What makes Josh Kopelman a Global Shaker?
Josh Kopelman is a founding partner of First Round Capital, a venture capital firm known for leading the seed round for Uber. He’s been a fixture among the world’s top venture capitalists for several years with billion-dollar exits with companies such as AppNexus, Flatiron Health and LinkedIn.
“I chose First Round to make it clear that we wanted to talk to founders at the earliest possible point — we thrive on incomplete ideas — and that we wanted to make serving them a team sport with no egos (we know that’s tough in the venture business),” he wrote in his profile for the firm.
Prior to First Round Capital, Josh was a highly successful serial entrepreneur. While he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he co-founded Infonautics Corporation. Four years later, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. He left the company to found Half.com, a fixed-price marketplace where sellers listed books, textbooks, music, movies, video games and video game consoles. Four years after its founding, eBay bought the company for about $350 million.
“I like to think the value I offer as a partner is equally clear and direct”, he said. “After having invested in well over 100 companies in addition to being a founder myself, I’ve weathered my share of booms and bust cycles, taken companies public and laid people off. I do my best to translate those experiences into advice, and in doing so, I try to provide two things: my candid opinion and my unwavering support. I’ll tell you what I think, but back you up if you choose differently. I will never tell you what to do, but I’ll try to help you ask the right questions. That’s my mission.”
Josh has 13 US patents for his work in internet technology. In 2000, he won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Greater Philadelphia region.
In 2001, he founded the Kopelman Foundation with his wife, Rena, to provide grants to social entrepreneuers. The organisation focuses on educational, healthcare, and Jewish programs.
Tags: Investment and Funding, philanthropy, VCLast updated: May 16, 2019
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