S5 E24: Thejo Kote, Airbase

Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders

Episode • Nov 23, 2021 • 47m

Thejo Kote grew up in Southern India. He came from an academic, intellectual family. Both of his grandfathers were authors, and in the house, they had built up a library. But not just a few books here in there... Thejo grew up in with 3500 books in his house. These were a combination of everything, but with a lot of reference and historical books. If he's honest, Thejo didn't appreciate it really until he got older - however, no one appreciated it when it was time to move.

He was influenced a lot by what he was reading and watching, which he noted allowed him to learn from the experiences of others. Ultimately, his path took him down he road of tech and entrepreneurship. He's always been fascinated with how impactful tech can be on the world... you sit at home, write some code, and make an impact. Currently, he resides in San Francisco with his wife, and has been there for the last 10 years or so.

Prior to his current venture, he co-founded Automatic, connecting cars to the internet. This eventually sold to SiriusXM for several million dollars. Looking into another problem, he saw that the way people spend money lacked true visibility and connectivity between systems. He asked some questions, got some feedback, and set out to capitalize on the opportunity to build a better solution.

This is the creation story of Airbase.

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