Ashwin Navin is the CEO and co-founder of Flingo, the largest developer of applications for Smart TVs. Flingo currently reaches more than 7 million TV screens in 118 countries worldwide.
Ashwin also founded the start-up incubator I/O Ventures where he is currently a Managing Partner after departing BitTorrent as the company’s President and Co-founder. He spent time at Yahoo, as a member of the company’s Corporate Development group. He developed extensive experience in structuring and negotiating acquisitions, partnerships and alliances in the tech industry. While at Yahoo, Ashwin’s group was responsible for M&A, divestitures and company strategy in the U.S. and key global markets such as India and Korea. Before Yahoo, Ashwin worked with Wall Street powerhouses Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch as an investment banker and research analyst. Ashwin earned a dual B.A. from Claremont McKenna in Government and Economics.
At BitTorrent, Ashwin Navin crafted a business model for the BitTorrent protocol, invented by his co-founder. With hopes of bringing BitTorrent out of the fringes and into the mainstream. Navin has assumed the public face of the company as an evangelist for its commercial viability. In 2007, Navin drove the acquisition of uTorrent and launched 3 commercial services: the BitTorrent Entertainment Network in February, the BitTorrent SDK in June, and BitTorrent DNA in October.
To catalyze BitTorrent’s commercialization, Navin began by engaging movie industry executives directly. Although predicted by many to be highly unlikely, BitTorrent struck relationships with many major media companies including Time Warner, News Corp., Viacom, Lionsgate, Kadokawa Pictures, and others. He also signed the company’s first toolbar agreement which continues to be the company’s primary revenue stream.
