Jonathan Lacoste

Early life and education

Jonathan Lacoste was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio to John and Jane Lacoste. Jonathan received his high school diploma from St. Edward High School, a private, all-male Catholic, college-preparatory high school located in Cleveland, Ohio [3]. Growing up, Jonathan was a nationally ranked ice hockey goaltender. At the height of his career, Lacoste was awarded the "Bästa Målvakt" or "Best Goaltender" Award at the World Hockey Cup in Stockholm, Sweden [4] [5]. He also became the youngest goaltender to win a game in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) [6] at the age of 16 years, 3 months for the Alpena IceDiggers. Lacoste started his academic career at Boston College, however, ended up dropping out of school after his third semester [7]. While at Boston College, Lacoste launched Jebbit with classmates Tom Coburn and Chase McAleese [8] [9]. When Lacoste and Coburn raised venture capital in the summer of 2013 for Jebbit, it made him one of the youngest Internet entrepreneurs to raise venture capital at the age of 19 [10].

Jebbit

Lacoste's co-founder, Tom Coburn, received the initial inspiration for Jebbit in an airport as he observed a Hulu TV show on his laptop and realized how infrequently he paid attention to online advertising [11]. Coburn began tinkering around with the idea on his own and eventually entered it into the Boston College Venture Competition under the working name, Additupp [12]. After tying for first place, Coburn teamed up with Lacoste, and together they renamed the company Jebbit and built out a team of Boston College students before ultimately leaving school early [13]. To date, Jebbit works with brands such as Dell, Reebok, New Balance, Volkswagen, Live Nation, Keurig, Harvard University and many more [14]. By mid-2013, Jebbit had raised more than $1.8 million of venture capital from firms such as Data Point Capital and Boston Seed Capital, as well as notable entrepreneurs including HubSpot Founder Dharmesh Shah and Acquia Founder Jay Batson [15]. Jebbit has company headquarters located in downtown Boston with company employees and advisors located in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Nashville. Jebbit was recognized by CNBC as one of the "Top 25 Most Promising Companies in the World" as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week in 2013 [16]. In addition, Jebbit has received industry awards at the Marketer's Choice Awards and by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council for innovation in the digital marketing and advertising industry [17] [18] [19].

Reception

In 2013, Mr. Lacoste became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to ever receive funding from a venture capital firm, at the age of 19 [20]. He has spoken at several popular conferences, including AOL's Startup Showdown, AdWeek North America, AdWeek Europe, the 4A's Transformation, the Digiday Agency Summit and the Blue Ocean Enterprise Challenge. In addition, Lacoste, Coburn and Jebbit have been profiled in such publications and shows as Forbes, CNBC, The Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal and many others. In honor of being the youngest entrepreneur named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in the 2015 edition, CNBC's Squawk Box invited Lacoste on the show to discuss Jebbit and the challenges of being a millennial entrepreneur.

Awards