Trip Adler

Background and early career

Adler grew up in Palo Alto, California. He graduated from Harvard University with a biophysics degree. His father, John R. Adler, is a neurosurgeon at Stanford University and also an entrepreneur.

After graduating from Harvard, Adler contemplated starting various online ventures, including a ride-sharing service, a Craigslist-type site for colleges, a call center called 1-800-ASKTRIP, and a social media site called "Rate your happiness."

Scribd

Adler received inspiration for Scribd from a conversation with his father, who had difficulty publishing an academic paper in a medical journal. Adler then built Scribd with Jared Friedman, a fellow Harvard student, and they attended Y Combinator in the summer of 2006. Scribd was launched from a San Francisco apartment in March 2007. In 2008, it ranked as one of the top 20 social media sites according to Comscore. In June 2009, Scribd launched Scribd Store, and shortly thereafter closed a deal with Simon & Schuster to sell ebooks on Scribd. In 2012, the company became profitable.

In October 2013, Scribd launched a subscription ebook service, and signed a deal with HarperCollins to make their backlist books available on Scribd. Scribd was once known for unlimited audiobooks and downloadable books. However, in late 2015 and early 2016 the subscription was dramatically downgraded to a reduced subscription service.

Scribd has over 300,000 titles from 1,000 publishers in its book subscription service. In August 2017, the company announced a partnership with Zinio, which calls itself the world’s largest digital magazine producer and distributor, to add 30 new magazine titles to the Scribd portfolio.

Personal life

As a member of the Harvard Surfing team, Adler Participated in the first Ivy League Surf Championships in May 2003. He also plays the saxophone. In 2007, Adler earned the company’s first $17 in revenue by playing the saxophone outside Scribd’s office at Christmas time.

Awards and recognition