Josh Kopelman — Founder

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.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Venture Capitalist with extensive experience in technology startups.

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Experience: 35 yrs

Skills

Venture Capital
Entrepreneurship

Career Highlights

Co-founded Half.com, acquired by eBay.
Ranked 3rd on New York Times Top Venture Capitalists list.
Inventor on sixteen U.S. Patents in Internet technology.

Work Experience

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Chairman Emeritus (1 yr 11 mos)

Chairman of the Board (8 yrs 1 mo)

Director (1 yr 2 mos)

First Close Partners

Founding Partner (6 yrs 4 mos)

Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation

Member, Board of Directors (7 yrs 11 mos)

GSI Commerce

Director, Board of Directors (0 mo)

Main Line Health

Member, Board of Directors (3 yrs)

First Round Capital

Founder and Partner (21 yrs 7 mos)

TurnTide

Founding Chairman, Board of Directors (5 mos)

Five Below

Director, Board Of Directors (5 yrs)

The Kopelman Foundation

Co-founder and Trustee (24 yrs 6 mos)

eBay, Inc.

President, Half.com -- an eBay Company (2 yrs 10 mos)

Half.com

Founder and President, Half.com (1 yr)

Infonautics

Co-Founder and Executive Vice President (8 yrs)

Education

Bachelor's degree at The Wharton School

Josh Kopelman

Founder

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States35 yrs experience

Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Co-founded Half.com, acquired by eBay.
Ranked 3rd on New York Times Top Venture Capitalists list.
Inventor on sixteen U.S. Patents in Internet technology.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Venture Capitalist with extensive experience in technology startups.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Venture CapitalEntrepreneurship

Other Skills

AnalyticsAngel InvestingBusiness DevelopmentBusiness StrategyChristmas cardsCloud ComputingCompetitive AnalysisConsumer MarketingContent StrategyCorporate DevelopmentCross-functional Team LeadershipDigital MarketingDigital MediaE-commerceEnterprise Software

About

Experience

35 yrs

Total Experience

8 yrs 4 mos

Average Tenure

24 yrs 7 mos

Current Experience

The philadelphia inquirer

3 roles

Chairman Emeritus

Jun 2024 – Present · 1 yr 11 mos

Chairman of the Board

Promoted

May 2016 – Jun 2024 · 8 yrs 1 mo

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.

Director

Mar 2015 – May 2016 · 1 yr 2 mos

First close partners

Founding Partner

Jan 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 4 mos

First Close Partners backs venture funds owned by underrepresented managers (“URMs”) -- especially to help them get to a “first close.” We invest in venture capital firms owned and operated by URMs who are people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and members of other groups that have been historically underrepresented, especially (but not solely) in the venture capital industry. The venture capital funds into which we have invested are predominantly located in the US, Europe and Africa.

Ed snider youth hockey foundation

Member, Board of Directors

Feb 2015 – Jan 2023 · 7 yrs 11 mos · Greater Philadelphia

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.

Gsi commerce

Director, Board of Directors

Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 · 0 mo

Main line health

Member, Board of Directors

Jan 2006 – Jan 2009 · 3 yrs

Main Line Health is suburban Philadelphia's most comprehensive healthcare resource, operating four of the region's most-respected hospitals.

First round capital

Founder and Partner

Oct 2004 – Present · 21 yrs 7 mos

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 300 companies in the last few years.

Founder modeVenture CapitalEntrepreneurship

Turntide

Founding Chairman, Board of Directors

Feb 2004 – Jul 2004 · 5 mos

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.

Five below

Director, Board Of Directors

Jan 2003 – Jan 2008 · 5 yrs

The kopelman foundation

Co-founder and Trustee

Nov 2001 – Present · 24 yrs 6 mos

The Kopelman Foundation provides financial support to qualified not-for-profit organizations

Ebay, inc.

President, Half.com -- an eBay Company

Jun 2000 – Apr 2003 · 2 yrs 10 mos

Ran the Half.com business unit for eBay.

Half.com

Founder and President, Half.com

Jun 1999 – Jun 2000 · 1 yr

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.