Josh Kopelman
American entrepreneur and venture capitalist
Joshua Kopelman (born 1970 or 1971) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. Kopelman has consistently been ranked as one of the world's top 20 venture capitalists.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Josh Kopelman (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1972.1
About
He was the founder of First Round Capital, and before that, a founder of Half.com, which he sold to eBay in 2000. He also founded Infonautics and TurnTide. Kopelman was chairman of the board of The Philadelphia Inquirer from 2015 to 2024, when he was elected chair emeritus.
From Wikipedia’s article on Josh Kopelman, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
- First Round CapitalFounder10
Early life and education
- Date not recordedThe Wharton School3
Kopelman grew up in Great Neck, New York on Long Island, the son of Carol and Dr. Richard Kopelman. His father was a professor at Baruch College and his mother a real estate broker.
He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1993 with a BS in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing. In 1992, during his sophomore year at the Wharton School, Kopelman co-founded Infonautics, based in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
From Wikipedia’s article on Josh Kopelman (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: entrepreneur.5
- Date not recordedFounded First Round Capital4
Infonautics and Half.com
In 1996, his startup Infonautics went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Three years later, in 1999, Kopelman left Infonautics to found Half.com, a fixed price marketplace platform for used books, music and videos. He sold Half.com to eBay in 2000 for $300 million.
After selling Half.com to eBay in 2000, Kopelman remained with eBay for three years.
Turntide
In 2004, Kopelman co-founded TurnTide, an anti-spam technology company that was acquired by Symantec within six months of its founding.
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First Round
In 2004 Kopelman was the co-founder of First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture fund. In 2007, Kopelman helped to coin the phrase the "implicit web" to describe the Semantic Web. Kopelman in 2013 was managing director of First Round Capital, and an investor, director, and advisor to OnDeck Capital, Flatiron Health, Aster Data Systems, Knewton, Gigya, AltSchool, The Black Tux, Five Below, Massdrop, Like.com, IronPort, Mint.com, Monetate, LinkedIn, ModCloth, AppNexus, BankSimple, Swipely, True & Co., Wanelo, Warby Parker, Ring.com, Numerai, OpenX, LiveOps, Boxed.com, Clover Health, Upstart and Discourse. As of 2014, Kopelman was an inventor on 16 U.S. patents for his work in internet technology. First Round by 2014 had invested in 300 technology startups. In 2016, he remained with First Capital as a managing director. After First Round Capital invested in "Uber-Cab" in 2010 for $510,000, the firm profited significantly in 2019 when Uber had its initial public offering. In March 2020, he took part in a $4.2 million funding round for Coursedog.
From Wikipedia’s article on Josh Kopelman (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
In 1995, Kopelman married Rena Cohen, an attorney, in Great Neck, New York. Kopelman and his wife as of 2021 lived in a suburb of Philadelphia with their two children. In 2001, he and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization to provide start-up grants to social entrepreneurs. In 2002, the Kopelman Foundation funded a project to digitize and host the complete text of the Jewish Encyclopedia online.
From Wikipedia’s article on Josh Kopelman (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataJosh Kopelman on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaJosh Kopelman on Wikipedia
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- 10WikidataFirst Round Capital, Founder
- 11Wikimedia CommonsJosh Kopelman photo by Josh Kopelman, CC BY 2.0