Nikhil Arora is the Co-Founder/Co-CEO of Back to the Roots, an organic gardening company he co-founded with Alejandro Velez in college after discovering how to grow gourmet mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds. Since then, Back to the Roots has evolved from an urban mushroom farm in Oakland, CA to a thriving national gardening brand helping a whole new generation get into the garden. On a mission to reconnect kids & families back to where food comes from, Alejandro & Nikhil want to make it easy for anyone, anywhere to grow their own food. They currently distribute their award-winning line of organic gardening kits, seeds, soil and raised beds in over 10,000 stores including Walmart, The Home Depot, Target, Lowe’s, HEB, Cost Plus World Market, and Costco. Alex and Nikhil have been recognized globally for their efforts in sustainability, innovation, and entrepreneurship as a Fast Company “Most Innovative Company” & “World Changing Idea”, BusinessWeek’s “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25”, Inc.’s “30 Under 30”, Inc. 500, Forbes’ “30 Under 30”, CNN’s “10 Next Entrepreneurs to Watch”, BBC’s Top Global Social Entrepreneurs, Poder 40 Under 40, and President Obama’s Champions of Change. They have delivered multiple TEDx Talks, UC Berkeley’s Business School commencement address, and have been featured on CNBC Mad Money, CNN, Fox News, ABC News, NBC News, WSJ, Huffington Post, and the NY Times. Nikhil has also served on the Board of Directors of the Social Venture Network (now SVC), Sage Mentorship Program (UC Berkeley mentoring org), Alpha Epsilon Zeta (UC berkeley professional fraternity), and also on the advisory board of the Specialty Food Alliance