David Karp Net Worth

What is David Karp's Net Worth?

David Karp is a tech entrepreneur and businessman who has a net worth of $200 million. David Karp earned his fortune as the co-founder of the microblogging website Tumblr. The site was acquired by Yahoo! in 2013 for $1.1 billion. At the time of the sale, David was 26 years old. In 2017 Karp stepped down as CEO. Among his other activities, he served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood.

Early Life and Education

David Karp was born on July 6, 1986 in New York City to science teacher Barbara and film and television composer Michael. He has a younger brother named Kevin. Raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Karp attended the Calhoun School from preschool through the eighth grade. He subsequently attended the Bronx High School of Science, but dropped out after a year and began homeschooling. Ultimately, Karp never earned a high school diploma.

Career Beginnings

Through family connections, Karp landed an internship with Fred Seibert at his animation production company Frederator Studios in 2000. Using his prior, self-taught experience with HTML and designing websites, he built the company's first blogging platform and created its first Internet video network, Channel Frederator. Karp went on to work for the online parenting forum UrbanBaby, where he became the head of product and even earned a small amount of equity. He left the site after it was sold to CNET in 2006.

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Tumblr

Using money from the sale of the equity he earned from UrbanBaby, Karp launched his own software consultancy company, Davidville. Marco Arment soon joined as an engineer. During a two-week gap between their respective contracts in 2006, the pair started working on the microblogging platform that would become Tumblr. The site launched in early 2007, and within two weeks had amassed 75,000 users. Arment left the company in 2010. Tumblr quickly became popular with teenagers and young adults, particularly those with progressive views and often ones from socially marginalized groups.

Near the peak of its popularity, in 2013, Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo! for $1.1 billion. Although this caused an uproar with many Tumblr users, who put together a petition to stop the sale, the deal went through. Karp stayed on as CEO of Tumblr. Over the subsequent years, Tumblr was unable to meet its advertising sales goals and Yahoo! was forced to write down $712 million of its value in 2016. At the end of 2017, after Verizon acquired Yahoo!, Karp stepped down as CEO. Tumblr continued to struggle after that, and in 2019 it was sold to WordPress.com operator Automattic.

Other Activities

Among his other activities, Karp has made personal investments in various companies, including Splash, Sherpaa, and Superpedestrian. In 2014, he joined the board of directors of Planned Parenthood, and in 2017 he entered Tumblr into a partnership with the organization to encourage the tech industry to support Planned Parenthood.

Karp has also been involved in political activism. In 2016, he endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, and in 2020 he donated $11,200 to Mark Kelly's US Senate special election campaign. Karp was the largest individual donor to the latter.

Personal Life

Karp previously dated Rachel Eakley from 2009 to 2014.

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