Josh Kopelman

Josh Kopelman
Josh Kopelman
Born	Joshua Kopelman Template:Birth year and age
Nationality	American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, entrepreneur, philanthropist
Known for	Founder of First Round Capital, Half.com, Infonautics, TurnTide
Education	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) (B.S.)
Children	2
Awards	Forbes Midas List (multiple years)

Joshua Kopelman (born c. 1970) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. He is the founder and partner of First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that has backed companies including Uber, Roblox, Square, and Notion. Before establishing himself as one of the most prominent early-stage investors in the technology industry, Kopelman built a career as a serial entrepreneur, founding Infonautics, Half.com, and TurnTide. Half.com was acquired by eBay in 2000, and TurnTide was acquired by Symantec. A Philadelphia-based investor in an industry overwhelmingly concentrated in Silicon Valley, Kopelman has been a significant figure in the growth of the city's technology and startup ecosystem. He served as chairman of the board of Philadelphia Media Network, the parent company of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, from 2015 to 2024, when he was named chair emeritus. Kopelman has appeared multiple times on the Forbes Midas List of the world's top venture capital investors, including a return to the list in 2025 marking twenty years since the founding of First Round Capital.

Early Life

Joshua Kopelman was born circa 1970 to Carol and Dr. Richard Kopelman. He grew up in the Philadelphia area and developed an early interest in technology and business. Kopelman's entrepreneurial inclinations emerged during his youth and continued through his education, ultimately leading him to pursue a career at the intersection of technology and commerce.

Education

Kopelman attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. The Wharton School, one of the most prestigious business programs in the United States, provided Kopelman with a foundation in business strategy and finance. He has remained connected to the University of Pennsylvania throughout his career and is recognized among the school's notable undergraduate alumni. His time at Wharton coincided with the early commercialization of the Internet, a period that would shape his subsequent career as both an entrepreneur and investor.

Career

Infonautics

Kopelman's first major entrepreneurial venture was Infonautics, a company he founded while still in his twenties. Infonautics was an early Internet-era information services company. The company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange, making Kopelman one of the youngest CEOs of a publicly traded company at the time. Infonautics operated during the formative years of commercial Internet services, providing online research and reference tools. The experience of building and running a public company gave Kopelman significant operational experience and exposure to the challenges of scaling technology businesses during the nascent stages of the Internet economy.

Half.com

Following Infonautics, Kopelman founded Half.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling used books, music, movies, and video games at discounted prices. The company gained widespread attention for a creative marketing strategy: it persuaded the town of Halfway, Oregon, to temporarily rename itself "Half.com, Oregon" in exchange for various community benefits, generating substantial national media coverage before the site even launched.

Half.com quickly grew in popularity as a platform for consumers seeking discounted media and merchandise. In 2000, eBay acquired Half.com, integrating the platform into its broader e-commerce ecosystem. The acquisition was a significant transaction during the height of the dot-com bubble and established Kopelman's reputation as a successful Internet entrepreneur capable of building consumer-facing technology products and achieving a lucrative exit. Half.com continued to operate as a division of eBay for many years following the acquisition.

TurnTide

After the sale of Half.com to eBay, Kopelman founded TurnTide, a company focused on anti-spam technology. TurnTide developed solutions to combat the growing problem of unsolicited email, which had become a major nuisance and security issue for Internet users and businesses. The company developed network-level anti-spam hardware and software that addressed the problem at its source. TurnTide was subsequently acquired by Symantec, the cybersecurity company, further adding to Kopelman's track record of building technology companies and successfully exiting them through acquisition. Kopelman also holds multiple technology-related patents from his work as an entrepreneur.

First Round Capital

In 2004, Kopelman founded First Round Capital, a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage investments in technology companies. The firm was established with a thesis that there was a significant gap in the venture capital market: very early-stage startups needed relatively small amounts of capital and hands-on operational support, but most venture firms were focused on writing larger checks to companies at later stages. First Round Capital aimed to fill this gap by making seed investments — typically the first institutional capital a startup receives — and providing founders with resources, community, and mentorship to help them navigate the challenges of the earliest stages of company building.

Headquartered in Philadelphia — an unusual choice in an industry dominated by firms based in Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, and the broader San Francisco Bay Area — First Round Capital grew to become one of the most prominent seed-stage venture capital firms in the United States. The firm also established offices in San Francisco and New York City to maintain proximity to the major technology startup hubs.

First Round Capital's portfolio has included a number of companies that became significant players in the technology industry. The firm was an early investor in Uber, the ride-hailing company that went public in 2019 in one of the largest technology IPOs in history. Other notable investments from First Round Capital's portfolio include Roblox, Square, Warby Parker, Flatiron Health, and numerous other technology startups across sectors including financial technology, consumer internet, enterprise software, and healthcare technology.

