Nirav Tolia

Nirav Tolia has spent the last 13 years working at early-stage, pioneering consumer Internet companies. His experience lies in the areas of online community, user-generated content, e-commerce and social networking. Nirav currently serves as the CEO and Co-founder of Nextdoor, the private social network for neighborhoods that launched in October 2011. Nextdoor is based in San Francisco and used by neighborhoods nationwide. Prior to co-founding Nextdoor, Nirav co-founded Fanbase, an online almanac of pro and college athletes. Nirav previously served as an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital. Nirav has also served as an an advisor and consultant to several consumer Internet companies, including aSmallWorld, Simply Hired and Zillow. Previously, as COO and a corporate director at Shopping.com, a company he helped create through the merger of Epinions and DealTime, he was responsible for product development, marketing, engineering and operations. Prior to Shopping.com, Nirav was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Epinions, one of the first Websites to introduce the mainstream use of online community and user-generated content. Over a four-year period, he successfully raised $45 million in venture financing, led the company to profitability and oversaw its 2003 merger with DealTime. He began his career as an early employee of Yahoo, working in the production and marketing departments. He also co-founded and served as president of Round Zero, a prominent non-profit organization and networking forum for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Nirav is originally from Odessa, Texas. Education: Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University Current companies advised: Minted, Zillow, Simply Hired, RealSelf and Bottlenotes. Previous companies advised include aSmallWorld, StepUp Commerce (acquired by Intuit) and Trigo (acquired by IBM)."