Aunkita Nandi has an intriguing story. She is the co-founder and managing director of Tier 5, a Kolkata-based company she started with her American husband in 2015. The company specializes in creating innovative and user-friendly products for other businesses. Although Aunkita Nandi now operates with hundreds of employees from an office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, her early days were modest.
Aunkita Nandi hails from Burdwan district in West Bengal and was raised in a middle-class family with her father working as a government employee. Since childhood, she aspired to start her own company and started creating software during her college days. She pursued engineering from a college in her hometown and later co-founded Tier 5 in 2015 with her American husband, Jin Vaughn.
The company currently has more than 1,500 customers.
Her company is headquartered in Indiana, USA and has an additional office located in Kolkata. They provide a range of 25 software products.
She is also responsible for leading the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department.
She has received numerous awards and recognition during her 8-year career.
She attended a school where Bengali was the medium of instruction. Later, she pursued her bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University Institute of Technology.
During her college days, Aunkita Nandi, along with her friends, developed multiple Android applications which they sold successfully. It was this experience that motivated her to become an entrepreneur.
Aunkita Nandi met Jon Vaughn on a dating app while he was working as a software engineer in Florida. They first met in person when Vaughn visited India after connecting on Tinder. They got married in 2021, but their business partnership had already been formed in 2015.
The company provides a subscription-based model through which other businesses can purchase their software products for a fee and gain advantages.
In 2021, the company’s valuation was $12 million, which is approximately Rs 100 crore now, with a revenue of over Rs 9 crore. However, when the company started, they had only two rented computers, one developer, and one HR executive.
The company currently has more than 100 employees.