Ryan Holmes

Last updated
Ryan Holmes
Ryan Holmes 2019.jpg
Holmes at Collision in 2019
Born (1974-12-30) December 30, 1974 (age 49)
Vernon, British Columbia
Occupation(s)Computer programmer, entrepreneur
Known forCEO of Hootsuite
Website http://www.hootsuite.com

Ryan Holmes (born December 30, 1974)[ citation needed ] is a Canadian computer programmer and internet entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and CEO of Hootsuite, a social media management tool for businesses with more than 18 million users [1] and Holmes' fifth startup. [2] Holmes began developing Hootsuite in 2008 through his agency, Invoke Media. He is also the founder of League of Innovators, a charity with a goal of building entrepreneurial acumen for youth, from discovery to acceleration.

Contents

Holmes is a contributor to the LinkedIn Influencers Program, where he writes about entrepreneurship and technology. [3] Holmes also contributes regularly to news publications including Forbes, Fast Company and Inc.com. [4]

Early life and education

Holmes was born in Vernon, in the British Columbia Interior. Growing up, he lived on a small farm which was isolated and lacked electricity. [5] Holmes won a district-wide programming contest in the fifth grade, [6] and the prize was an Apple IIc which was rewired to run off of a car battery. [7] He spent much of his spare time on the computer, both at school and at home. [6]

In the mid 1990s, Holmes began taking business and computer science courses at Okanagan College but he eventually dropped out. [8] In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate [9] from the University of British Columbia for helping to shape the identity of Vancouver as a tech hub.

Career

In high school, Holmes founded a paintball field as his first business [2] which later became an online retailer. After dropping out of university in 1997 Holmes moved back to his hometown of Vernon and started his second business, a pizza restaurant called Growlies. He sold a franchise of the business in that year. [10]

To re-pursue his passion for computers and be a part of the emerging tech industry, Holmes sold Growlies in 1999 and moved to Vancouver. While there he taught himself internet design and development and began working at a local technology firm. [11]

Following this he founded Invoke, a digital media agency, where Hootsuite was born in 2008. [10] Seven of the 21 employees at Invoke were tasked to work on building out the Hootsuite tool, at the time a freemium product that would enable businesses to incorporate social media into their marketing campaigns. In 2009, Holmes raised an initial round of Series A funding of $1.9 million for Hootsuite and spun it off as an independent company. [12]

In 2012, he then raised another round of funding for Hootsuite in the amount of $20 million from Canada-based VC Omers Ventures. [13] In August 2013, Holmes announced Hootsuite had secured $165 million in a Series B round of funding, the largest ever for a Canadian software company, led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from Accel Partners and existing investor OMERS Ventures. Today, Hootsuite has nearly 1,000 employees, and over 16 million users around the globe and has expanded its reach into the Enterprise-level market for large-scale social media solutions. [14]

In 2013 Holmes launched an accelerator program for young entrepreneurs called The Next Big Thing (later rebranded as The League of Innovators), in part to help foster a "Maple Syrup Mafia," [15] the term he coined in early 2013 to describe a new Canadian technology powerhouse similar to the original PayPal Mafia. [16]

In 2016, he teamed with Steve Suchy to launch Oristand, an affordable cardboard standing desk/workstation. [17]

In 2017, Holmes came out with a book, The 4 Billion Dollar Tweet, described by ZDNet as, "a guide to understanding and maximizing the use of social media." It is his first book. [18] Holmes claimed that the book inspired Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein to tweet for the first time in June 2017. [19]

In 2020, Holmes started working on the startup idea platform Kern.al. [20]

Recognition

Personal life

Holmes' personal interests include rock climbing, yoga, and paragliding. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Andreessen</span> American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer (born 1971)

Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. Andreessen is also a co-founder of Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites and an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net-worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Thiel</span> American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (born 1967)

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of June 2023, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $9.7 billion and was ranked 213th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Omidyar</span> Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of eBay (born 1967)

