Courtesy of jdlasica
Half.com is a online community where users can sell items they own to other users at fixed prices. A good way to think of it is as a online shopping community for users run by those same users. The site was launched and in less than a year, eBay quickly stepped in and bought half.com for approximately $350 million! This week in the spotlight we take a look at entrepreneur Josh Kopelman who created half.com. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons can be learned for any upcoming entrepreneur.
Summary:
Name: Josh Kopelman
Age: 37
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Claim to fame: Half.com (Open community where users can sell items at fixed prices to other users.)
Initial cost: < $1000 (estimate)
How He Did It:
Josh Kopelman grew up in New York and attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. During his time in school, he started an information research company online. He would run this business for several years before leaving it to pursue other interests. Kopelman launched half.com in 1999 and sold it a year later to eBay for an estimated $350 million. The idea behind half.com was to create a online market place for users run by users. People could list items at fixed prices to sell to other users of the site with half.com taking a percentage of the profit on each sale. Kopelman remained with eBay until 2004 when he then once again decided to pursue new interests. Kopelman currently works at a taste marketing company, which he started up in 2005.
Lessons Learned:
- Continue to grow and try new things (Even after the successful sale of half.com, Kopelman continued to pursue new entrepreneur ventures. This only helped to build his success).
- Many entrepreneurs can often be viewed as serial entrepreneurs (multiple start-ups or ventures)
- It’s always good to be thinking ahead to what you want to do next
- Plan and then execute – Research, but then be sure you take action. Most people fail to take action for many reasons, but taking action is probably the most important thing to do as an entrepreneur. Try and try again!
Did you miss last weeks spotlight? Check it out here: The Entrepreneur Spotlight: Aaron Patzer
Be on the lookout for our next entrepreneur spotlight article in this ongoing series. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about the success of this week’s entrepreneur. Also, please let me know if you have an entrepreneur you would like to see featured here in the weeks to come.
Sources:
Related posts:
