Plug and Play Overview

The story of Plug and Play begins in the 1990’s with our CEO & Founder, Saeed Amidi. He and his family owned a conglomeration of businesses from bottled water to plastics and packaging to a whole portfolio of commercial real estate properties. Furthermore, his family ran a successful Persian rug business in downtown Palo Alto - the Medallion Rug Gallery.  

Following the early success of Medallion Rug Gallery, the Amidi Group purchased the property at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto in 1988. The building quickly gained a reputation of its own through the success of its tenants. Danger, known best for their production of the Sidekick, was acquired by Microsoft in 2008 for a rumored half a billion dollars. Other noteworthy tenants include Milo, acquired by eBay in 2010 for $75 million, and Yummly, acquired by Whirlpool in 2017.  Even Facebook once attempted to rent this building on a five-year lease. Furthermore, the “Lucky Building” saw the origin of companies such as Google, PayPal, and Logitech. 

Over the years, Rahim and Saeed Amidi realized the special position this building put them in as investors. They were able to meet some of the world’s most notable startups at an early stage, which led them to the question: “what if we could do this on a bigger scale?”. The Amidi brothers purchased a 150,000 square foot building in 2006 in Sunnyvale, California from Phillip with the hope to fill it with emerging companies just as they had with the “Lucky Building” in Palo Alto. They officially founded Plug and Play Tech Center. Now, Amidi Group and Plug and Play is renowned as one of the most active investors in Silicon Valley having invested in over 1,600 startups and helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs all around the world.