Jaz Banga

Jaz Banga also known as Jasminder Banga (born August 5, 1973) is dual national, British-Canadian entrepreneur. He is an American resident who lives and works in San Francisco, California. He is the holder of more than 30 patents and is currently the CEO of ProximityWare, Inc. Banga is best known for delivering Google Wi-Fi in the city of San Francisco and offering the city free Wi-Fi as an effort of philanthropy – to this day thousands of bay area residents enjoy free broadband access in the Union Square neighborhood.^[1]

Education and early Career

Banga has an international resume and biography. He was born in the United Kingdom, to parents of Indian descent, and raised in Canada. In the 1990s he studied electrical engineering at the University of Calgary. He was also a Dale Carnegie instructor of Effective Communications in the mid-1990s.

In 1997 Banga founded Cobalt Technology in Toronto, Canada. Cobalt worked with Excite@Home and was responsible for implementing the company’s broadband technology.

UnWireNow, Inc

Banga is known for his accomplishments in Wi-Fi. His company, was awarded the first Wi-Fi contracts in the city of San Francisco.^[2] UnwireNow partnered with Google to offer free Wi-Fi to hundreds of thousands of bay area residents throughout the city.^[3] He founded the company in 2002.^[4]

Feeva Technology, Inc.

In 2005 Feeva was founded by Banga at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business Incubator under the guidance of the late Dr. John Freeman.^[5]^[6] Banga served as CTO and President of Feeva Technology.^[7] In 2008 Feeva was named as a runner-up for a Spiffy Award by the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley.^[8]^[9] Banga’s leadership led to Feeva announcing partnerships with several big players:

Cisco – on February 12, 2009. Feeva announced that it had “integrated its addressable digital advertising application with the Cisco® 7600 Series Router to substantively improve performance for the entire online content and advertising value chain.” ^[10]^[11]

Juniper – February 14, 2010. Juniper announced several new partnerships (including Feeva) to develop “software and solutions for mobile operators to improve the experience and economics of their networks.” ^[12]^[13]

Microsoft – February 23, 2010. Feeva announced that it was selected to join the Microsoft BizSpark One program. This is an invitation-only program designed to accelerate the growth of high potential startups through a one-to-one relationship with Microsoft and a global community of advisors, investors and peers. Banga said in a press release, "Feeva is looking forward to participating in the BizSpark One community of top-tier start-ups.” ^[14]^[15]

ProximityWare and Founders Den

As of January 2011 Jaz Banga was working on a new company, ProximityWare, Inc. at the Founder’s Den in San Francisco.^[16]

Connected Patents

Banga and Zachary Bogue founded Connected Patents, a Silicon Valley consulting firm aimed at helping entrepreneurs protect their intellectual property. The company brainstorms with clients, lawyers and writers to develop defensible patent portfolios for inventors who want to protect their ideas from patent trolls.^[17] According to the Connected Patents website ^[18] the company helps entrepreneurs develop business and IP strategies in order to boost the valuation of a company.

Connected Patents also hosts and participates in tech industry events. SV Entrepreneurs hosted a Palo Alto Tech Meetup in November, 2012 where Banga presented a company pitch.^[19] Connected Patents and Webb Investment Network hosted a panel discussion in April, 2013 entitled “How U.S. Patent Law Changes Will Impact Your Business.” ^[20] In November 2013, the company partnered with Zero 1 to host an Oxford Style Debate during which the question was posed, “Does the U.S. Patent System stifle innovation?” Banga and Scott Snibbe argued against this statement while NPR correspondent Laura Sydell and UCLA Professor, Christopher M. Kelty supported it.^[21]

Patents

Jaz Banga has more than 30 patents^[22] listed with the USPTO.gov including:

A foundational patent by the United States Patent and Trademark office for “Directed media based on user preferences” patent number 7,657,594. Filed Aug. 30th, 2006.^[23]

Apparatus, System and Methods for Targeted Content Delivery. Aug. 30th, 2006 ^[24]

Professional Memberships

APA (American Photographic Artists)

TIE (The Indus Entrepreneur)

Personal life

Jaz Banga is married to musician Mira Veda. Banga has been a longtime supporter of The Recording Academy's GRAMMY® Foundation and MusiCares® supporting musicians and artists in need. Banga enjoys photography, surfing^[25] and is known to be an Audi aficionado.