Serial entrepreneur Nirav Tolia is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social networking service. Nextdoor is used by 280,000 active neighborhoods across America. Prior to this, he was an executive at firms including Round Zero, Epinions, and Shopping.com. Tolia was also a recurring guest on ABC’s Shark Tank. As of 2023, Nirav Tolia has a net worth of $50 million.
Early Life
Nirav was born to Indian immigrants who settled in Odessa, Texas. His exact date of birth isn’t known, but he was born sometime in 1973. There is limited information available about his early childhood.
After graduating from high school, Tolia studied English literature at Stanford University. Here he gained access to new technology, which was influential in his future career path.
Nirav became a performer and manager of his school’s acapella singing club. Their group won the Grammy for Collegiate A Cappella, and it was at the awards ceremony that Tolia met the creators of Yahoo!
Career Beginnings
The entrepreneur was invited to join Yahoo! when it was still an early-stage startup. Nirav agreed and joined the company as its 84th employee. During his time there, Yahoo! experienced rapid growth, and the staff count rose to over 10,000.
At one point, he wanted to explore his own ideas by becoming an entrepreneur. One of his biggest successes upon transitioning was Round Zero, an exclusive community for business people.
In 1999, Tolia launched a website for general consumer reviews called Epinions. When the dot-com bubble popped, Epinions suffered a major loss. Dealtime.com acquired Epinions for an undisclosed sum in 2003.
Achieving Success
After Dealtime and Epinions merged, Shopping.com was formed, and Nirav was chosen to serve as COO. When it went public in 2005, the firm was bought by eBay for $620 million.
The funds Tolia received from the deal helped him co-found Nextdoor in 2008. It is a social networking service built for neighborhoods and has become a massive success. The platform is currently used in 11 countries and covers 90% of the neighborhoods in the US.
This success made Nirav Tolia a highly respected entrepreneur in business circles. In 2021, he received an invitation to appear as a guest investor on Shark Tank. Although he hasn’t appeared in many episodes, he did manage to make some deals, investing in HelloPrenup and SoaPen.
Net Worth and Earnings
The Texas business executive has operated and invested in many successful startups. Nextdoor without a doubt is his main source of wealth. In 2022, the social network made $213 million in revenue but lost around $137 million! Today, the company has a market cap of $1.2 billion.
Before this, he built his early fortune with Round Zero, Epinions, Shopping.com, and Yahoo! All of Nirav Tolia’s ventures give him an estimated net worth of $50 million.
Personal Life
Nirav is a married man, and his wife’s name is Megha Tolia. They are blessed with three children. The family prefers to keep a low profile but they do share some photos on Instagram. After a one-year sabbatical in Florence, they are now back at home in San Francisco, California.
