In 1980, Desai and his wife, Neerja Sethi, founded IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel from their Troy, Mich., apartment. In 2018, they sold the company for $3.4 billion. Wanting to bolster the spirit of entrepreneurship, the Desai Sethi Family Foundation became a founding supporter of U-M’s Desai Family Accelerator in 2014.