Founder
Six companies and counting — from Virgin Mobile USA’s earliest team to Knotel’s five hundred buildings to a venture firm for people and planet. The habit of a cognitive scientist: build the thing to test the idea.
New York City
Amol Sarva
FounderInvestorTeacherWriter
Builds companies, backs founders, teaches venture at Columbia, and writes about technology, biology, cities, and making new things people like. A cognitive scientist turned six-time entrepreneur — from Virgin Mobile USA to Knotel to Life Extension Ventures.
Now Life Extension Ventures · teaching at Columbia · New York
Investor
Angel in dozens of startups since 2012 — among them JUMP, Marley Spoon, CoverWallet, Goodco, and Hike — and co-founder of Life Extension Ventures, backing AI-accelerated science in longevity and climate.
Teacher
Professor at Columbia since 2016. Teaches undergraduates to venture, and runs an advanced studio where students set out to make history by making things.
Writer
Essays for HuffPost, Fortune, Salon, and BusinessWeek — on work and productivity, technology and cities, and why some places make more with less.
Ventures
Companies built
Most recent first. Roles and outcomes stated plainly.
- Life Extension Ventures 2022– Co-founder — current
A venture fund for people and planet: longevity, health, and climate, powered by AI-accelerated science.
- Popular Change Studio Founder
A venture studio building companies including Aikito, CornerUP, Ratio21, and Dinara.
- Knotel 2016–2021 Founder & CEO
Flexible-office platform: 500+ buildings across 27 cities in 10 countries, roughly $370M in revenue pre-COVID. Acquired by Newmark in 2021.
- Halo Neuroscience 2012 Founder
Neurostimulation for athletes — used by the US Olympic team and special forces. Acquired by Flow Neuroscience.
- Knotable / Knote 2012 Co-founder
A collaborative notes app for teams.
- Peek 2007 Co-founder
The world’s first device dedicated to email. Time Gadget of the Year; GSMA Best Technology nominee, 2012.
- Virgin Mobile USA 2000 Founding team
One of the three earliest team members: helped raise ~$550M, negotiated the Sprint joint venture, designed the core product. IPO’d in 2007 at roughly $1 billion.
Before all of that: Netatomic, a first startup, and Blue Mobile, prepaid wireless.
Investing
Backing founders
Angel investor in dozens of startups since 2012. A few of the outcomes:
- JUMPAcquired by Uber
- Marley SpoonPublic company
- CoverWalletAcquired by AON
- GoodcoAcquired by Axel Springer
- Hike100M monthly active users
Today, most new investing runs through Life Extension Ventures — a fund for people and planet, backing founders who use AI to accelerate science in longevity, health, and climate.
Teaching
Columbia, since 2016
Two courses on how new things get made — and who gets to make them.
Venturing to Change the WorldUndergraduate
An undergraduate course on venturing: how founders identify problems worth solving and build organizations to solve them.
Making History through VenturingAdvanced venture studio
An advanced studio where students go beyond the case study — working on real ventures, at the pace real ventures demand.
Writing · Books & Essays
Essays
On work, technology, and making new things people like. Selected pieces:
- Why Germans Work Fewer Hours But Produce More Essay
- Ship While You Sleep Essay
Writing has appeared in HuffPost, Fortune, Salon, and BusinessWeek. For the running commentary, @amol.
About
Briefly
Born in New York City. Stuyvesant High School, then Columbia — a BA in philosophy and economics — then Stanford, where a PhD in cognitive science produced a dissertation on The Concept of Modularity in Cognitive Science. A stint at McKinsey followed, and then the first startup did what first startups do: it started everything else.
Along the way: named a Global Vanguard by the World Economic Forum; founded the Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation in 2007; testified before the US Senate and the FCC on telecom competition.
Now: building and backing at Life Extension Ventures, teaching at Columbia, and writing when the writing is ready.
Elsewhere
- Twitter@amol
- LinkedInamolsarva
- Fundlifex.vc
- ReferenceWikipedia
- Emailamol@sarva.co