Serge Faguet (born July 4, 1985) is a Russian internet entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and Russia. He is the founder of

Tokbox TokBox was a PaaS (Platform as a Service) company that provided hosted infrastructure, APIs and tools required to deliver enterprise-grade WebRTC capabilities. It did so primarily through its proprietary OpenTok video platform for commercial appl ...

, a

PaaS Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a cloud computing service model where users provision, instantiate, run and manage a modular bundle of a computing platform and applications, w ...

video communications company; Ostrovok.ru, a Russian online travel company; and Mirror AI, a computer vision consumer application.

Early life and education

Born in Russia, Serge graduated with a B.A from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, and attended

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

, from which he dropped out at the age of 21 to start Tokbox. He is a former Google employee.

Career

At the age of 22, Faguet started

and raised $4.5M USD from

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

, YouTube founder

Jawed Karim Jawed Karim (born October 28, 1979) is an American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of YouTube and the first person to upload a video to the site. The site's inaugural video, "Me at the zoo", uploaded o ...

and Stanford Computer Science professor

Rajeev Motwani Rajeev Motwani (Hindi: राजीव मोटवानी , 24 March 1962 – 5 June 2009) was an Indian-American professor of computer science at Stanford University whose research focused on theoretical computer science. He was a special a ...

. He later left the company as part of shareholder disagreements. The company was acquired by

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

. In 2010, Faguet started Ostrovok.ru, an online hotel booking company for the Russian market. He retired as CEO after 6.5 years while retaining a major stake and board positions. Immediately after leaving Ostrovok.ru, Faguet started Mirror AI, a mobile app that uses computer vision to create personalized emojis to the consumer.

Biohacking

Faguet has written a number of posts about his experiences regarding biohacking in which he claimed to have become "calmer, thinner, extroverted, healthier & happier." He talks about widely recognized practices such as

intermittent fasting Intermittent fasting is any of various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting (or reduced calorie intake) and non-fasting over a given period. Methods of intermittent fasting include alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, ...

and

interval training Interval training is a type of training exercise that involves a series of high-intensity workouts interspersed with rest or break periods. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise, while the recovery periods invol ...

; as well as controversial practices such as large-scale biomarker testing, using prescription medicine without meeting medical criteria, and using illegal drugs. Faguet takes

antidepressants Antidepressants are a class of medications used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. Common side effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, headaches, akathisia, sexu ...

and

statin Statins (or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) are a class of medications that lower cholesterol. They are prescribed typically to people who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) carriers of cholesterol play ...

s despite never having been depressed and not being at risk for heart disease. He believes that taking antidepressants will protect him from negative emotion. In August 2021 Faguet was arrested in Moscow airport of Domodedovo for having some

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...

and

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

; he was detained for 30 days and released from custody in September, 2021.

References

External links

* (in English)
Serge FM channel
on

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

(in Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Faguet, Serge 1985 births Living people Cornell University alumni Google employees Russian chief executives Businesspeople in computing Russian businesspeople in the United States