Sam Yagan | |
---|---|
Born | April 10, 1977 |
Nationality | American |
Education | degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics and an MBA |
Alma mater |
Harvard University Stanford University |
Occupation(s) | Co-founder of
OkCupid Co-founder of SparkNotes Vice-Chairman of Match.com Former CEO of Shoprunner |
Years active | 1999–present |
Spouse |
Jessica Droste Yagan
(
m. 2003) |
Parent(s) | Al Yagan Dr. Haifa Yagan |
Sam Yagan (born April 10, 1977) is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of OkCupid. [1] In 2013, he was named to TIME Magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World' list. [1] He is the Vice-Chairman of the e-dating site Match.com. [2]
Yagan is the son of Syrian immigrants, Al and Dr. Haifa Yagan, [3] [4] and grew up in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and studied at the Illinois Math and Science Academy and eventually Harvard University.
Yagan holds a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University, where he earned distinction as a Siebel Scholar, an Arjay Miller Scholar, and the Henry Ford Scholar, the award granted to each class’s valedictorian. [5] His brother Danny Yagan is an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. [6] His wife Jessica Droste Yagan is the CEO of Impact Engine, an impact investing fund. [7]
In 1999, during his senior year at Harvard, Yagan and two of his classmates, Chris Coyne and Max Krohn, started the online study guide SparkNotes. [8] Christian Rudder joined shortly after the founding. A year later they sold the company to Barnes & Noble for $30 million. [9] By age 25, Yagan was the president of eDonkey (founded in 2002), a P2P file-sharing network. As the developer of eDonkey, Yagan testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing a need for balance between innovation and intellectual property. [10] In 2003, Yagan again teamed up with his Harvard classmates Chris Coyne and Max Krohn and founded OkCupid.
In 2009, Yagan and Troy Henikoff founded Excelerate Labs. [11] In 2011, Yagan sold his dating website (OkCupid) to IAC for $50 million and in 2012, Yagan became the CEO of Match.com (a subsidiary of IAC). [9] In 2014, Yagan co-founded Corazon Capital with Steve Farsht. [12]
Yagan is the former CEO of ShopRunner, an e-commerce network that provides two-day shipping across multiple merchants. He led the sale of the company to FedEx in December 2020. [13]
In April 2013, Yagan was listed as one of TIME Magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World'. [1] In 2011, Yagan was named to Crain's "40 under 40" in Chicago. [14]
Sam Yagan is married to his high school sweetheart, Jessica Droste Yagan. [15] [16]
The $13 million Corazon I, also led by Yagan and Farsht, was known for bringing in local entrepreneurs as limited partners, including Inventables founder CEO Zach Kaplan...The firm has participated in Series A-sized rounds for several Chicago startups.