Jared Kopf: Complete Biography, History, and Inventions

Jared Kopf is an American businessman who is best known for his instrumental role in the development of the highly successful digital wallet, PayPal. However, after leaving PayPal he went on to found a number of other successful businesses, some with the other co-founders of PayPal. One of his most successful businesses was the entertainment application, Slide, which he then sold to Google. He also worked as an angel investor for a number of investment firms and is a popular business consultant.

Read on to learn more about Jared Kopf and his successful career.

Who is Jared Kopf?

Jared Kopf is an American businessman, investor, and entrepreneur. Kopf is part of the so-called PayPal Mafia, the group of men who first worked at PayPal and used the business experience to positively influence much of their career. Despite the fact that his time at PayPal was relatively brief, Kopf turned the experience into a major one for his career. After leaving the company, Kopf remained closely tied to his fellow PayPal Mafia members, and he joined and formed many companies that had ties to his former coworkers.

Early Life

Unlike many other members of the PayPal Mafia, Kopf has kept a relatively low profile and generally eschewed interviews and press. While his career has thrived, he has generally declined to speak publicly to the press and discuss his success. He has no published books, no major quotes, and has not given any interviews to the press. This is not to say that he lives the life of a recluse, but he has been less public about his success than other members of the PayPal Mafia.

What is known about Kopf’s early life is that he entered Stanford University in 1995 and graduated in 1999 with a degree in Interaction Design and English.

Career

Although Jared Kopf is well-known for his instrumental role in the development of PayPal, he has also founded a number of other successful businesses, including the American investment firm, Clarium Capital, and the entertainment giant Slide, which was eventually purchased by Google. Let’s take a closer look at the important aspects of his career below.

PayPal

The best-known aspects of Jared Kopf’s career began at PayPal. He worked as an Assistant to the CEO of the company, Peter Thiel. During that time, he worked with Thiel on a variety of projects.

From a timing perspective, Kopf’s time at PayPal could not have been more fortuitous, as he worked at PayPal during two of its biggest company events: Its Initial Public Offering and its sale to eBay. 

Kopf was only at PayPal for five months, working for the company from June 2002 to October 2002. However, this brief time there was enough to expose Kopf to others in the company and to build connections that would serve him well for the rest of his career. 

Clarium Capital

Kopf left PayPal with Thiel, who would form Clarium Capital. Clarium Capital is an American investment firm that invested in a variety of stocks and bonds. Like many other investment firms, Clarium struggled in the 2000s, as the difficult stock market and bad investments cost the firm and its clients extensively. 

Kopf would only stay at Clarium for roughly a year and a half. During that time, he served as the firm’s Director of Venture Investments. He oversaw the investment into a variety of firms, one of which was LinkedIn, the business social networking site that was founded by fellow PayPal Mafia member Reid Hoffman.

Slide

Slide was one of Kopf’s more significant entrepreneurial creations. He co-founded Slide in January 2005, working with PayPal Mafia member Max Levchin. Kopf left the company in March 2006 after serving as its director of Distribution.

Slide billed itself as the world’s largest publisher of entertainment applications. In other words, Slide engaged in social gaming, using networks created by individuals on platforms like Facebook.

Google purchased Slide for $182 million in 2010 and gave an additional $46 million in employee retention bonuses. However, Kopf had already left the company, so most of the money from that sale went to Levchin and other previous investors. 

Slide would be shut down by Google about a year later, shortly after the departure of Levchin.

HomeRun

HomeRun was another one of Kopf’s creations, one that continued Kopf’s expertise in the area of taking networks that were created on social media and turning them into something more significant in the real world. HomeRun billed itself as a “members-only online social buying club.” It allows local businesses to deliver rewards, products, and other member-exclusive offers to members of HomeRun. However, individuals could leverage their social networks to get more offers and compare them with each other.

In Kopf’s time at the company, he not only founded it but also helped acquire Series A & Series B funding. He also staffed the company, got it off the ground, and turned it into a success.

Like many of Kopf’s previous work experiences, his time at HomeRun didn’t last long: He left the company a little less than two years after founding it. This occurred after Reardon Commerce purchased the company in August 2011. Kopf would work for Reardon for another year after the purchase.

According to reports at the time, Reardon’s purchase of the company was for at least $87 million in stock shares. Reardon also acquired additional funding for the company.

Sidekicks

Sidekicks incorporated a series of Kopf’s projects, many of which were voice-related projects. Specifically, Kopf turned his talents towards creating programs that leveraged voice in some way. This included AI voice commands, vocal transcriptions of tasks, products that rejected robocalls, and more.

TalkLive

TalkLive is Kopf’s latest project. He has kept the project in a private Beta and it does not have any staff or website at the moment, so little is known about the project, save for the idea that it is a voice platform. 

What Is Jared Kopf Known For?

PayPal Mafia

As one of the company’s first employees and the Assistant to former CEO Peter Thiel, Kopf is considered a key member of the PayPal Mafia. The PayPal Mafia is the group of men who worked at PayPal and then went on to have thriving business careers outside of the company. Many of America’s most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs are considered part of this club, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, Eric M. Jackson, and more.

Part of the appeal of this group has been the interconnected nature of their relationships. For example, Thiel’s firm – overseen by Kopf – invested in Hoffman’s company, LinkedIn. This is one of many such connections between the group. 

Business Founder

Kopf founded multiple businesses, concentrating on technology, social networking, and voice. All of this has given Kopf extensive experience in this area. He has also been at the helm of many businesses that were purchased by larger organizations, making him a rich man.

Investor & Board Member

Kopf has also used his business success to help other businesses. He has been an angel investor and consultant to investment firms since January 2005 and lists dozens of businesses that he has invested in.

Kopf has also served as a member of numerous business organizations, including as a Board Member of AdRoll, another company that he founded. AdRoll is an ad retargeting program that can be used to specifically target certain customers on the internet.  

Jared Kopf: Marriage, Divorce, Children, Personal Life

Net Worth

Kopf is not required to legally disclose his net worth, so an exact answer to this question is not known. However, it is estimated that his net worth is around $140 million. 

Marriage

Kopf married his wife, Juli Insinger, in 2019. The two were married in Sun Valley, Idaho, in August 2019. 

Children

It is not believed that Kopf has any children.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com.