Brienne Ghafourifar, Entefy’s co-founder, keynotes Rotary’s ELC 2015, a conference that provides young entrepreneurs hands-on understanding of building a business in the free enterprise system.
We were all thrilled by the opportunity. At Entefy, we know young entrepreneurs are essential to solving some of the world’s most pressing problems and creating a new age of global engagement. After all, it’s today’s entrepreneurs who are most poised to take the first crucial steps to change tomorrow.
Highlights from VLAB’s Young Women Entrepreneurs Under 30 event. You can catch the full video here.
What does it take to build a product? Lead a team? Raise capital? Handle setbacks? What does it take to change the world?
Chosen as one of VLAB’s Young Women Entrepreneurs Under 30, Entefy’s co-founder, Brienne Ghafourifar, shares her unique experience as a female entrepreneur and the passion that it takes to propel Entefy forward.
About VLAB: VLAB is a joint project of the MIT Enterprise Forum and is sponsored by the Stanford University Office of Technology Licensing, and the Alumni Association of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. VLAB is officially called the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Bay Area and is part of an international organization with 26 chapters throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 22, 2015 — Entefy announced today that Dr. Rudd Canaday, co-inventor of UNIX, has recently joined their team as Senior Architect & Engineer.
Since writing his first computer program as a Harvard undergrad, Dr. Canaday’s career has been one of many firsts. He was a co-inventor of UNIX, one of the first operating systems to be written in a high-level programming language and a game changer in computer technology. He also directed the design of the first database server as well as the first automated voice-response directory information system, just to name a few. Most recently, he developed Cima System’s flagship product, CS TelAppoint, featuring interactive communications.
Dr. Canaday’s vast engineering prowess and passion for collaborating on disruptive technologies drew him to Entefy. When asked “Why Entefy?” he said “Entefy is working on solving an extremely difficult problem that will fundamentally change the way we interact in our increasingly connected world, and I just had to be part of it.”
Entefy CEO and Co-Founder, Alston Ghafourifar, said, “We are honored to have Rudd on board. We’re breaking new ground at Entefy and it’s a thrill to have someone on our team with his level of experience, passion, and unique gift for developing smart solutions.”
Dr. Canaday holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard University as well as Master’s and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT.
ABOUT ENTEFY
Entefy Inc. is a next-generation communication technology startup based in Palo Alto, California, engineering the world’s first universal interaction platform. With Entefy, users can seamlessly bring together all of their conversations, files, and friends in one happy place. Built for the Internet of Things, Entefy is designed to work beautifully across any smart device and bring harmony to people’s increasingly chaotic digital lives.
As a company, Entefy is built on amazing talent, rare passion, and lasting friendships. So as Entefyers, we never forget the importance of camaraderie–whether it’s with Entefy Volleyball Day or this special gathering with Entefy friends.
Gender equality is critical to the future of innovation. Innovation, specifically in science, technology, engineering, aviation, and mathematics are fundamental to our growth as a society. Yet despite the decades of progress we’ve made in career and education, women remain largely underrepresented in these crucial fields. That’s why we seize every opportunity to recognize and support the brave ones fighting the good fight like this recent benefit gala in which Brienne Ghafourifar, co-founder of Entefy, supports women in science, technology, engineering, aviation, and mathematics.
The entire team gathered with friends and family for Entefy Volleyball Day. The friendly competition and beautiful sunny day presented the perfect opportunity for everyone to show off their moves.
Interested in being part of the action? Join our team!
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 29, 2014 – Silicon Valley startup, Entefy, announced today that former CEO of NYSE Euronext, Duncan Niederauer, and former Chairman and CEO of Xilinx, Willem “Wim” Roelandts, were named to its Board of Directors.
This news, combined with the company’s recent capital raise, bringing its venture funding total to $5.25 million, caps off a successful pre-launch period for Entefy as it prepares for the beta release of its debut product.
“We are honored to welcome Wim and Duncan to the Entefy team. Their collective executive experience, technological knowledge, and passion for innovation will be great assets to us as we advance our business strategy and brand rollout,” said Entefy CEO, Alston Ghafourifar.
The new board members were equally enthusiastic about joining Entefy.
“I think this is one of those rare opportunities where a secular shift in consumer behavior and disruptive technology come together and the team assembled is talented, energetic and, highly focused,” said Niederauer.
As CEO of NYSE Euronext, Niederauer transformed and grew the organization while navigating through the financial crisis, evolving market and regulatory conditions, and industry consolidation. Under his leadership, the New York Stock Exchange experienced a significant increase in its technology IPO listings, from 13% in 2006 to 54% in 2013. Niederauer also negotiated and completed NYSE Euronext’s acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange.
“I immediately connected with the founding team and their vision for technology and the future of communication. To me, Entefy is tackling a challenge that can lead to a real breakthrough and I’m delighted to be part of it,” said Roelandts
Roelandts’ leadership as the CEO of Xilinx drove the company’s revenue to more than triple, to nearly $2 billion, while increasing market share in the programmable logic business from 30 percent to over 50 percent. Roelandts’ decades of experience as a technology executive has helped foster innovation at a number of other global organizations including Hewlett Packard, Applied Materials, and Aruba Networks.
Duncan Niederauer
Mr. Niederauer was most recently CEO of NYSE and President of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. During his tenure as CEO of NYSE Euronext from 2007-2013, Mr. Niederauer oversaw the transformation of the company into an innovative, globally integrated organization with a high-tech, high-touch focus.
Before joining NYSE Euronext in 2007, Mr. Niederauer was at Goldman, Sachs & Co., a career which spanned 22 years. In addition to his other pursuits, Mr. Niederauer now serves on the boards of Colgate University, The American Ireland Fund and the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, among others.
Wim Roelandts
Mr. Roelandts started his 29-year management career with Hewlett Packard (HP) in Belgium in 1967. In 1983 he moved to the U.S. and finished his career at HP as senior vice president in charge of HP’s Computer Systems Organization, with responsibility for HP’s worldwide computer systems business of about $6 billion.
In 1996, Mr. Roelandts left HP to become the CEO of Xilinx and, later, chairman in 2003. Under his leadership, Xilinx’ revenue more than tripled to nearly $2 billion and market share increased in the programmable logic business from 30 percent to over 50 percent. During his tenure, Xilinx was nominated several times in the top 10 of Fortune Magazine’s “100 best companies to work for.” Currently, Mr. Roelandts also serves on the Board of Directors of Applied Materials, Inc., Aruba Networks, Inc., and IMEC (a micro- and nanoelectronics research center in Belgium).
About Entefy
Entefy is a technology startup based in Palo Alto, California, building the most intelligent communication platform available—ATUM (Adaptive Threading Universal Messenger). With ATUM, users can seamlessly bring together all of their conversations, files, and friends in one super smart application with dynamic messaging, multi-protocol threading, and universal search. Built for the Internet of Things, ATUM is designed to work beautifully across any smart device and bring harmony to people’s increasingly chaotic digital lives.
Entefy was invited to take part in the NCBW Girls’ STEM Day 2014, hosted by Texas Instruments. We were thrilled for the opportunity to share our experiences and our love for building transformative technology with the next generation of leaders and innovators.
We were delighted to welcome the community to Entefy’s first open house in Palo Alto. Curious guests from all corners of the tech industry and the Bay Area streamed in to discover what we do, how we do it, and why it’s worth doing.