Eli began his programming life on his TI-83 graphing calculator in elementary school, culminating with a working version of Monopoly which was destroyed when he removed the backup battery by accident. He began working on the software that would become Desmos.com during a year-long hiatus from Yale University in 2007, returning to graduate summa cum laude with degrees in Math and Physics in 2009. Eli was also selected by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the top 25 entrepreneurs under 25 in 2011.

Eli is the founder and CEO at Desmos, the online graphing calculator. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of CPM Educational Programs.