About
AJ Patel

AJ Patel is a successful and impactful entrepreneur that made his own path into the business world by understanding that from failure comes growth. His determination inspired by his own parents hard work and ethics along with the support and opportunities he found right here in our greater Orlando area have helped make him the successful business man he is today. Now in his mid 30's, AJ has founded five different CPG brands and within four years has been directly responsible for generating over $100MM in revenue. Three of those brands he has scaled to 8 figures in revenue within a few years and has successfully sold the other two. AJ was named 2016 and 2019 Florida Finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year and 2019 Gold Stevie® Award Winner for Entrepreneur of the Year. As a proud, Indian American immigrant, AJ is passionate about helping businesses and people in his community reach their full potential.

 

AJ knows firsthand what it’s like to go through financial hardship and is humbled to have the opportunity to give back through his very own scholarship foundation, AJPSF. Growing up in India, his family struggled to make ends meet and they decided to move to the US when he was 10 to try and provide his brother and him with a better life. Seeing their hard work and determination inspired AJ to pursue his own entrepreneurial dreams. When he was still a high school student at Crooms Academy, he started and sold his first web-hosting business to help pay for his college education. During his time at University of Florida, he continued to explore different, internet-based business ventures. By the time he graduated, he’d saved up six-figures and decided to follow his own path as an entrepreneur instead of getting a traditional job. He invested everything he had into scaling and growing different businesses and all of them failed. Within three years, he lost everything he had and he had to start over. AJ knew that failing didn’t make him a failure and he just had to continue learning and trying new things. He brushed himself off, took a corporate job and started saving up again. In late 2013, he decided to take a risk and venture into selling on Amazon where he dedicated himself full-time to creating his new company, InstaNatural. That company grew to sell millions of serums online and was successfully acquired in January 2021.Today he is the co-founder and co-CEO of HighKey, a successful low sugar snack brand that’s headquartered in Orlando, FL.

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For the past 8 years, AJ has continued to successfully create various e-commerce businesses and find continued success in taking the time to learn from his failures. He calls experience his biggest mentor and is continuously finding ways to be a disruptor in new business spaces. With the start of this foundation, AJ hopes to aid in the prolonging of education and empowerment of our local students by offering scholarships that will aid in continuing to provide opportunities that bring on experience as a mentor and allow them the space to be disruptors of their very own industries.