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Built Legacy

Raj Chowdhury

San Francisco, CA  |  415.800.3465  |  contact@hashcashconsultants.com

(Financial Systems Architect, Entrepreneur, Technology Executive, Author & Investor)

Summary

Raj Chowdhury is a financial systems architect, entrepreneur, technology executive, author and investor whose career spans enterprise software, financial infrastructure, renewable energy, and digital assets. Over the past two decades, he has founded and scaled multiple technology ventures while building platforms used by businesses across global markets.

He is the Founder and CEO of HashCash Consultants, the company behind PayBito, a digital asset infrastructure platform that provides exchanges, payment processing, tokenization, digital banking, and blockchain solutions to financial institutions, fintech companies, payment providers, and enterprises worldwide.

Earlier in his career, Raj co-founded several technology companies across diverse industries. These included Locus International, one of the early companies focused on generating digital mapping data for GPS navigation in India; Power Enhancing Devices, whose piezoelectric nanotechnology research for energy harvesting was later acquired by Physik Instrumente; Unification Energy, an early electric vehicle charging infrastructure company established before EV adoption became mainstream; and Shop-a-Block, a social commerce platform designed to personalize online shopping through fit prediction and social engagement.

Raj is also the author of Special Housing Unit, a memoir exploring resilience, entrepreneurship, and personal transformation. The memoir inspired the feature film The Last Ledger, produced through Bito Studios.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Raj conducted research at the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT and pursued graduate studies at Tufts University, Santa Clara University, and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Today, Raj continues to design financial infrastructure that connects traditional banking, payments, blockchain, tokenized assets, and digital finance. His work is driven by a long-term vision of building interoperable financial systems that enable the next generation of global commerce.

Profile & Core Value
Effective and Accountable

Overcome complex business challenges and make high stakes decisions using experience-backed judgment, strong work ethic and irreproachable integrity. Respected as a proponent of empowerment and accountability.

Corporate Strategy & Development Specialist

Characterised as a visionary, strategist and tactician. Consistent record of delivering extraordinary results in growth, revenue, operational performance, and profitability.

Consistently deliver mission-critical results

Driven by a visceral “hard-wired” need to strategise, to innovate, and to disprove the words “It can’t be done!” Gifted with the vision, determination, and skills needed for revenue-building strategies and tactics.

Strong orientations in operations and finance

Participate in operational initiatives, including infrastructure design, process reengineering and turnaround management. Use of instinct, insight, judgment, and timing to succeed no matter how tough the deal.

Respect and leverage of human capital

Motivate mentor and lead talented professionals. Live the culture and lead by example. Direct cross-functional teams using interactive and motivational leadership that spurs people to willingly give 110% effort and loyalty.

Expertise
Vision & Strategy

P/L & Performance Improvement

Process Development

Risk & Supply Chain Management

Startups & Turnarounds

Due Diligence, Structuring & Negotiation

Governance

Investors, Shareholders & Board Relations

Digital Deployment

Social Feature & Mobile App Deployment

E-commerce & Clean Tech

Climate Economics, Policy & Renewable Energy

Intellectual Property

IP Law & Cross Cultural Leadership

Experience

Unification Energy

2008 – PRESENT  |  SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Unification provides charging infrastructure and services to the global Electric Vehicle (EV) industry to help consumers make a seamless transition to clean energy transportation.

  • Envisioned in early 2008 that EV would be the technology of choice for automobiles & identified EV infrastructure as an opportunity.
  • Pioneered a business model that would keep charging sessions at retail locations, completely free of cost to EV owners.
  • Developed ties with executives of banks (Wells Fargo, SVB), automakers (Honda, Toyota, GM), Private equity investors in Silicon Valley, and DOE lobbyists.
  • Crossed the 10,000 units sale mark of charging stations.

