David Karp
David Karp | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 6, 1986 New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Business innovator, entrepreneur |
| Known for | Creator and former CEO of Tumblr |
David Karp (born July 6, 1986) is an American business innovator, primarily recognized as the creator and former CEO of the microblogging website Tumblr.
Without completing high school, Karp launched his professional journey as an intern under Fred Seibert at the animation firm Frederator Studios. There, he developed the company’s inaugural blogging system and established their first online video network, Channel Frederator. Subsequently, he contributed to the online parenting community UrbanBaby until its 2006 acquisition by CNET. Following this, Karp founded his own software consultancy called Davidville and collaborated with engineer Marco Arment. During a brief contract hiatus in 2006, they built a microblogging platform that debuted as Tumblr in February 2007. By November 2017, Tumblr supported more than 375 million blogs.
In August 2009, BusinessWeek honored Karp as the Best Young Tech Entrepreneur. The following year, he was included in the MIT Technology Review TR35 list, highlighting leading innovators under 35 years old.
On May 20, 2013, Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo! for $1.1 billion, with Karp continuing as CEO until his resignation announcement in November 2017.
Early life
Karp was born and raised in New York City, specifically on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. His mother, Barbara Ackerman, worked as a science educator, while his father, Michael D. Karp, composed music for film and television. He has a younger sibling named Kevin. When Karp was 17 years old, his parents separated. He attended the Calhoun School through eighth grade—where his mother taught science—and began learning HTML in 1997, designing websites for various clients. After spending one year at The Bronx High School of Science, he left formal schooling in 2001 to pursue homeschooling, aiming to impress institutions like MIT through independent projects. Karp never returned to traditional high school nor obtained a diploma.
Career
Karp’s career commenced in 2000 as an intern for animation producer Fred Seibert, founder of Frederator Studios, a role facilitated by his mother’s connection to Seibert. Drawn to Frederator’s engineering team, Karp frequently visited the studio and balanced homeschooling with Japanese language studies and tutoring focused on software development for blackjack and poker strategies. When entrepreneur John Maloney required technical assistance with the online parenting site UrbanBaby, Karp swiftly completed the project and became UrbanBaby’s head of product with equity participation. In 2003, he independently relocated to Tokyo for five months.
Following UrbanBaby’s acquisition by CNET in 2006, Karp invested his share proceeds into launching Davidville, a software consulting firm that combined client projects with personal product initiatives. Engineer Marco Arment joined after responding to a Craigslist advertisement. During a two-week contract gap that year, Karp and Arment developed their own microblogging platform. Tumblr launched in February 2007 and attracted 75,000 users within its first fortnight.
By October 2007, as Tumblr’s demands grew, Karp closed Davidville and rebranded it as Tumblr, Inc., selling a quarter of its equity to investors. On May 20, 2013, Yahoo! purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion. By November 2017, Tumblr hosted over 375 million blogs worldwide. That same year, Karp announced his departure from the company.
In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Karp has made personal investments in startups such as Superpedestrian, Inc., Sherpaa, Inc., and Splash, focusing largely on technology and healthcare industries.
Personal life
In 2014, Karp became a member of the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood. By March 2017, Tumblr collaborated with Planned Parenthood to launch a campaign encouraging the technology sector to back Planned Parenthood's mission.
Ahead of the 2016 United States presidential election, he publicly supported Hillary Clinton. Additionally, Karp contributed $11,200 to Mark Kelly's 2020 special election bid for the United States Senate, making him the largest individual contributor to that campaign.
External links
- David Karp's Tumblr
- The Way I Work: David Karp of Tumblr. Profile by Liz Welch, Inc. Magazine
- David Karp is Tumblr's Reluctant Technologist. Feature by Tim Wu, T: The New York Times Style Magazine
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1986 births
- 21st-century American businesspeople
- American technology chief executives
- American technology company founders
- 20th-century American Jews
- Businesspeople from New York City
- Living people
- People from the Upper West Side
- People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn
- The Bronx High School of Science alumni
- Yahoo! people
- People associated with Planned Parenthood
- Tumblr
- 21st-century American Jews