Josh Abramson
| Josh Abramson | |
|---|---|
 Abramson in 2015 | |
| Born |
1981 (age 34–35) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Residence | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Richmond |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, Investor |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Known for | CollegeHumor, Vimeo, BustedTees, TeePublic |
| Spouse(s) | Gabrielle Borden Finley (m. 2010) |
| Website |
twitter |
Josh Abramson (born 1981) is an American entrepreneur,[1] and co-founder of the comedy website CollegeHumor.[2][3][4] He is one of the principal owners and founders of Connected Ventures, whose properties include Vimeo and BustedTees,[5][6][7] and the owner and CEO of the crowdsourced T-shirt design company TeePublic.[8][9]
Early life
Abramson grew up in Timonium, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore.[4] He and fellow CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen were friends since the sixth grade and attended Dulaney High School together.[10][11]
Career
CollegeHumor
Abramson and Van Veen co-founded CollegeHumor in 1999 when they were both freshmen in college,[2][4][12] Abramson at the University of Richmond[5] and Van Veen at Wake Forest.[4][10] They began by posting silly photos of themselves as well as jokes, links, and other amusing material they collected from emails circulating among college students.[4][10] Within three months the site was receiving over 600,000 visitors per month and $8,000 in monthly revenue.[10] In under a year they received a buyout offer from an Internet company called eFront for $9 million, most of which would have been financed with stock shares. Abramson and Van Veen refused the offer and continued to grow the company themselves.[10] In 2001 they added Jakob Lodwick, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Zach Klein, a friend of Van Veen’s from Wake Forest.[4][13] By the time the group graduated from college the site had earned more than $100,000 and the partners still owned 100 percent of their business, which at that time was attracting 2 million viewers a month.[10] The group moved the company to San Diego briefly[10][11][13] before settling in New York City in 2004, where they set up shop in a 4,800 square-foot loft in TriBeCa.[4][10][13]
By 2005 the site was receiving 6-8 million unique visitors each month and was generating over 5 million dollars per year in advertising and T-shirt sales. In 2006 Abramson and company sold 51% of Connected Ventures, CollegeHumor’s parent company, whose properties include CollegeHumor, Vimeo and BustedTees, to Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp for a reported $20 million.[6][7][14]
BustedTees
Abramson and company created BustedTees in 2004 as a forum to sell T-shirts marketed on CollegeHumor.[3] BustedTees was included in the 2006 sale of Connected Ventures to IAC/InterActiveCorp but in In 2011 Abramson bought the company back and is the current president.[3][8][14]
TeePublic
Abramson launched TeePublic in March 2013 with the aim of creating a self-sustaining community of T-shirt designers and T-shirt lovers.[8] The T-shirt designs are submitted by artists, designers, and celebrities, and are curated through crowdsourcing.[9]
Venture Capital Financing
Abramson has invested in several early-stage tech companies, including BarkBox, a subscription e-commerce and content company for dog-lovers, AmberJack, a booking platform for fishing trips, ManagedByQ, an office management platform, and Shinesty, a retro clothing company, among others.[15][16] In 2013 Abramson joined venture capital firm FirstMark Capital, the New York-based firm behind major companies like Pinterest and Shopify, in a Venture Partner role.[1][17]
Personal life
Abramson resides in New York City. In April, 2010 he married Gabrielle Borden Finley.[5]
References
- 1 2 Jordan Crook, “CollegeHumor Founder Josh Abramson, Boomi Founder Rick Nucci Join FirstMark Capital,” TechCrunch, September 17, 2013.
- 1 2 Pui-Wing Tam, “By Accident or Design, Selling T-Shirts Is Big Business on Web,” The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2005.
- 1 2 3 Jessica E. Vascellaro, “CollegeHumor Co-Founder Tries on Old Threads,” The Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rebecca Mead, “Funny Boys,” The New Yorker, January 24, 2005.
- 1 2 3 Margaux Laskey, “Gabrielle Finley and Josh Abramson,” The New York Times, April 30, 2010.
- 1 2 Jeffrey Gangemi, “Buying Sites with a Built-in Audience,” Bloomberg Business, September 11, 2006.
- 1 2 Streeter Seidell, “I Waste People’s Time Online. How? Don’t Ask Me,” The New York Times, April 20, 1980.
- 1 2 3 John Koetsier, “Kickstarter for T-shirts: CollegeHumor and Vimeo founder Josh Abramson launching social T-shirts,” VentureBeat, March 13, 2013.
- 1 2 Vanessa Grigoriadis, “A Message Tee for Every Mood,” New York, March 20, 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Warren St. John, “Sophomorically Incorrect,” The New York Times, July 24, 2005.
- 1 2 Chris Richards, CollegeHumor, Popular Comedy Web Site, Crosses Over to MTV,” The Washington Post, February 7, 2009.
- ↑ Jillian Goodman, J.J. McCorvey, Margaret Rhodes, and Linda Tischler, “From Facebook To Pixar: 10 Conversations That Changed Our World,” Fast Company, February, 2013.
- 1 2 3 “Business at Collegehumor.com Is No Joke,” Fox News, June 15, 2006.
- 1 2 Anthony Ha, “T-Shirt Crowdfunding Site TeePublic Funds 22 Designs In Its First Week,” TechCrunch, March 22, 2013.
- ↑ Alyson Shontell, "BarkBox Raises $1.7 Million From Resolute.vc, Lerer, RRE And Others To Become The Ultimate Resource For Dogs," Business Insider, July 9, 2012.
- ↑ Jordan Crook, “Amberjack Reels In $500K To Let You Book A Fishing Trip,” TechCrunch, April 6, 2015.
- ↑ Nicholas Carlson, “FirstMark Capital Just Hired The Star Entrepreneur Behind College Humor, Vimeo, and Busted Tees,” Business Insider, September 7, 2013.