The family and friends of Akshay Gupta, the Indian-origin entrepreneur who was stabbed by a stranger on a bus in Austin, have spoken out about Gupta’s long list of achievements and his love for America.His family has revealed that his innovations got noticed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and he was personally invited to meet him.Gupta co-founded FootBit, a startup to help the elderly live independently and safely and he even turned down a $300,000 job offer from Amazon to pursue his startup. He got an O1A visa from the US, which is only awarded to individuals with extraordinary contributions in the field of science. A 31-year-old homeless man, also from India, Deepak Kandel, stabbed Gupta in the neck on a CapMetro bus because he looked like his uncle. Kandel has several charges against him, but he was roaming freely as his mental health was attributed to his crime. Akshay Gupta’s friend from Penn University Jasmine said looking at his body at the funeral house was the “most gut-wrenching” experience in her life. “He was super intelligent and hardworking,” Jasmine said.“He didn’t just believe in what he was building. He believed in where he was building it. He believed in America. America was a dreamland and he was more American than anyone,” Jasmine said about Akshay.
Why the Indian-origin entrepreneur was on a bus
As the incident shocked his friends and family members to their core that a stranger could have stabbed the brightest person they knew, they revealed that Gupta recently moved to Austin from Florida and was staying with a roommate. He did not own a car yet. For the startup, they were initially thinking California but they chose Austin and thought it was a better place to launch.
