Nationality American Name Michael Jones Education University of Oregon | Occupation Internet entrepreneur Role Internet entrepreneur Organizations founded Userplane | |
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Michael Jones (born August 13, 1975) is an American entrepreneur and investor. Jones has founded, advised and invested in numerous businesses, including Userplane, Tsavo Media, MoVoxx, People Media, Brizzly, and Myspace. Jones is currently the CEO of startup studio Science Inc.
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Education
Jones attended Lake Oswego High School and has a bachelor of arts in international business and marketing from the University of Oregon where he was named Student Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997.
Early career
In 2001, Jones founded Userplane, a Los Angeles-based company that provides instant messaging and other applications for companies such as Myspace and Honda. In 2006, Userplane was acquired by AOL. In 2005, Jones began angel investing, primarily focused in the Los Angeles area. He has personally invested in more than 30 startups. In 2008, Jones launched Tsavo Media, an online media network company which was later sold to Cybernex for $75 million.
Myspace
In 2010, Jones was hired as the CEO of Myspace where he was tasked with the company’s relaunch, one of the more high-profile turn-around challenges in the industry. This included stabilizing a historically negative traffic and user trend, reducing the operational cost of the business by nearly 90 percent, and pivoting the product from its legacy as a social network to a social entertainment destination, then selling the business on News Corp’s behalf to SpecificMedia. Jones left Myspace in the summer of 2011.
Science Inc.
In 2011, Jones launched technology startup studio Science Inc. Science initially received $10 million in backing from a number of well-known investors, including Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures, among others. In its early stages, Science Inc. built various tech startups internally and offered support services to early-stage startups. Jones spent much of his time working with the companies’ CEOs and investors on strategy, growth and business development. In 2011, Dollar Shave Club launched with investments from Science Inc. Science was Dollar Shave Club’s first investor, before the startup raised a $1 million seed round in March 2012. Other startups that have come from Science include DogVacay, Hello Society, HomeHero, FameBit, Delicious, Playhaven, and Quarterly.