Kopelman's investment approach has been characterized by a focus on backing founders at the very earliest stages, often before they have a fully developed product or significant revenue. As someone who built multiple companies himself before becoming an investor, Kopelman has emphasized the importance of understanding the founder's perspective and the operational challenges of building a startup from scratch. First Round Capital has also been noted for its community-building efforts, including an annual summit for founders in its portfolio, a holiday card tradition that has drawn media attention, and various resources and programs designed to help early-stage entrepreneurs.

On the firm's blog, Kopelman has written about topics including the norms of discourse and communication within the technology community and the broader business world.

In 2025, Kopelman returned to the Forbes Midas List, the annual ranking of the world's top 100 venture capital investors. His inclusion that year coincided with the twentieth anniversary of First Round Capital's founding and was attributed in part to successful investments in the firm's portfolio. Kopelman had previously appeared on the Midas List in multiple consecutive years, including 2011 through 2018.

Philadelphia Media Network

In 2015, Kopelman became chairman of the board of Philadelphia Media Network (PMN), the parent company of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, succeeding H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest. In an interview at the time, Kopelman discussed his interest in applying innovative thinking to the challenges facing the newspaper industry, including the ongoing disruption of traditional media business models by digital technology. Philadelphia Media Network, which had gone through a period of ownership changes and financial restructuring, was operated as a public-benefit corporation during Kopelman's tenure as chairman. He served in this role until 2024, when he transitioned to the position of chair emeritus.

Role in Philadelphia's Technology Ecosystem

Kopelman's decision to base First Round Capital in Philadelphia, rather than in the traditional venture capital centers of Silicon Valley, has been cited as a factor in the development of the city's technology and startup ecosystem. His presence and investments in the region helped draw attention to Philadelphia as a viable location for technology entrepreneurship. A 2022 report described Kopelman as one of the most networked venture capitalists in the industry and referenced his status as one of the wealthiest self-made individuals in Philadelphia, a characterization Kopelman reportedly found uncomfortable.

A 2025 retrospective on Philadelphia's technology development during the 2010s noted the role of collaborative efforts among investors, policymakers, and community organizers in transforming the city's innovation economy, a broader movement in which Kopelman and First Round Capital played a part.

Personal Life

Josh Kopelman is based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. He married Rena M. Cohen in 1995. The couple has two children. His parents are Carol and Dr. Richard Kopelman.

Kopelman has been involved in philanthropic activities, including engagement with the Jewish community in the Philadelphia region. He has been recognized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia for his communal leadership.

Recognition

Kopelman has received significant recognition within the venture capital and technology industries. His most prominent accolade is repeated inclusion on the Forbes Midas List, the annual ranking of the top 100 venture capital investors globally. He appeared on the list consecutively from at least 2011 through 2018 and returned to the list in 2025, coinciding with First Round Capital's twentieth anniversary. The Forbes Midas List is considered one of the primary benchmarks for measuring the performance and influence of venture capital investors, and Kopelman's consistent inclusion reflects the returns generated by First Round Capital's early-stage investments.

Beyond the Midas List, Kopelman has been recognized as one of the most significant figures in Philadelphia's business and technology communities. He has been featured on CNBC in connection with the network's Disruptor 50 list, which highlights innovative private companies. He is recognized as a notable alumni leader by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Legacy

Josh Kopelman's career spans two distinct but interconnected phases of the modern technology industry: the first wave of Internet entrepreneurship in the 1990s and the subsequent maturation of the venture capital ecosystem in the 2000s and 2010s. As a founder who built and sold multiple companies before transitioning to investing, Kopelman represents a model that has become increasingly common in venture capital — the operator-turned-investor — but was less prevalent when he founded First Round Capital in 2004.

First Round Capital's focus on seed-stage investing helped popularize a model that has since been adopted by numerous other firms. The concept of a dedicated seed-stage venture fund, offering smaller check sizes and more hands-on founder support than traditional venture capital firms, has become a standard part of the startup financing landscape. While Kopelman was not the only investor pursuing this strategy, First Round Capital's scale and success helped validate the approach.

Kopelman's choice to maintain a base in Philadelphia rather than relocating entirely to Silicon Valley also contributed to a broader trend of venture capital decentralization. While the majority of venture capital activity in the United States remains concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, the growth of technology hubs in cities like Philadelphia, New York, and others has been supported in part by the presence of local investors willing to back companies outside of the traditional technology centers.

His service as chairman of Philadelphia Media Network reflected a broader interest among technology industry leaders in addressing the challenges facing local journalism and traditional media. The intersection of technology, media, and community engagement has been a recurring theme in Kopelman's career, from his early work in online information services at Infonautics to his stewardship of one of the oldest and most prominent newspaper organizations in the United States.