called. “I remember standing
in the middle of the house and
thinking ‘What do I do now?’”
Darash moved to the United
States six years ago to study computer science at the University of
California at Berkeley. After earning a Ph.D, he started a company,
Regpack, that helps organizations
process online registrations. He
worked 16-hour days for two years
to get his startup off the ground.
Now, those long hours are paying off. He is attracting investors
and adding clients. And he is doing something unusual in a bleak
economy: He is creating jobs. He
has 15 employees in San Francisco, and plans to hire dozens more.
Darash has a soft voice, piercing brown eyes and a smile that
reveals a small gap between his
front teeth. His head is shaved
bald. He is, in many ways, not a
typical tech entrepreneur. At 38,
he is old by startup standards.
While many of his peers wear tshirts and sandals to the office,
Darash dresses in button-down
shirts tucked into designer jeans
and black leather shoes.
Darash and
his team at
Regpack
headquarters
in San
Francisco.