Kiwi behind Silicon Valley start-up

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2015

Kiwi behind Silicon Valley start-up

From Auckland, to Shazam, to Stanford University, the next challenge for a young kiwi engineer is launching her start-up venture in Silicon Valley.

New Zealander Priyanka Shekar studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

She is a Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Californian based Grüv Music, an intuitive learning app which enables people to create music anywhere, anytime, with easy-to-play instruments and targeted and practical lessons.
“The aim is to open the doors of music-making to everyone, regardless of ability or training,” Priyanka says.

“We want to enable anyone to be able to pick up their smartphone and make music, and believe that musical creativity is innate.”

Grüv Music was recently accepted into the StartX business accelerator, a launching pad for Stanford University’s top entrepreneurs.

Priyanka dubs herself an ‘imagineer’ with a unique and virtuosic passion for blending engineering with music.

“I’ve always loved technology like Sony's SingStar karaoke game and Smule's Magic Piano app, where the barriers to entry to making music are lowered by technology designed for easy mastery and participation,” she says.

Priyanka completed a Master's in Music Technology at Stanford University in 2014 on a prestigious Denning Family Fellowship in Fine Arts, only three of which are awarded each year to graduates with creative excellence and interdisciplinary focus.

Since then she has worked alongside Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, such as Ge Wang, who co-founded Smule, the leader in music creation for the mass market, and completed a three month internship at Shazam Entertainment in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Along the way Priyanka has interned at Navman Technology, Beca and Eastland Network in New Zealand; and worked as an engineering consultant at Set Based Solutions and Aurecon in Auckland and Hong Kong.

Priyanka says women engineers are a rare sight in the tech scene, and she is hoping she can influence other young women to enter the industry.

“I actively support change and am involved in a number of initiatives which support women in technology fields, through women leadership programmes at Stanford, by mentoring others, and participating in events like Y Combinator’s Female Founder Conference.”

See priyankashekar.com and linkedin.com/in/priyankashekar.

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