Three Princetonians named to Forbes 30 under 30 list

Forbes Magazine’s 2015 Venture Capital 30 under 30 list features two University alumni, Ryan Shea ’12 and Nikhil Basu Trivedi ’11, and former University student, Kevin Petrovic, who was a member of the class of 2016.

The annual list wasreleasedon Monday.

Shea co-founded OneName, a company that allows users to share bitcoins and personal data easily, withMuneeb Ali GS ’11in June 2013.

Shea received his B.S.E. in mechanical and aerospace engineering and a certificate in applications of computing from the University, while Ali received a master’s degree in computer science.

Shea and Ali first met through the University’s computer science department and the University's Entrepreneurship Club. The two were living in New York when they decided to start a company together.

OneName users create an account, and their data is then stored in a decentralized database. Users have unique keys that require them to prove their identities before logging in to applications or releasing private data.

“There’s one thing we kept coming back to, which was this idea of putting users back in control of their experience on the Internet,” Shea said.

He explained that the Internet has become increasingly consolidated with users heavily relying on cloud data providers, email hosts and web hosts to store and share data. Many times, these third parties share personal data in ways not originally intended by users.

When asked about OneName’s success and being named on Forbes 30 under 30, Shea noted that, though the company has come a long way, it still has a long way to go.

“It’s important to focus on what’s really important: building a business. It’s important not to lose sight of that,” said Shea.“Princeton is a great place to meet other smart people—it’s one of the best places in the world. Some of your future potential co-founders could be classmates right now.”

According to Forbes, OneName raised $1.5 million in seed funding in November and plans to launch a new login system next year.

Trivedi is a Senior Associate at Shasta Ventures, where he is the youngest member of the investment team. While pursuing a degree in molecular biology with a certificate in finance at the University, Trivedi cofounded Artsy, an art information site, and acted as chairman of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club.

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Trivedi then joined Shasta, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley investing in technology startups, in 2012 after two years at Insight Venture Partners, Forbes reported.

“I’m focused on backing the most passionate entrepreneurs who want to build the most enduring companies of our generation,” Trivedi wrote on his LinkedIn profile. “I’m personally passionate about mobile-enabled technologies in large, challenging, ‘undisrupted’ categories like education, healthcare, financial services, and more.”

Trivedi is also a board observer at Bloc, Inc., which offers mentor-led online courses in software development and design; Timehop, which retrieves and displays users’ social media posts on the same calendar date from years past; and ClassDojo, one of the world's fastest growing education technology companies. In addition, he acts as an advisor at the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship program.

Petrovic co-founded FlightCar, a car rental agency, with Rujul Zaparde, a former undergraduate at Harvard College in 2012.

According to Forbes, after raising $20 million for FlightCar, Petrovic and Zaparde became the youngest people ever to raise that amount of venture capital.

According to its website, FlightCar lets people parking at the airport rent their vehicles out to other approved traveling members. The agency has locations in major cities including Austin, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, with plans for further expansion.

Neither Trivedi nor Petrovic responded to a request for comment.