In November 2011, UF alumnus Nikhil Kundra had an idea.
With his sister, Anjali Kundra, they launched Partender in May 2014. Partender, an app, helps bar owners take inventory and is now in more than 4,000 bars in over 29 countries, Kundra said.
For their app, Forbes named the Kundra siblings in its “2016 30 Under 30: Food and Drink” list released Jan. 4. It was a testament to their hard work and support from family and friends, Nikhil said.
“More than anything, this is just a huge achievement for our entire family and our entire team,” the 26-year-old said.
The two graduated from UF with master’s degrees in science and entrepreneurship, Anjali in 2012 and Nikhil in 2013.
Anjali, 29, said she got her bachelor’s degree in business administration from UF. After interning in 2007 on Wall Street with a small company, she found she was interested in entrepreneurship.
“The idea of entrepreneurship isn’t starting a sexy startup, it’s about testing the status quo and what you can improve,” she said.
While at UF, Nikhil said he participated in the “entrepreneurship boot camp,” a three-day competition in which he teamed up with strangers to create a mock startup. After going for a drink with his partners, he said he wondered why it took bartenders so long to take inventory of their drinks.
“There’s gotta be a better way to do this,” he remembered thinking.
His team conceptualized an app to speed up the inventory process, he said. That idea won the competition, but he didn’t stop there. He later created the app with his sister.
Yellowlees Douglas, a UF professor of management communications, said she mentored the Kundras while they developed their app.
“It was a fantastic idea, but it was so simple,” Douglas said.
When Douglas heard they had made a Forbes list, she said she wasn’t surprised.
“I’m just thrilled,” she said. “I mean, I love to see my former students do so well.”
Anjali, Douglas said, was grounded and good at dealing with people. Nikhil, she said, was persuasive.
“They complement each other beautifully,” she said.
Contact Melissa Gomez at mgomez@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @melissagomez004.
