Josh Kopelman
Encyclopedia
Joshua Kopelman is an America
n 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.
. He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
. In 1992, during his sophomore year, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. 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 2001 Josh and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on angel philanthropy 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.
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.
, 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 several other firms.
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 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
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, venture capitalist, and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
.
Kopelman is best known as the founder of Half.com
Half.com
Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay, in which sellers offer items at fixed prices, usually items that have a UPC, ISBN or other kind of SKU, rather than rare, old or collectible items...
, a fixed price
Fixed price
The term "fixed price" is a phrase used in the English language to mean that no bargaining is allowed over the price of a good or, less commonly, a service...
marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of used books, movies and music products. In 2000, Kopelman sold Half.com to EBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
for US $350 million.
Biography
Kopelman was born in Great Neck, New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. In 1992, during his sophomore year, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. 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 2001 Josh and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on angel philanthropy 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
Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
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 CapitalFirst Round Capital
First Round Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard L. Morgan, the Philadelphia-based company typically provides seed-stage investment that ranges from $250,000 to $500,000...
, a seed-stage venture fund. He is an investor, director and advisor to a variety of businesses, most in the software and Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
domain, including Jingle Networks, Odeo
Odeo
Odeo was a directory and search destination website for RSS syndicated audio & video. It employed tools that enabled users to create, record, and share podcasts with a simple Adobe Flash-based interface....
, Eventful
Eventful
Eventful is a web service which aims to help users search for, track, and share information about events. Eventful is a service of Eventful, Inc. from San Diego, California...
, Krugle
Krugle
Krugle is a search engine that allows computer programmers and other developers to search Open Source repositories in order to locate open source code, and quickly share the code with other programmers on the internet. It finished its beta phase and went live on June 14th, 2006.The engine...
, Ambient Devices
Ambient Devices
Ambient Devices, Inc. is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA that designs and markets various ambient devices for display of information ranging from weather to traffic reports to stock quotes. The company was founded by David L. Rose, Ben Resner, and Pritesh Gandhi,...
, del.icio.us
Del.icio.us
Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, and by the end of 2008, the service claimed more than 5.3 million users and 180 million unique bookmarked URLs...
, IronPort
IronPort
IronPort Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Bruno, California, was a company that designed and sold products and services that protect enterprises against Internet threats. It was best known for IronPort AntiSpam, the SenderBase email reputation service, and email security appliances...
, RockYou!, myYearbook
MyYearbook
-History:myYearbook was initially created by two high school students, David and Catherine Cook, and their older brother Geoff, during Spring Break of 2005. Catherine persuaded Geoff, who founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a dorm in 1997, to invest in their project...
, Knewton
Knewton
Knewton is an adaptive learning company that has developed a platform to personalize educational content. The Knewton platform allows schools, publishers, and developers to provide adaptive learning for any student. Knewton recently announced a partnership with Pearson Education to power the...
, VideoEgg
VideoEgg
VideoEgg was a privately held advertising network, which re-branded itself in September 2010 as SAY Media. Their network is composed of over 100 million users across more than 500 sites, blogs, gaming and mobile environments.- History :...
, Wikia
Wikia
Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
and several other firms.
While Kopelman has invested in a large number of Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
companies, Kopelman warned that too many Web 2.0 entrepreneurs are targeting an audience of 53,651 people, the number of then-current subscribers to TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
, a popular weblog that covers the internet industry. In 2007, Kopelman helped to coin the phrase the Implicit Web
Implicit Web
The Implicit Web is a concept coined in 2007 to denote web sites which specialize in the synthesis of personal information gleaned from the Internet into a single, coherent picture of user behavior. Implicit data may include clickstream information, media consumption habits, location tracking or...
to better describe the Semantic Web
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
.
Kopelman currently lives in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
External links
- Redeye VC - Josh Kopelman's Blog
- Josh Kopelman's public profile with his positions and investments
- First Round Capital
- 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