Jonathan Abrams is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is best known as the founder of

Friendster Friendster was a social network game based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO VentureBeat. Retrieved December 4, 2 ...

where he worked from 2002 to 2005. He then founded Socializr, where he worked from 2005 to 2010, and Nuzzel, where he stayed from 2012 to 2018. He has invested in over 50 companies, including Docker and

Instacart Instacart is an American company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada. The company offers its services via a website and mobile app. The service allows customers to order groceries from participat ...

. He was the owner of a patent for a "System, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks". This, and Friendster's other patents, were bought by Facebook for $40 million in 2010. As of March 2021, Abrams is a board member of Girls in Tech, and a co-founder and managing partner of Founders Den, a workplace for startups.

Friendster

was an early social network that once boasted over 111 million users and was the inspiration behind MySpace and other more modern social networks.

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

offered to buy the company in 2003 for $30 million in Google stock, which would have been worth $1.1 billion as of March 2021, but the offer was denied. Friendster was then funded by

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

and Benchmark with a valuation of $53 million in October 2003. In 2004, the Board of Directors removed him as CEO, and Tim Koogle took over as interim CEO.

Startups

Abrams has continued working with startups, founding Socializr, another social network for sharing events with friends, which was purchased by Punchbowl. From 2012 to 2018, he worked on Nuzzel, an app for providing news and media intelligence. Abrams is currently a founder and managing partner of startup incubator Founders Den, which has hosted companies including AdBlock, Spigot, and Docker. He is currently one of the co-founders of 8-Bit Capital, a seed investment firm.

References

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