Padlet is a bulletin board application that allows users to collaboratively share ideas, images, videos and links to a wall dedicated to a common topic. Users can access Padlet from any device, on any browser, and easily add their content to any part of the page, commonly known as the “Padlet wall”. On their site, the company touts Padlet as “possibly the easiest way to create and collaborate in the world”. Each highly visual Padlet wall is shared via URL and can be private or collaboratively accessed. The owner of each Padlet wall can choose how they are organized to appease the needs of the user. Padlet’s application in education serves to create visual idea boards, discussion boards, and connect global classrooms through a collaborative interface. Small businesses and other start-ups have also used Padlet as a “visual DropBox”, allowing them to store their files in the cloud visually for all of their employees to see. The founder and CEO of Padlet is Nitesh Goel, who founded Padlet in 2012. Padlet’s small team, past and present, boast impressive resumes, from co-founder Pranav Piyush’s involvement with PayPal and DropBox, to Mike Sha’s involvement with Amazon. Padlet is currently on the hunt for more employees to add to their small team of 4.
Nitesh Goel – Founder & CEO of Padlet
After working for 3 years as a software engineer for Navio Systems, a digital rights-based commerce reward firm, Nitesh received his Bachelor of Computer Engineering degree from the National University of Singapore in 2008. He then worked for SigFig, a investment assessment application that provides real, data-driven, and unbiased advice. He was also an advisor for ImportGenius, a database for simplifying importing and exporting shipping activities. Since 2012, Padlet has brought in $2.3 million in 6 rounds of investments, with $1.2 million of that coming in just a couple of weeks ago. Potential profits are on the horizon for the company, from their upgraded app “JetPack”, which their website claims is “Padlet on steroids“.
Nitesh’s idea could be heavily applicable in many markets, through the increased need for visualization of data and discussion. He is clearly an entrepreneur who prizes maintaining a positive work environment (every social media profile I found says he “laughs a lot”; so do the job listings I linked above), while consistently working to build an easy-to-use and accessible product. I would also argue that he’s used his connections well in terms of supporting his product growth as there is a lot of overlap in his team supporting similar start-ups and gaining traction with investors.
