Josh Kopelman
Josh Kopelman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1972 (age 51–52) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | B.S. University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation(s) | entrepreneur and venture capitalist |
| Known for | founder of Half.com |
| Spouse | Rena Cohen |
| Children | two |
| Parent(s) | Carol and Dr. Richard Kopelman |
Joshua Kopelman is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist.
Kopelman is best known as the founder of Half.com, a fixed price marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of used books, movies and music products. In 2000, Kopelman sold Half.com to EBay for US $350 million.
Biography
Kopelman was born to a Jewish family in Great Neck, New York, the son of Carol and Dr. Richard Kopelman.[1] His father was a professor at Baruch College and his mother a real estate broker.[1] He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.[1] In 1992, during his sophomore year, Kopelman co-founded Infonautics Corporation, in Wayne, Pennsylvania.[1] In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Kopelman left Infonautics in 1999 to found Half.com.
After selling Half.com to eBay, Kopelman remained with eBay for three years.
In 1995, Josh married Rena Cohen, an attorney, at the Congregation Agudath Sholom in Great Neck, New York.[1] In 2001, Josh and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization to provide “start-up” grants to social entrepreneurs.[2] In 2002, the Kopelman Foundation funded a project to digitize and host the complete text of the Jewish Encyclopedia online.
In 2005, together with Adnan Aziz and Jay Minkoff, Kopelman founded First Flavor, a taste marketing company. He is now on the board of directors for First Flavor.
Current work
Kopelman is currently Managing Director of First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture fund. He is an investor, director and advisor to a variety of businesses, most in the software and Internet domain, including Jingle Networks, Odeo, Eventful, Krugle, Ambient Devices, del.icio.us, IronPort, RockYou!, myYearbook, Knewton, VideoEgg, Wikia and Discourse.[3]
While Kopelman has invested in a large number of Web 2.0 companies, Kopelman warned that too many Web 2.0 entrepreneurs are targeting an audience of 53,651[4][citation needed] people, the number of then-current subscribers to TechCrunch, a popular weblog that covers the internet industry. In 2007, Kopelman helped to coin the phrase the Implicit Web to better describe the Semantic Web.
Kopelman currently lives in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife and two children.
References
- ^ a b c d e New York Times: "Rena M. Cohen, Joshua Kopelman" August 13, 1995
- ^ Jessica Endy (12 October 2012). "Federation to Recognize Local Communal Leaders". Jewish Exponent. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
- ^ "On civilized discourse". 8 February 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
- ^ First Round Capital blog entry
External links
- Redeye VC - Josh Kopelman's Blog
- Josh Kopelman's public profile with his positions and investments
- First Round Capital management page including a brief biography of Kopelman
- The Kopelman Foundation
- Midas Capital Kopelman's private investment fund, which preceded First Round Capital
- Video interview with Josh Kopelman on the 10th anniversary of Half.com