How Did You Do That?

A native of Bombay, India, Jignesh Patel never touched a computer until he went to college. But he knew that computer science was an exciting area where a lot was happening, so he chose it as his major. Patel came to UW-Madison in 1991 to get his master's degree and Ph.D, then left for a professorship at University of Michigan. He returned to Madison in 2008 to join the faculty and has built a solid reputation as a computer science professor. He's also built a strong record of entrepreneurial success. "What does it mean to have a real impact for your research? It's when it actually makes it into the hands of people where they can actually use it in direct ways," says Patel. "And as a researcher, you hope for someone else to carry that torch to that final stage. And what was really empowering was seeing that you could do it, too." Patel has co-founded three tech startups, all of which have been acquired — one of them by Twitter. He’s currently founder and CEO of a fourth startup,