Waterloo engineer who founded web-based grocery delivery service is named one of America’s richest entrepreneurs under 40
Apoorva Mehta, an alumnus of the University of Waterloo’s electrical engineering program, has been named to the annual Forbes Top 40 Under 40 list. The list highlights America’s richest entrepreneurs under 40.
Now based in California, Mehta graduated from Waterloo in 2008 and is the founder and CEO of Instacart, a web-based grocery delivery service. Instacart uses a mobile app to let shoppers order groceries online, with deliveries arriving in as little as one hour. Instacart connects users with 4,000 personal shoppers in 18 cities.
Mehta, who Forbes reported is worth $400 million, is on the list with tech heavyweights like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Garrett Camp of Uber Technologies and Jan Koum of WhatsApp.
Earlier this year, Mehta was also named to Fortune’s Annual 40 Under 40 list of the most influential young people in business. The 2015 Fortune list included entertainer Taylor Swift, Y Combinator President Sam Altman and Fitbit CEO James Park.
When asked to share one bit of advice, Mehta told Fortune:
“Taking one mandatory day off every week has done wonders for my productivity. I realized a few years back that I used to burn out every few months, and it was happening increasingly. By taking one full day off, I was able to give my body and brain a much-needed break that allowed me to come back to work refreshed.”
Mehta worked at Amazon before launching Instacart in 2012.
Earlier this year, two young Waterloo entrepreneurs were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Danny Yaroslavski, founder of LightBot and William Zhou, founder of Chalk.com, were named by Forbes in the education category for “rethinking learning with the three C’s: code, college readiness and community impact.”