Dev Aujla

Dev Aujla is building a library. Reading has been Aujla’s secret to running and advising a variety of creative businesses, from luxury menswear and a furniture and design studio to a venture capital fund and bars and restaurants. For Aujla, reading allows you to hold a question for longer, and this method of sustained inquiry changes how you think about everything, from envisioning your career path, to deciding what opportunities to pursue, to deciding how you spend time. In a world where business and creative professionals are tasked with getting an answer quickly, the method of reading that Dev espouses helps the break the cycle, sit with the not-knowing and travel to the edges of your imagination.

About Dev Aujla


Dev Aujla is the business mind behind a number of quickly-growing creative companies. He is the CEO of Bode, a luxury menswear brand with stores in New York City and Los Angeles. He also advises a portfolio of companies including Green River Project LLC, an award-winning furniture and design studio, Juxtapose, a New York-based venture capital fund, as well as a number of restaurants, bars, and artist-run businesses.

Dev's unique approach to building creative businesses stems from his literary endeavors, which allow him to explore the context behind the work. He is the author of two books: Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money & Community in a Changing World and 50 Ways to Get a Job: An Unconventional Guide to Finding Work on Your Terms, which were both published by Penguin. Dev is the creator of an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving private libraries called Sorted Library. He is currently building a 50,000-book collection, which will be housed at a permanent site that was recently acquired in Norfolk, Connecticut.

Dev's work and writing have been featured in numerous media outlets including the New York Times, MSNBC, Fast Company, and Paper Magazine. He calls himself a book guy in the business world and lives in New York City.