Dr. Sarva is an American entrepreneur and technology policy advocate known for founding two significant mobile service companies, Virgin Mobile USA and Peek as well as Halo Neuroscience, Knotable and Knotel. Since 2012, he has backed nearly 100 startups including JUMP, Marley Spoon, , and Goodco At Virgin, he was one of the three earliest members of a team that created the MVNO concept in the US. He helped raise $550 million, negotiate the joint-venture with Sprint, design the core product, hire the CTO, and hire the future CEO. At the time of his departure, Virgin Mobile had no revenues or customers. Virgin Mobile had an IPO on NASDAQ in 2007 and was later acquired by Sprint Founder of Peek in late 2007, along with several of his former Virgin colleagues, he introduced the world's first mobile device dedicated to email. The product evolved to support a wider range of real-time web services including email, SMS, social networking. Peek launched services in the US, Europe, and Asia. Peek was awarded numerous prizes including Time's Gadget of the Year and in 2012 the GSMA Nomination for Best Technology. Yet in 2012, Peek service was abruptly canceled and left remaining users without service. Bharti Softbank acquired Peek for its featurephone platform in 2012 to build widely-used applications including Hike In late 2012, Sarva created Halo Neuroscience, a company focused on neurostimulation technology for enhancing cognitive function. He recruited two cofounders to leave their careers — Dan Chao and Lee von Kraus - and raised the first $1mm to launch the effort. His cofounder, Dan Chao, became CEO in August 2013 when Chao became a part-time worker for Halo and also at his former employer, which he fully left by January 2014. Sarva served on the board of directors through 2017. Also in 2012, Sarva cofounded Knotable, the company that makes the collaborative application Knote.com, and became involved in many dozens of companies during the following 5 years. He created a series of courses at Columbia University that he has taught since 2016. In January 2016, Sarva launched Knotel, the flexible office platform that in 2020 operates across more than 250 buildings in 17 cities in 10 countries.
Public policy
Sarva founded the Wireless Founders Coalition For Innovation in 2007 and appeared in US Senate hearings and Federal Communications Commission panels on the subject of competition in US telecom. He was an advisor to Frontline Wireless in 2007-2008. In 2012, the US Congress announced a plan to implement the public safety and re-apportioning plan promoted originally by Frontline. He has been active in supporting American political candidates. He has opposed the 2016-elected President publicly and supported alternative candidates for 2020 as well as many Senate and House candidates.
