Recognized for her solution-oriented thinking and energetic leadership style, Aparna Pujar has created a dynamic career as an entrepreneur, product visionary, and technologist. With a career spanning over 20 years in business, engineering, and product leadership roles, Aparna has brought world-class products to technology companies focused in areas such as media, healthcare, and retail and in her current role as the CEO and founder of Enfavr.
Embodying the qualities of hard work, honesty, and compassion which were instilled in her from a young age, a major theme in Aparna’s life and career has been connection. Whether it’s connecting the dots of life’s experiences to her career, fostering supportive relationships with employees, or integrating her technical experience to fit consumer behavior, this important facet of Aparna Pujar’s professional career has helped her become an accomplished and insightful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, Aparna Pujar and her family relocated to California from India in 1996. She began her career in email application during the early stages of the Internet, but as emerging technologies developed, she drew upon her passion for learning. In 1997, Aparna earned a Master’s of Science in Engineering Management from California’s Santa Clara University.
In addition to Aparna Pujar’s impressive skill set, she expanded her talents by taking positions at major Fortune 500 tech companies, Yahoo! and eBay.
Securing a role as the Director of Media and Front Doors at Yahoo!, she defined and oversaw the market and product strategies for the company’s Media Properties Portfolio comprised of News, Movies, Sports, and Finance markets. During her time at Yahoo!, Aparna revived the News and Finance properties, delivering over 100% YoY Audience category growth while promoting a “Voices into Choices” methodology.
At eBay, she established herself as a dedicated Group Product Manager, later advancing to Lead Strategist of the tech company’s Big Data Initiatives and Global Behavior Data Platform & Analytics Products. In this position, Aparna Pujar became the leader of eBay’s campaign to leverage Big Data and transition Behavior Analytics to omnichannel mediums across Internet, mobile, in-store and local platforms. These spanned two product lines including eBay Behavior Data Platform & Analytics and eBay Touchpoint. Aparna’s adaptability also allowed her to manage and direct a cross-functional team to standardize customer feedback. At the same time, she successfully led and oversaw the division’s products from incubation and concept to product vision and delivery including Competitive Study and Investment Justification. Her prowess further led her to introduce, influence, and innovate machine learning tactics to manage and scale data mining efforts for BOT detection and Technographic Segmentation of User Behaviors. Under Aparna’s leadership, she was able to collect, transform, aggregate and summarize about 8 billion daily behavior events while addressing the scalability aspects of transitioning to near real-time data delivery for behavior analysis.
After taking a sabbatical from eBay to focus on changing career paths, Aparna solidified her long-term goal to become an entrepreneur, eventually earning a certificate in Stanford Executive Program from Stanford University in 2017. Now, as the founder and CEO of Enfavr, an Internet and social media startup established in 2016, Aparna seeks to nurture compassion between people by providing a platform for communities, from friends to neighbors, to exchange services and funds for everyday needs. Interconnected with Facebook, the app allows a seamless way for users to request, perform, track and return favors (exchange services) for everyday tasks from babysitting to home repairs.
Among Aparna’s wide-ranging accomplishments, she became the co-inventor of methods and systems for consolidating purchase orders in 2011. Aparna Pujar has also been a guest speaker at various conferences and summits, offering her expertise on “The Innovation Enterprise” at the Social Media & Web Analytics Innovation Summit, “Women 2.0 Conference” for NextGenWomen and “Behavior Data at eBay” at the 2nd Annual Global Big Data Conference. She is also passionate about creating more opportunities for female entrepreneurs in the tech sector.
Aparna Pujar currently resides with her family in Silicon Valley, California.