessdate=24 October 2018 |newspaper=The Tech |date=September 17, 2018}}