Amit Kapur

Amit Kapur is an American-born internet entrepreneur. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of WhoCo, a technology company focused on hiring and recruiting. He is best known as co-founder of technology start-up Gravity[1] and as the former chief operating officer at MySpace.[2]

Early life and education

Kapur grew up in Huron, South Dakota. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.^[citation needed]

Career

After graduation, Kapur worked at NBC Universal in its planning and digital strategy department.[3]

Kapur joined MySpace in 2005 and was in charge of the development of MySpace Music and MySpace mobile. He was named chief operating officer of the company in January 2008.[4]

In 2009, Kapur along with 2 other MySpace employees, Jim Benedetto and Steve Pearman, left the company[5] to found Santa Monica-based Gravity.[6] They raised $10 million in Series A funding in May 2009[7] and another $10.6 million in Series B funding in October 2012.[8]

Gravity was acquired by AOL in January 2014.[9][10] After the acquisition, Kapur was named President of AOL's publisher platform where he remained until 2017.[11]

In early 2019, Kapur co-founded Santa Monica-based WhoCo, a technology startup focused on hiring and recruiting, alongside former Google and AOL executive Tim Armstrong.[12]

References

1. "Is Myspace Destined to Fail (Again)?". LA Weekly By Ben Westhoff May 1, 2014
2. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 23 August 2008. pp. 21–. ISSN 0006-2510.
3. Eilene Zimmerman. "From Myspace’s Ashes, Silicon Start-Ups Rise". New York Times. September 7, 2013.
4. "MySpace Names Amit Kapur Chief Operating Officer". BusinessWire. January 30, 2008.
5. Kee, Tameka (March 3, 2009). "MySpace COO Amit Kapur Leaving With Two Other Execs For Startup". GigaOM.
6. "Our Team". Gravity. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2014-08-09.
7. Arrington, Michael (May 20, 2009). "Former MySpace Execs Get Funding For New Venture; Some Details Leak". TechCrunch.
8. Yeung, Ken (October 2, 2012). "Gravity to improve its personalization platform engine with new Series B funding". The Next Web.
9. Swisher, Kara (January 23, 2014). "AOL Buys Personalization Startup Gravity for 90 Million in Cash". Re/Code.
10. "Tech guru | Amit Kapur". New Indian Express. By Adarsh Matham 1 February 2015
11. Lee Schneider. "Los Angeles: Dawn of a Startup Town". Techli, February 11, 2015.
12. Boorstin, Julia (2019-02-07). "Tim Armstrong is launching a new company to bring products and experiences directly to consumers, no retailer required". CNBC. Retrieved February 18, 2021.