# Thejo Kote

> Thejo Kote is a San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur and engineer, founder and CEO of Journal, founder and former CEO of Airbase, and co-founder and former CEO of Automatic Labs. His work spans SMS-based water-delivery information, connected-car hardware, corporate spend management, and agentic product development. SiriusXM acquired Automatic in 2017; Paylocity completed its acquisition of Airbase in October 2024.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Journal
- **Organizations:** Journal, Airbase, Automatic Labs, NextDrop, Infosys, Netcore Solutions, UC Berkeley I School Innovators Fund
- **Nationality:** Indian (self-described in a November 2021 interview)
- **Education:** Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, RV College of Engineering, affiliated with Visvesvaraya Technological University, Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS), University of California, Berkeley, School of Information
- **Known for:** Co-founded Automatic, part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2011 batch, acquired by SiriusXM in April 2017., Founded Airbase, acquired by Paylocity in October 2024 after an agreement announced at approximately $325 million, subject to adjustments., NextDrop’s student team won the 2011 Global Social Venture Competition and its $25,000 top prize.

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Completed his undergraduate engineering degree; began his career at Infosys.
- **2006** — Left Infosys for a startup; later served as a senior engineer at Netcore Solutions.
- **2009** — Moved to the United States for graduate study at UC Berkeley; co-founded NextDrop as a student project.
- **2011** — Graduated from Berkeley; committed to building Automatic, which joined Y Combinator’s Summer 2011 batch.
- **2013** — Automatic brought its connected-car adapter and app to consumers.
- **2017** — SiriusXM acquired Automatic on April 18; Airbase’s formal founding year is given as 2017 by Paylocity.
- **2019** — Publicly launched Airbase with a $7 million Series A; helped establish the I School Innovators Fund.
- **2024** — Paylocity announced an approximately $325 million Airbase acquisition agreement on September 4; the acquisition closed October 1.
- **2026** — Identified publicly as Journal’s founder and CEO; co-authored its June 17 research post on coding-agent cost optimization.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Automatic, part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2011 batch, acquired by SiriusXM in April 2017.
- Founded Airbase, acquired by Paylocity in October 2024 after an agreement announced at approximately $325 million, subject to adjustments.
- NextDrop’s student team won the 2011 Global Social Venture Competition and its $25,000 top prize.
- Helped establish Berkeley’s I School Innovators Fund with Holly Liu and Prayag Narula in 2019.
- Co-authored Journal’s June 17, 2026 engineering research on reducing coding-agent token costs.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Co-authored “A new frontier for agentic engineering” with Anand Avati and Vikas Gorur, published by Journal on June 17.
- **2026-07** — South Park Commons India listed a July 22 fireside chat with Kote as Journal’s founder and CEO in Bengaluru.
- **2024-10** — Paylocity announced completion of its acquisition of Airbase on October 1.

## Links

- Website: https://journal.one/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejo/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/thejo

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/thejo-kote
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25