# Safwan Shah

> Safwan Shah is the founder and CEO of Payactiv, which he co-founded in 2012 with Sohail Aslam and Ijaz Anwar to give workers access to earned wages before their scheduled payday. An aerospace engineering PhD and former BioServe Space Technologies researcher, he previously founded payments company Infonox, acquired by TSYS in 2008. He is the author of It’s About TIME and received CU Boulder’s George Norlin Award in 2019.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Payactiv
- **Organizations:** Payactiv, Infonox, TSYS, BioServe Space Technologies, Conscious Capitalism, University of Colorado Boulder, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, Techlogix
- **Education:** Electrical engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology, MS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, PhD, Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Stanford Executive Program, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- **Known for:** Founded Infonox, acquired by TSYS in 2008., Co-founded Payactiv in 2012., Received the George Norlin Award from CU Boulder in 2019.

## Career timeline

- **1990** — Earned his electrical and computer engineering master’s degree at CU Boulder.
- **1994** — Earned an aerospace engineering PhD at CU Boulder; worked at BioServe Space Technologies on autonomous systems and space-program experiments.
- **1999** — Founded payments technology company Infonox.
- **2008** — TSYS acquired Infonox on November 4; its annual report recorded approximately $50.3 million plus potential contingent payments.
- **2009** — Completed the Stanford Executive Program.
- **2012** — Co-founded Payactiv with Sohail Aslam and Ijaz Anwar.
- **2013** — Payactiv began serving its first employer customer in New Jersey.
- **2019** — Published It’s About TIME and received CU Boulder’s George Norlin Award.
- **2020** — Joined the Conscious Capitalism board, according to Payactiv’s team biography.
- **2026** — Published a January 22 essay revisiting the delay between earning and accessing wages.

## Achievements

- Founded Infonox, acquired by TSYS in 2008.
- Co-founded Payactiv in 2012.
- Received the George Norlin Award from CU Boulder in 2019.
- Authored It’s About TIME: How Businesses Can Save the World (One Worker at a Time), published in April 2019 by Conscious Capitalism Press.
- Received seven patents, according to his TEDxWilsonPark biography.
- Taught at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and UC Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Published a January 22 LinkedIn essay revisiting his earlier earned wage access argument and describing EWA as an access layer connected to payroll.
- **2025-05** — Published The Spendable Dollar Hierarchy - Through the Lens of Phishing for Phools on LinkedIn, May 7.
- **2025-04** — Payactiv announced Visa+ access to earned wage disbursements through Venmo and PayPal; Shah commented as founder and CEO.

## Links

- Website: https://www.payactiv.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/safwanshah
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/safwanshah

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/safwan-shah
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22