Saeed Amidi

Saeed Amidi
Name	Saeed Amidi
Birth date	1947
Birth place	Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian-American
Occupation	Entrepreneur, investor, real estate developer
Known for	Founder of Plug and Play Tech Center, owner of California Avenue properties

Saeed Amidi is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, investor, and real estate developer best known for founding Plug and Play Tech Center and for converting properties on California Avenue into technology incubator space. He has been influential in linking Silicon Valley startups with international markets and has engaged with a wide range of technology companies, corporate partners, and academic institutions. His work intersects with venture capital firms, multinational corporations, and startup accelerators.

Early life and education

Amidi was born in Tehran and emigrated to the United States, where he pursued higher education and business opportunities; his formative years connect to Tehran's Pahlavi dynasty era and later diasporic Iranian communities in California and Los Angeles County, California. His educational background involves institutions in California and exposure to immigrant entrepreneur networks associated with Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and other Bay Area educational centers that feed talent into Silicon Valley. During his early career he interacted with communities tied to Persian diaspora organizations and cultural institutions in San Jose, California and Palo Alto, California.

Business career

Amidi's commercial activities include real estate acquisition and redevelopment, particularly property holdings along California Avenue (Palo Alto), where he transformed commercial storefronts into innovation spaces that attracted startups from Silicon Valley, Menlo Park, California, and Mountain View, California. He built relationships with corporate entities like Google, Apple Inc., Facebook, Intel, and Cisco Systems through tenant networks and partnership programs. His career spans interactions with venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark (venture capital firm), and angel networks linked to Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars. Amidi's business dealings also connected him with municipal authorities in Palo Alto City Hall and planning entities in Santa Clara County, California.

Investment and entrepreneurship ecosystem initiatives

Amidi founded Plug and Play Tech Center, an accelerator and innovation platform collaborating with corporate partners, venture firms, and universities including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Imperial College London, and government trade missions from countries such as Germany, Japan, China, India, and Israel. Through Plug and Play he worked with industry programs spanning sectors represented by Samsung, BMW, Siemens, Johnson & Johnson, HSBC, and Hilton Worldwide. The platform supported cohorts that later engaged with startup ecosystems tied to NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and accelerators like Entrepreneur First and Seedcamp. Amidi's initiatives intersected with global entrepreneurship conferences such as Web Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt, Mobile World Congress, South by Southwest, and investor forums including Davos events where corporate innovation programs meet sovereign wealth funds and development agencies.

Notable ventures and holdings

Amidi's portfolio includes physical assets on California Avenue (Palo Alto), innovation centers in Sunnyvale, California and programmatic partnerships in international markets such as Tehran, Dubai, Beijing, Tel Aviv, and Bangalore. Through Plug and Play he engaged with alumni startups that later achieved exits involving Google, Facebook, Uber Technologies, Airbnb, Dropbox, PayPal, Zynga, Adyen, Slack Technologies, and DoorDash. His network connects to corporate venture arms like GV (company), Intel Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Samsung NEXT, and sovereign investment entities such as Temasek Holdings and SoftBank Group. Real estate dealings brought him into contact with local commercial brokers and property management firms active in Santa Clara County, California and San Mateo County, California.

Philanthropy and public activities

Amidi has engaged with philanthropic and civic organizations within the Bay Area and international educational initiatives, collaborating with university programs, cultural institutions, and nonprofit accelerators linked to Stanford University fellows, University of California research centers, and international chambers of commerce such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He has participated in panels and advisory roles at innovation forums hosted by entities like World Economic Forum, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and trade delegations organized by ministries and consulates from Iran, United Arab Emirates, China, and India. His public activities include mentoring programs connected to startup mentorship networks including Founder Institute and guest lectures at institutions such as Harvard Business School and business schools with entrepreneurship centers.

Personal life and legacy

Amidi's family background ties to Iranian merchant and diaspora communities, and his legacy is associated with fostering cross-border startup collaboration between Silicon Valley and emerging innovation hubs such as Tel Aviv, Beijing, Bangalore, and Dubai. His influence is reflected in partnerships with accelerators, venture capital firms, corporations, and universities that continue to channel investment, talent, and corporate innovation into global startup ecosystems. His activities contributed to debates involving municipal zoning in Palo Alto City Council meetings, regional economic development in Santa Clara County, and the evolving relationships between private incubators and public research institutions.

Category:Businesspeople from Tehran Category:American venture capitalists Category:People from Palo Alto, California