Shop-a-Block

2012 – PRESENT  |  SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Shop-a-Block is a leading social shopping website with a wide variety of brands and stores offering a range of products for Women, Men, Home Decor, and Kids. The site carries deals and offers from over 8,000 merchants organized in a searchable and easy-to-browse interface.

  • Steered e-commerce ideation into a profitable startup in nine months of inception.
  • Developed partnerships with Shopzilla, eBay, and Amazon for shopping content integration.
  • Innovated social shopping features to help users shop with friends and spur viral growth.
  • Identified top ROI marketing channel to align product and marketing efforts leading to doubling of subscription base.

GloCal Venture Capital

2008 – 2014  |  SEATTLE, WA

Entrepreneur in Residence

GloCal Venture Capital based in Seattle, WA invests and incubates startups to create a collaborative environment where for-profit, government, and non-profits can work seamlessly under one umbrella.

  • Provided domain expertise to General Partners in the area of Renewable Energy.
  • Led Due Diligence, Deal Structuring & Negotiation processes for a wide range of startups.
  • Provided advisory operational assistance to a portfolio of startups.

SmartBid

2008 – 2012  |  SUNNYVALE, CA

Advisory, Board of Directors

Smartbid is a social auction site offering pay-per-bid strategy auctions. The site makes auctions a fun and exciting experience while providing unbeatable deals for new factory-sealed products.

  • Advised co-founders in building & shipping a Web 2.0 entertainment shopping site that was profitable within 8 months of launch.
  • Innovated social gaming features which resulted in the highest retention rate in the industry for pay-per-bid auction games.
  • Advised marketing efforts in search (PPC/display), social (FB/Twitter), email, and channel marketing.
  • Developed relations with influential bloggers resulting in low CPA for user acquisition and high lifetime value.

Intevac Inc

2008 – 2012  |  SUNNYVALE, CA

Program Management, Hard Drive Equipment

Intevac is the market leader in the hard drive industry with approximately 60% of all magnetic disk media produced worldwide. Their technology solutions have helped them expand into additional markets including solar and adjacent thin film deposition applications.

  • Reduced tool time-to-market by one week (10%) by optimizing the Engineering Change cycle time.
  • Produced 18% cost savings for hard drive tools by creating and managing an offshore supplier base.
  • Instituted corporate business processes for spares/consumables, supplier evaluation, and engineering changes.

Applied Materials

2006 – 2008  |  SUNNYVALE, CA

Product Manager, Semiconductor Equipment

Applied Materials, Inc. is the global leader in providing innovative equipment, services, and software to enable the manufacture of advanced semiconductor, flat panel display, and solar photovoltaic products.

  • Defined product roadmaps and requirements by identifying market opportunities and customer needs.
  • Managed delivery of new products meeting market and financial goals.
  • Analysed market drivers, developed competitive assessments, and tracked trends to guide corporate strategic planning.

MIT Microsystems Technology Lab

2005 – 2006  |  CAMBRIDGE, MA

Research Associate

MTL at MIT is an interdepartmental laboratory that supports Microsystems research encompassing work in circuits, systems, MEMS, electronic/photonic devices, molecular structure, and nanotechnology.

  • Process-engineered CMOS technology and MEMS devices in a cleanroom environment.
  • Researched ultrasonic energy applications for powder metallurgy to consolidate nano-sized particulate matter.
Education & Credentials
Tufts University BOSTON, MA

Master of Science (MS) in Robotics Engineering & Material Science

GPA: 3.7  |  Awarded full merit scholarship

Santa Clara University SANTA CLARA, CA

Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing & Finance

Authored Publications & Patents PUBLICATIONS

Book: The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley

Scientific Papers: (1) Ultrasonic Consolidation of nano crystals, (2) Piezo Electrical devices, (3) EV chargers

Technical Competencies & Interests SKILLS

Software & Frameworks: Objective-C (iOS), Android, HTML/CSS, PHP, Oracle Apps, OrCAD, UGNX, Spice, ANSYS, Matlab

Personal Interests: Biking, yoga, golfing, and international travel