Sam Yagan

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Sam Yagan
Born (1977-04-10) April 10, 1977 (age 47)
NationalityAmerican
Educationdegree 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 active1999–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]

Contents

Family and education

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]

Career

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]

Awards and recognition

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]

Personal life

Sam Yagan is married to his high school sweetheart, Jessica Droste Yagan. [15] [16]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Time 100 - Sam Yagan". Time Magazine. April 18, 2013. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  2. ↑ Pletz, John (April 18, 2013). "Sam I am". Crain's Chicago Business. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Yagan's influence no illusion". The Daily Journal. December 2013.
  4. ↑ "Time magazine ranks Bourbonnais' Sam Yagan among 100 most influential people". The Daily Journal. April 2013.
  5. ↑ "Executive Profile: Sam Yagan". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg. Retrieved April 23, 2013.[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ "Faculty Profiles: Danny Yagan". UC Berkeley Department of Economics. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Jessica Droste Yagan — IMPACT ENGINE" . Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  8. ↑ Aucoin, Don (August 2007). "Digital Man". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  9. 1 2 "Confessions of a Former Entrepreneur". Inc. Magazine. July–August 2011.
  10. ↑ "Testimony of Sam Yagan". United States Senate Judiciary Committee. Archived from the original on December 20, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  11. ↑ Casserly, Meghan. "Excelerate Labs". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  12. ↑ Moore, Galen (October 5, 2016). "OkCupid Founder Sam Yagan's Corazon Capital Is Back With a Bigger Fund II". Chicago Inno. Retrieved March 1, 2024. 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.
  13. ↑ Cremades, Alejandro. "This Founder Bounced Back From Startup Failure To Leading A $400M IPO That Transformed Online Dating". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  14. ↑ " "40 under 40". Crain's Chicago Business. 2011. " Archived from the original on April 16, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  15. ↑ Kapos, Shia (February 11, 2013). "Married to their high school sweethearts". Crain's Chicago Business. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Jessica Droste Yagan '95 and Sam Yagan '95 Step Up for IMSA". IMSA360. November 6, 2012. Archived from the original on April 19, 2014. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
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