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2026-01-21T05:42:26Z

added first details needs work

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{{Short description|American software engineer and investor}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Aditya Agarwal
| image = Aditya Agarwal.jpg
| birth_date = 1982
| birth_place = [[India]]
| education = [[Carnegie Mellon University]] (BS, MS)
| occupation = [[Software engineer]], investor
| employer = [[South Park Commons]]
| known_for = Early engineer at [[Facebook]], former [[Chief technology officer|CTO]] of [[Dropbox]], co-founder of [[FWD.us]]
| spouse = [[Ruchi Sanghvi]] (m. 2010)
}}

'''Aditya Agarwal''' (born 1982) is an Indian-American software engineer and investor. He is a general partner at the venture capital fund [[South Park Commons]]. Agarwal was previously the [[Chief Technology Officer]] (CTO) of [[Dropbox]] and an early engineer at [[Facebook]], where he served as the first Director of Product Engineering.

== Education ==
Agarwal attended [[Carnegie Mellon University]] (CMU) in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], where he earned both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in [[Computer Science]].<ref name="CMU_Profile">{{cite web |title=Challenges, Adventure Empower Agarwal |url=https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/august/dropbox-cto.html |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |date=August 8, 2017 |access-date=January 16, 2026}}</ref>

== Career ==

=== Facebook ===
Agarwal joined [[Facebook]] as a software engineer in 2005.<ref name="EconomicTimes">{{cite news |title=How a chance meeting with Mark Zuckerberg led Aditya Agarwal to be on Facebook's original team |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/how-a-chance-meeting-with-mark-zuckerberg-led-aditya-agarwal-to-be-on-facebooks-original-team/articleshow/46049628.cms |newspaper=[[The Economic Times]] |date=January 29, 2015}}</ref> He was one of the company's first engineers and helped build the initial search engine for the platform.<ref name="HindustanTimes">{{cite news |title=How Mark Zuckerberg pushed an Indian engineer to build Facebook's ultimate search engine |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/how-mark-zuckerberg-pushed-an-indian-engineer-to-build-facebooks-ultimate-search-engine-dude-if-i-can-101723190625150.html |newspaper=[[Hindustan Times]] |date=August 9, 2024}}</ref> He eventually became the company's first Director of Product Engineering, where he oversaw engineering for products including Search.<ref>{{cite web |last=Review |first=First Round |title=Hyper-Growth Done Right - Lessons From the Man Who Scaled Engineering at Dropbox and Facebook |url=https://review.firstround.com/hyper-growth-done-right-lessons-from-the-man-who-scaled-engineering-at-dropbox-and-facebook/ |website=First Round Review |access-date=16 January 2026}}</ref>

=== Cove and Dropbox ===
Agarwal co-founded Cove, a collaboration software company, with [[Ruchi Sanghvi]].<ref name="TechCrunch_Cove">{{cite news |title=Dropbox Buys Cove To Bring Former Facebookers Ruchi Sanghvi And Aditya Agarwal To The Team |url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/27/dropbox-buys-cove-to-bring-former-facebookers-ruchi-sanghvi-and-aditya-agarwal-to-the-team/ |publisher=[[TechCrunch]] |date=February 27, 2012}}</ref> In February 2012, [[Dropbox]] acquired Cove, and Agarwal joined Dropbox as Vice President of Engineering.<ref name="TechCrunch_Cove"/>

In October 2016, Agarwal was appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Dropbox, succeeding co-founder [[Arash Ferdowsi]].<ref name="BusinessInsider_CTO">{{cite news |title=Dropbox cofounder Arash Ferdowsi passes off CTO role to VP of engineering |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-promotes-vp-of-engineering-aditya-agarwal-to-cto-2016-10 |publisher=[[Business Insider]] |date=October 14, 2016}}</ref> As CTO, he was responsible for the company's engineering, product, and technical operations. He left Dropbox in 2017.<ref name="TechCrunch_Leave">{{cite news |title=Dropbox CTO Aditya Agarwal is leaving |url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/21/dropbox-cto-aditya-agarwal-is-leaving/ |publisher=[[TechCrunch]] |date=July 21, 2017}}</ref>

=== Investing ===
Agarwal is a partner at [[South Park Commons]], a venture capital fund and technologist community founded by Ruchi Sanghvi.<ref name="NYT_SPC">{{cite news |last=Schoenfeld |first=Bruce |title=In San Francisco, a ‘Hacker House’ for the Grown-Up Set |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/business/tech-scene-south-park-commons-san-francisco.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 2, 2017}}</ref><ref name="SPC_Bio">{{cite web |title=Aditya Agarwal: Partner |url=https://www.southparkcommons.com/team/aditya-agarwal |publisher=South Park Commons |access-date=January 16, 2026}}</ref>

He has served on the board of directors of [[Flipkart]], an Indian e-commerce company, joining as an independent director in 2014.<ref name="Flipkart">{{cite news |title=Dropbox executive joins Flipkart as independent director |url=https://www.livemint.com/Companies/Vv3i3fznfSDnpAMrAwmmqI/Flipkart-appoints-Dropbox-official-as-an-independent-directo.html |newspaper=[[Mint (newspaper)|Mint]] |date=November 13, 2014}}</ref>

== Philanthropy and affiliations ==
In 2013, Agarwal was a founding contributor to [[FWD.us]], a 501(c)(4) lobbying group focused on immigration reform and education in the United States.<ref name="SFGate_FWD">{{cite news |title=Zuckerberg, tech luminaries form PAC |url=https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/zuckerberg-tech-luminaries-form-pac-4428580.php |newspaper=[[SFGATE]] |date=April 11, 2013}}</ref>

He has served on the board of trustees for the [[Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology]]<ref name="AnitaBorg">{{cite web |title=2015 Impact Report |url=https://anitabindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2015-abi-impact-report.pdf |publisher=[[AnitaB.org]] |page=9 |access-date=January 16, 2026}}</ref> and on the advisory board for the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.<ref name="CMU_Board">{{cite web |title=SCS Dean's Advisory Board |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/about-scs/deans-advisory-board |publisher=[[Carnegie Mellon University]] |access-date=January 16, 2026}}</ref>

Agarwal is a co-author of ''The Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring'' (2020), a reference book on engineering recruitment.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring |last1=Osman |first1=Ozzie |last2=Agarwal |first2=Aditya |publisher=Holloway |year=2020 |isbn=978-1952120084}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Agarwal is married to [[Ruchi Sanghvi]], a computer engineer and founder of [[South Park Commons]]. They met while studying at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] and later worked together at Facebook and Dropbox.<ref name="CMU_Profile"/> They married in 2010.<ref name="EconomicTimes"/>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Agarwal, Aditya}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1982 births]]
[[Category:American software engineers]]
[[Category:American business executives in technology]]
[[Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni]]
[[Category:Facebook employees]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]

Aditya Agarwal - Revision history

Bahoglalat: added first details needs work