Hamid Najafi

Background

About Hamid Najafi

My professional life story has always been about tackling technical challenges of a newly emerging technology. This started with my Ph.D. thesis focused on Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), when no one knew what Internet is. I was part of the international committees defining DSL standards during my first job after Stanford. · Then I got fascinated by the new technology of cellular phones. I left my job and co-founded a company that developed the first handheld cellular phone for Samsung. · Upon completing that, I went on to start Wireless Link, which designed several cell phones for companies such as Panasonic, and integrated GPS with cellular phones for tracking heavy equipment for the first time. · At wireless link, we created many firsts, including the first digital fixed wireless telephone (FWT) for developing countries. I started with one employee and grew the company to about 40 employees and sold it to a publicly traded company. · In my new company, after wireless link, we designed the first Disney branded cellphone for children that was sold in Europe. · I joined Invensense in 2009, a startup developing MEMS gyroscopes and trying to design it in smartphones. I created the compelling application for panoramic image capture, which was only possible using gyroscopes. By 2013, when I left the company, we were designed in all smartphone companies outside of the US, which helped the company go public in 2011. · In the startup I co-founded in 2013, we designed numerous applications of motion sensors in sports and wellness applications. · During the pandemic, when life suddenly came to a screeching halt, I created a platform for musicians to have live streamed concerts and make money doing that. This was the birth of the new company I co-founded called Tune Forte, which is the company I am working on now. Again, we are creating several “firsts”, including using the power of AI, with the goal of creating the first global platform for watching live music from around the world and around the clock.