Daniel Ahmadizadeh

Daniel Ahmadizadeh is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and educator with a proven track record in the startup world. As CEO of two Y Combinator-backed companies—the renowned accelerator behind Airbnb, Doordash, and Stripe—he raised millions from top investors, including the co-founders of Gmail, Skype, and Dropbox, while scaling ventures to millions in revenue. Now in his third year teaching entrepreneurship at Columbia University, Daniel leverages his Start With One framework to shift entrepreneurship from idea-led to problem-led, focusing on solving a single individual’s issue—much like every successful company first addressed one person’s need before scaling. Students in his class work in teams to develop their own projects following this approach and present their solutions at a culminating demo day. A longtime mentor at Columbia’s Almaworks accelerator and a former TED resident, Daniel’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on NPR, and he has spoken at Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton. As an educator, he is passionate about empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators to change the world through venture creation.