Jeremy Stoppelman

Graduating with a computer engineering degree from the University of Illinois and briefly working at X.com before it became PayPal, Jeremy Stoppelman rose rapidly through the ranks to become the VP of Engineering during the well-known 'PayPal Mafia' era. This intense, formative experience ingrained within him a belief in viral product loops and aggressive, iterative engineering. After departing PayPal, he attended Harvard Business School but dropped out after only one year to co-found Yelp in 2004 alongside his former colleague Russel Simmons. Serving as its independent CEO for over two decades, Stoppelman navigated early structural challenges, famously rejecting lucrative early buyout offers from Google. He skillfully led the company through its successful 2012 IPO, aggressive antitrust battles, and its lucrative pivot toward high-ticket home services advertising, firmly cementing his status as one of Silicon Valley's most resilient, longest-serving consumer internet CEOs.

Graduating with a computer engineering degree from the University of Illinois and briefly working at X.com before it became PayPal, Jeremy Stoppelman rose rapidly through the ranks to become the VP of Engineering during the well-known 'PayPal Mafia' era. This intense, formative experience ingrained within him a belief in viral product loops and aggressive, iterative engineering. After departing PayPal, he attended Harvard Business School but dropped out after only one year to co-found Yelp in 2004 alongside his former colleague Russel Simmons. Serving as its independent CEO for over two decades, Stoppelman navigated early structural challenges, famously rejecting lucrative early buyout offers from Google. He skillfully led the company through its successful 2012 IPO, aggressive antitrust battles, and its lucrative pivot toward high-ticket home services advertising, firmly cementing his status as one of Silicon Valley's most resilient, longest-serving consumer internet CEOs.