Pierre Morad Omidyar is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist, he is the founder of eBay, where he served as chairman from 1998 to 2015. Omidyar and his wife Pamela founded Omidyar Network in 2004. As of 2023, Forbes ranked Omidyar as the 245th-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Levchin</span> Ukrainian-born American software engineer

Maksymilian Rafailovych "Max" Levchin is a Ukrainian-American software engineer and businessman. In 1998, he co-founded the company that eventually became PayPal. Levchin made contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts and was the co-creator of the Gausebeck-Levchin test, one of the first commercial implementations of a CAPTCHA challenge response human test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shuman Ghosemajumder</span> Canadian technologist, entrepreneur, and author

Shuman Ghosemajumder is a Canadian technologist, entrepreneur, and author. He is the former click fraud czar at Google, the author of works on technology and business including the Open Music Model, and co-founder of TeachAids. He was chief technology officer for Shape Security, which was acquired in 2020 for $1 billion by F5 Inc, where he became head of artificial intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Jurvetson</span> American entrepreneur and venture capitalist

Stephen T. Jurvetson is an American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. Formerly a partner of the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), he was an early investor in Hotmail, Memphis Meats, Mythic and Nervana Systems. He is currently a board member of SpaceX among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Williams (Internet entrepreneur)</span> American technology entrepreneur

Evan "Ev" Clark Williams is an American billionaire technology entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Twitter, and was its CEO from 2008 to 2010, and a member of its board from 2007 to 2019. He founded Blogger and Medium, two of the largest blogging internet platforms. In 2014, he co-founded the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures. As of February 2022, his net worth is estimated at US$2.1 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Parker</span> American entrepreneur and philanthropist (born 1979)

Sean Parker is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the file-sharing computer service Napster, and was the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also co-founded Plaxo, Causes, Airtime.com, and Brigade, an online platform for civic engagement. He is the founder and chairman of the Parker Foundation, which focuses on life sciences, global public health, and civic engagement. On the Forbes 2022 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked No. 1,096 with a net worth of US$2.8 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Zuckerberg</span> American businessman (born 1984)

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American businessman. He co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is chairman, chief executive officer and controlling shareholder.

Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm formed in 2005 and has roughly $12 billion in total assets under management as of 2023. Founders Fund was the first institutional investor in Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Palantir Technologies,and an early investor in Facebook. The firm's partners have been founders, early employees and investors at companies including PayPal, Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries and SpaceX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Lindzon</span> Author and financial analyst

Howard Lindzon is a Canadian Author, financial analyst, technical analyst and super angel investor. Lindzon manages a hedge fund, serves as managing partner of the holding company Social Leverage, limited partner at Knight's Bridge Capital Partners, and is the co-founder of StockTwits. Lindzon was named one of The Best Tweets for Your Money in 2013 by Barron's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Karp</span> American web developer and entrepreneur

David Karp is an American webmaster, entrepreneur, and blogger, best known as the founder and former CEO of the short-form blogging platform Tumblr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hootsuite</span> Social media management platform

Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system's user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Roup</span> Canadian computer scientist

Oliver Roup is an entrepreneur and computer scientist originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Roup is the founder and CEO of the content monetization service VigLink.

SoFi Technologies, Inc. is an American online personal finance company and online bank. Based in San Francisco, SoFi provides financial products including student loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit card, investing, and banking through both mobile app and desktop interfaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Gorodyansky</span> American entrepreneur and angel investor (born 1982)

David Gorodyansky is an American entrepreneur and angel investor best known as the CEO of AnchorFree, a company he co-founded in 2005 with Eugene Malobrodsky. AnchorFree is the developer of Hotspot Shield, a virtual private network provider. In 2019, Fast Company named AnchorFree the 13th most innovative company in the world and the #1 most innovative security company. AnchorFree's most recent fundraising round (2018) brought in $295 million, bringing total funding to $358 million. Gorodyansky has also invested in GlobeIn, an online exotic arts and crafts marketplace, and Venturocket, an job matching website. He is chairman of AnchorFree and GlobeIn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin Waldron</span> American internet entrepreneur (born 1988)

