Jared Hecht
Jared Hecht | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1987, March 11th[1] |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder of Fundera, Co-founder of GroupMe |
Jared Hecht is an American entrepreneur, and the co-founder and CEO of Fundera, an online small business lending aggregator as well as group messaging app GroupMe.[2]
Early life
[edit | edit source]Hecht studied political science at Columbia University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 2009.[3] While a student at Columbia, he was the managing director and publisher for the university's student-written guidebook, Inside New York.[3][4]
Career
[edit | edit source]Hecht was an early employee at Tumblr and led business development.[5][6] In 2010, Hecht co-founded group messaging app, GroupMe, which allows users to create a private group to which they can send text messages or make conference calls, with his friend Steve Martocci, founder of Blade and Splice who was then a software engineer with Gilt Groupe.[6] They won the South by Southwest breakout ward in 2011.[6] The two raised $11 million from Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst in 2011.[7] After being live for 370 days, Microsoft purchased GroupMe for $80 million.[8]
One of Hecht's early hires at GroupMe, Zach Sims, also a Columbia alumnus, went on to found the online code-learning platform Codecademy.[9]
Hecht later became an angel investor and invested in companies such as Sweetgreen, TransferWise, and Flatiron Health.[10][11] In October 2013, he launched Fundera, an online broker that helps small businesses get loans from non-bank lenders, after seeing a family member struggle with bank loans, and raised a total of $18.9 million for his platform from investors such as Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, David Tisch, and more.[12][13] A year since it was launched, the company has secured more than $60 million in credit for 1,200 small-business owners.[14]
In 2015, he was named in Forbes' "30 under 30" list for the Consumer Tech category.[15]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]He is married to Carrie Weprin, a film producer, and the couple live in Brooklyn with their two children.[3][16][17]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ GroupMe founder on his $80M exit (and why he's building his new company differently), Published: Dec 6, 2017, Mixergy
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