Nikhil Arora is the co-founder of Back to the Roots, an urban mushroom farm in Oakland, California. He and co-founder Alejandro Velez created the company during their senior year at the University of California, Berkeley from a belief that business can be used for good. After graduating summa cum laude in 2009, they founded the mushroom farm that now makes grow-your-own Mushroom Gardens using entirely recycled coffee grounds as the soil - an idea upon which he and Alejandro came across in a business ethics lecture.

Arora was always interested in sustainability and job creation, and during college worked in Ghana for six months to implement a profitable recycling program at the 30,000+ student University of Ghana campus.

Prior to founding Back to the Roots, Arora was headed toward business consulting, which he gave up in favor of urban mushroom farming and sustainability. Along with Velez, Arora serves on the board for the Sage Mentorship Project, a one-to-one mentorship group connecting UC Berkeley students with local, disadvantaged elementary students. He also serves on the board for Alpha Epsilon Zeta, a professional fraternity on the UC Berkeley campus, and the Social Venture Network, the founding organization that helped spearhead the socially responsible business movement 25 years ago.

Today, Arora has been named one of 2012 Inc 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs, a CNN Generation Next Entrepreneur to Watch, Forbes 30 Under 30, and one of BusinessWeek's Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs. The company has grown from a handful of employees to 31 employees, and was honored in Fall 2012 with an Empact100 award from the White House, recognizing Back to the Roots as one of the top 100 entrepreneurial companies in the US.

Alejandro Velez is the co-founder of Back to the Roots, an urban mushroom farm in Oakland, California. He and co-founder Nikhil Arora created the company during their senior year at the University of California, Berkeley from a belief that business can be used for good. After graduating summa cum laude in 2009, they founded the mushroom farm that now makes grow-your-own sustainable mushroom gardens using entirely recycled coffee grounds as the soil - an idea upon which he and Nikhil came across in a business ethics lecture.

Velez is also a founder and board chairman of the Sage Mentorship Project Inc., which creates individual, one-on-one mentoring relationships between UC Berkeley students and low-income East Bay elementary school students.

Prior to founding Back to the Roots, Alejandro was headed toward investment banking and had worked with Citigroup, UBS, and Morgan Stanley. He hails from Medellin, Colombia, and is also a cancer survivor.

Today, Velez has been named one of 2012 Inc 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur list, PODER Magazine's 20 Most Influential Hispanics under 40, Hispanic Net's 2012 Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and one of BusinessWeek's Top 25 Social Entrepreneurs. The company was honored in Fall 2012 with an Empact100 award from the White House, recognizing Back to the Roots as one of the top 100 entrepreneurial companies in the US.