From an engineer at Amazon to a billionaire- the success story of Apoorva Mehta | Trending

An empty refrigerator and a brilliant business idea were all it took for Apoorva Mehta to become a billionaire at the age of 37. But who is actually Apoorva Mehta, and what path led him to such remarkable success? Apoorva Mehta started Instacart in 2012. (Twitter/@ApoorvaMehta) Who is Apoorva Mehta?In 2010 Mehta was living in Seattle and working as a supply-chain engineer at Amazon. He left his job and relocated to San Francisco with an ambition to start his own business, but had no clear idea. Over two years, his entrepreneurial endeavors included anything from a social network for lawyers to an advertising startup for gaming industries, until he finally founded Instacart in 2012, reported CNBC. What is Instacart?Instacart is a platform for grocery delivery with over 7.7 million consumers and a network of more than 80,000 retailers in the US. (Also Read: What drives Elon Musk to grow bigger? Walter Isaacson sheds light) How did Mehta come up with the idea for Instacart?An empty refrigerator was the source of Mehta’s inspiration for this new business venture. When he realised that he could shop anything online, except groceries, he founded Instacart. As per Forbes, when Instacart started, Mehta made deliveries himself via Uber. Since then, the business has expanded and has enjoyed a remarkable run, particularly during the pandemic, when it raised billions from investors like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and PepsiCo. About Instacart IPO:Instacart, incorporated as Maplebear Inc., priced its IPO on September 18 at $30 per share. The shares increased more than 40% when they first entered New York trade on September 19 before closing at $33.70. The total valuation for the company came at $9.9 billion, reported CNBC. Post the IPO ling, Mehta took to LinkedIn to ponder upon his 11-year journey. What did Mehta share in his LinkedIn post?Mehta shared how he came up with the idea of starting Instacart and expressed his excitement over the IPO. “Today, the company I founded in my kitchen is now publicly traded ($CART)! I’m immensely grateful to the team that built Instacart, I also want to thank the hard-working community of shoppers, our incredible customers, our retail and CPG partners and our CEO Fidji Simo,” wrote Mehta in the post. He further added, “Finally, none of this would have been possible had my parents not made countless sacrifices as we immigrated from India to Lia and then to Canada – all so that one day my brother and I might have a chance to pursue our dreams. While this is an important milestone, the work Instacart is only just beginning. I can’t wait to see how the team continues to transform the grocery industry. Onward!”