Who Is Elissa Patel? Everything About Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky Ex-Girlfriend

Elissa Patel, aka Elissa Patel Waverly, is a young entrepreneur originally from the “Land of Diversity” India. She is famous for her sustainable brand that goes into making floral hairpieces. Apart from that, Elissa is also famous as the ex-girlfriend of Brian Chesky. He is the CEO and co-founder of the world-famous Airbnb. Chesky was also acknowledged as one of the 100 Most Influential People by Times magazine in 2015.

The couple has been in highlight since they made their relationship public. With almost opposite personalities and interests, the two found a way to be together in an interesting way. With their ongoing love life, the couple has also taken a few international trips together.

In today’s article, we present you with Elissa Patel’s personal life. We will also uncover more about her age, parents, education, career, relationship with Brian, social media, and so on.

Elissa Patel Age & Education

Elissa Patel who goes by Elissa Patel Waverly was born on December 6, 1990, in Silicon Valley, California. As of 2022, Elissa will be 32-yrs-old.  Although she was born and raised in the US, she is a native of India. Going to her nationality, she holds dual citizenship i.e American and Indian. Also, as far as her ethnicity is discussed, she is an Asian-American.

Talking about her educational background, Elissa has a long list of colleges she attended. Completing her primary education at Harker School in 2008, she then enrolled at Santa Clara University where she studied for a degree in marketing.

Elissa further went down to the UK to study international business at Imperial College London. Furthermore, Waverly even graduated from Shanghai University with a degree in finance and economics.

Later, she changed her studies from tech to art student. Elissa went on to study painting at San Francisco Art Institute in 2016.

Elissa Patel Parents

Although Elissa is now residing as a US citizen, she hails from Gujrat, India. Her parents had her after they moved to the US in the 1950s. She is the eldest daughter of Haresh Patel and Vina Patel.

Her dad, Haresh is a CEO at Mercatus. It is an investment data management platform. Likewise, her mother is the author of the cookbook From Gujurat With Love. It contains almost 100 recipes as a tribute to her hometown.

Moreover, she has her paternal grandparents who are still in Gujrat. However, they do visit their grandchildren once in a while in the US. Her paternal grandparents are Praful Patel and Vidhya Patel. Elissa is especially close to her granddad Praful and calls him “Dada”.

Elissa’s Has Two Siblings

Elissa has two siblings, an elder brother, and a younger sister. Her brother Aamir Patel is years older than her while her sister Ravina Patel is the youngest of the family.

Elissa and her brother Aamir are also co-founders of their business LUM Apparel. The two randomly came up with an idea of glow-in-the-dark apparel and turned their business into reality. Their concept of the business for LUM is to allow anyone to draw on an infinite canvas using nothing but light.

The siblings started their business with $500 and surprisingly their hard work paid off as they earned $22k in just 35 days.

While working together Elissa’s brother admitted that it can be quite a hassle to work with your sibling.

“We naturally get on each other’s nerves, but the great thing is we can always give it to each other straight. My sister has been supportive by guiding me with marketing advice. It’s great to have someone you can bounce ideas off of and get real feedback in return.”

The Patel siblings are still working together with a motive “As long as you believe in yourself you will be successful.”

Elissa Waverly Patel Is A Successful Entrepreneur

Elissa has tried her hands on many things. However, as an art enthusiast, she found her ultimate career in art too. Elissa is now a founder of her own brand East Darjeeling. Her brand is mostly about making magical faux floral headpieces that are handmade. She even has her own store at 336 Bleecker Street, New York.

As an entrepreneur, Elissa also contributes to the community. With every sale of her headpiece, she donates a portion to Roots of Peace. It is an organization that replaces landmines with flowering trees in countries like Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Croatia.

Prior to her business, she worked with the United Nations’ SS-GATE (South-South Global Assets and Technology Exchange) during her stay at Shanghai University. Furthermore, Elissa also used to work as an account executive at Palo Alto’s WePay.

Her Shift From Science To Art

Before pursuing art as her education and career, Elissa had her primary education focused on science. She loved art as a child while winning awards too. Elissa felt unsatisfied when she was in another field, however, when she pursued art, Elissa felt successful. So, casually she decided to work to impress herself and not others.

When Elissa was asked what she loved the most about creating the headpieces by Elle India, she answered:

I’m drawn towards things that are handmade from the heart. For me, that is the meaning of true luxury. Today, most things are mass produced, but we work with artisans and milliners to produce each replication, so that each piece is a little different. Some may say this is inconsistent, but we like to think the error of “made by hand” as unique, and to us unique is beautiful.

She further added that the idea of creating floral headpieces came at a moment when she had to cheer up a friend who was going through a hard time. Patel had just bought a bouquet of flowers when she felt the urge to change it into a headpiece. And that’s how East Darjeeling was born.

Elissa Waverly Patel Is The Ex-Girlfriend of Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky

Although Ms. Patel is famous for her whimsical floral headpieces, she is more known as the ex-partner of Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky. The two allegedly met through the dating app Tinder in 2013.

Despite the ex-pair being polar opposite i.e Elissa turning to art from tech and Brian being an art lover to tech enthusiast, the two found a way to be with one another. They even attended several formal events as a couple and had an international trip to India.

Reportedly the two even had an Instagram joint account @brianandelissa during their relationship. Nonetheless, as of now, the account has been deleted. The two dated for a long time. However, the former couple has split for some time now. Both of them are yet to reveal when and why the two broke up.

Regardless of ending their romantic relationship, the two still are good friends. They still are friends with each other on Facebook and Instagram. Furthermore, the former lovers haven’t even deleted pictures of them together unlike other celebrity couples. This shows the two are still on good terms as friends.

Elissa’s Experience With Her Ex-Boyfriend’s Airbnb

The idea of staying at Airbnb with your boyfriend being the CEO of the company must have been great right? However, it didn’t turn out to be true for Elissa.

During their first visit to India as a couple, Elissa revealed the stay at Airbnb was not so appealing.

 “Bugs. There were a lot of bugs and I’m very scared of bugs. Brian’s one job in our relationship is to kill bugs and he wasn’t there.”

Well, that probably might have been the reason the two broke up!

What Is Her Ex-Partner Brian Chesky’s Net Worth?

As a co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, Brian without failing has earned an enormous amount of money. At the young age of 35, Brian Chesky has a net worth whooping 13 Billion USD. Furthermore, he was also named America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 by Forbes in 2015.

Quick Facts on Elissa Waverly Patel

• She never goes anywhere without her art supplies.
• Elissa is an active member of Medium.
• She loves writing poems on her typewriter.
• Waverly is good at singing.
• She is a Hindu by religion.