Justin Waldron is an American internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company, and Zynga.org, a non-profit organization to promote and facilitate the use of social games for philanthropic initiatives. In 2020 Waldron co-founded Playco, a mobile instant game company backed by Sequoia Capital, where he currently serves as president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linus Sebastian</span> Canadian YouTuber (born 1986)

Linus Gabriel Sebastian is a Canadian YouTuber best known for creating and hosting YouTube channels that cover technology. On November 24, 2008, he started publishing videos on his main channel Linus Tech Tips (LTT) which has 15.7 million subscribers and 7.84 billion views as of May 2024. His channels have a combined subscriber base of over 27 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garry Tan</span> American venture capitalist (1981– )

Garry Tan is an American venture capitalist and executive who is the CEO of Y Combinator and a founder of Initialized Capital. He previously co-founded Posterous and Posthaven. He was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, and previously a partner at Y Combinator. Tan is also known for his engagement in San Francisco politics, both as a commenter on social media and as a political donor.

Ryan Disraeli is an American businessman, and a co-founder and the CEO of TeleSign.

References

  1. ↑ "More than half of the people on Earth now use social media". Hootsuite (Press release). 2020-07-21. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  2. 1 2 Gerber, Scott (14 March 2012). "Announcing a Live Chat With Hootsuite Founder Ryan Holmes". Mashable. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  3. ↑ "Ryan Holmes profile at Linkedin". Linkedin. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "Ryan Holmes Biography | Booking Info for Speaking Engagements". www.allamericanspeakers.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  5. ↑ Taylor, Chris (Feb 25, 2015). "A New York agenda with Hootsuite's night owl". Reuters. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  6. 1 2 Ebner, David (11 November 2011). "Sell out? No thanks, Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes wants a legacy". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "11 Questions For Ryan Holmes". The Huffington Post Canada. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  8. ↑ "OC News | Okanagan College".
  9. ↑ "2018 Honorary Degree Recipients | Graduation at UBC". graduation.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  10. 1 2 Melanson, Trevor (9 January 2013). "Is Hootsuite Canada's next billion-dollar tech titan?". Canadian Business. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Ernst, Amanda (October 20, 2010). "SO WHAT DO YOU DO, RYAN HOLMES, FOUNDER AND CEO OF HOOTSUITE?". Mediabistro. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  12. ↑ Rao, Leena (8 January 2010). "Hootsuite Raises $1.9 Million For Social Media Dashboard". TechCrunch. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  13. ↑ "Hootsuite Gets $20M from Canadian Pension Fund". Ad Age. 29 March 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  14. ↑ The Canadian Press (1 August 2013). "Hootsuite aims high as it secures $165-million funding agreement to expand". MacLeans. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  15. ↑ Dawes, Terry (31 October 2013). "Hootsuite's Ryan Holmes Recruits First Generation of "Maple Syrup Mafia"". CanTechletter. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Holmes, Ryan (24 April 2013). "Rise of the Maple Syrup Mafia". CNNMoney. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  17. ↑ "Hootsuite founder launches US$25 stand-up desk to liberate seated workers everywhere". Financial Post. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  18. ↑ "Is your company ready for the $4 billion tweet?". ZDNet. June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Goldman Sachs CEO joined Twitter after reading a book by this billion dollar tech chief executive". CNBC. June 16, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Kern.al on Indie Hackers". IndieHackers. October 19, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Okanagan College Alumni Association grants social media innovator 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award". Okanagan College. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  22. ↑ "Premier Clark celebrates some of B.C.'s finest with Queen's medal". Government of British Columbia. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  23. ↑ Gerber, Scott (2012-03-14). "Announcing a Live Chat With Hootsuite Founder Ryan Holmes". Mashable. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.