Josh KopelmanPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Bio
Josh is a founding Partner at First Round Capital, a seed-stage technology venture fund. Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization.
In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – and took it public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1996. Josh founded Half.com in July of 1999, and led it to become one of the largest sellers of used books, movies and music in the world. Half.com was acquired by eBay in July 2000 -- and Josh remained with eBay for three years, running the Half.com business unit and growing eBay’s Media marketplace to almost half a billion dollars in annual gross merchandise sales. In late 2003 Josh helped to found TurnTide, an anti-spam company that created the world's first anti-spam router. TurnTide was acquired by Symantec just six months later.
Josh founded First Round Capital in 2004 to reinvent seed-stage investing. And since that time the firm has invested in over 350 emerging technology startups – becoming one of the most active venture capital firms in the country. Josh was ranked 3rd on the 2018 New York Times list of Top Venture Capitalists and consistently ranks in the top 20 of the Forbes Midas List of the top 100 tech investors. Josh has been named as one of the top ten ‘angel investors’ in the United States by Newsweek magazine, one of "Tech's New Kingmakers" by Business 2.0 magazine and a "Rising VC Star" by Fortune magazine. Josh also is the proud winner of a second place ribbon in the 2011 Nantucket Watermelon Eating competition.
Josh is an inventor on sixteen U.S. Patents for his work in Internet technology. In June 2000, he was awarded Ernst and Young’s prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for the Greater Philadelphia region.
Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Social
Experience
Founder and Partner
First Round Capital
Oct 2004 - Current
First Round Capital is an early stage venture capital firm. We are seed-stage investors, often providing a company’s first outside capital, and aren’t afraid of investing in pre-revenue companies. We understand the challenges of launching a new enterprise, having founded/funded over 250 companies in the last few years.
Chairman of the Board
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Mar 2015 - Current
The Philadelphia Inquirer is the largest newspaper in America operated as a public-benefit corporation. Given the importance of local news organizations to our democracy, the Inquirer is working to develop viable, replicable models for sustainable local news enterprises across the country.
Member, Board of Directors
Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation
Feb 2015 - Current
Snider Hockey is a nationally acclaimed non-profit that uses the sport of hockey to educate and empower under-resourced youth of Philadelphia to prosper in the game of life.
Co-founder and Trustee
The Kopelman Foundation
Nov 2001 - Current
The Kopelman Foundation provides financial support to qualified not-for-profit organizations
Managing Director
Midas Capital
2000 - Current
Midas Capital was founded to manage my personal angel investments.
Director, Board of Directors
Clover Health
2015 - 2017
Director, Board of Directors
Flatiron Health
2014 - 2014
Director, Board of Directors
GSI Commerce
2011 - 2011
Director, Board of Directors
AppNexus
2008 - 2010
Member, Board of Directors
Main Line Health
2006 - 2009
Main Line Health is suburban Philadelphia's most comprehensive healthcare resource, operating four of the region's most-respected hospitals.
Director, Board of Directors
OnDeck
2006 - 2008
Founding Chairman, Board of Directors
TurnTide
Feb 2004 - Jul 2004
TurnTide pioneered the world's first anti-spam route -- which worked by disrupting the economic model of spammer. The company was acquired by Symantec in July of 2004.
Director, Board Of Directors
Five Below
2003 - 2008
President, Half.com -- an eBay Company
eBay, Inc.
Jun 2000 - Apr 2003
Ran the Half.com business unit for eBay.
Founder and President, Half.com
Half.com
Jun 1999 - Jun 2000
Founded Half.com, a leading person-to-person marketplace for books, music, movies and games. Sold business to eBay in 2000. Continued to run business unit until 2003.
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President
Infonautics
Jun 1991 - Jun 1999
Infonautics was a pioneering Internet information company that went public in 1996.
Education
Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Bachelor's degree, Entrepreneurial Management and MarketingInfoThis public profile is provided courtesy of Clay. All information found here is in the public domain.