Bryan Johnson (entrepreneur)

Bryan Johnson (born August 22, 1977) is an American entrepreneur,[1][2] venture capitalist[3] and author.[4] He is the founder and CEO of Kernel, a company that has developed devices that can monitor and record brain activity,[5][6] and OS Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage science and technology companies.[7]

Bryan Johnson
Born (1977-08-22) August 22, 1977
Provo, Utah, US
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBrigham Young University (BA)
The University of Chicago (MBA)
Occupation
  • Entrepreneur
  • Business executive
Known for
WebsiteBryanJohnson.co

He was also founder, chairman and CEO of Braintree,[8] a company which specializes in mobile and web payment systems for ecommerce companies. Braintree acquired Venmo in 2012 for $26.2 million; the combined entity was acquired by eBay in 2013 for $800 million.[9][10]

Early life

Johnson was born in Provo, Utah,[11] and raised in Springville, Utah,[8] the middle child of three brothers and a sister. After his parents divorced, Johnson lived with his mother and his stepfather, the owner of a trucking company. At 19, Johnson became a Mormon missionary, customary for young men in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), spending two years in Ecuador.[2]

Johnson graduated with a BA in International Studies from Brigham Young University in 2003 and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2007.[11] [12]

Career

Early Ventures

Johnson launched three startups, whilst at university, between 1999 and 2003. The first, which sold cell phones, helped pay his way through Brigham Young University. In that business, Johnson hired other college students to sell service plans along with cell phones; Johnson earned about a $300 commission on each sale.[8][13]

Johnson also started two other businesses. Inquist, a VOIP company Johnson co-founded with three other partners, with combined features of Vonage and Skype. It ended operations in 2001.[2] After that, he joined his brother and another partner on a $70 million real estate project later in 2001. The project did not achieve sales goals.[2]

Braintree

Johnson founded Braintree in 2007.[14] The firm's rapid growth was spurred by clients in the technology industry including OpenTable, Uber, Shopify,[14] Airbnb,[15] and others. The company was 47th on Inc. magazine’s 2011 list of the 500 fastest-growing companies[16] and 415th in 2012.[17] That year, Braintree purchased Venmo, an app that allows users to send and receive money from each other electronically, for $26.2 million.[9]

By September 2013, the company announced it was processing $12 billion in payments annually, with $4 billion of that on mobile.[18] Shortly afterward, on Sept. 26, 2013, the company was acquired by PayPal, then part of eBay, for $800 million.[15][19][20]

OS Fund

In October 2014, at 37, Johnson announced the creation of OS Fund, which he backed with $100 million of his personal capital.[8] The venture capital fund invests in companies that use artificial intelligence and machine learning in fields including advanced materials, computationally derived therapeutics, diagnostics, genomics, nanotechnology, and synthetic biology.[21]

The fund has invested in companies including Ginkgo Bioworks,[22] NuMat Technologies[23] and Arzeda.[24]

Kernel

Johnson began exploring the use of neuroprosthetics in 2016, when he founded Kernel.[25] The company later shifted its focus to building hardware that measures electrical and hemodynamic signals produced by the brain. In 2020, Kernel demonstrated a pair of helmet-like devices that can see and record brain activity. The company has said the devices may be used to help paralyzed individuals communicate, or people with mental health challenges access new therapies.[6]

By July 2020, Kernel had raised $53 million from outside investors, following Johnson's investment of $54 million in the company since its inception.[26]

Awards and recognitions

Recipient of the University of Chicago Booth’s 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award.[27]

Bryan was featured in the 2020 documentary, I Am Human, about brain-machine interfaces.[28]

Published Works

Johnson has published two children's books: Code 7: Cracking the Code for an Epic Life (2017) and The Proto Project: A Sci-Fi Adventure of the Mind (2019).[4][29]

Code 7 has received Wishing Shelf Book, Royal Dragonfly Book, and Mom’s Choice awards. The Proto Project has received the Mom’s Choice and Purple Dragonfly Awards.

Johnson has also contributed one chapter to the book Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building it (2018) by the American futurist Martin Ford.[30]

Personal life

Johnson has three children.[11] Johnson was raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but left the Church when he was 34.[31] He is an experienced pilot and outdoor enthusiast: Johnson has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, as well as Toubkal, the highest peak of North Africa.[11]

See also

References
  1. Altucher, James (May 4, 2013). "How To Go From $0 To $1,000,000 In Two Years". TechCrunch.
  2. Kravitz, Seth. "How Bryan Johnson has Taken Braintree to Explosive Growth in Three Years". Technori.
  3. Mims, Christopher (October 20, 2014). "Humanity's Last Great Hope: Venture Capitalists". Wall Street Journal.
  4. Rosso, Cami (2020-05-07). "Kernel launches neuroscience as a service (NaaS)". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  5. "Elon Musk's latest target: Brain-computer interfaces". Statnews. Associated Press. 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  6. Vance, Ashlee (2020-05-20). "A neuroscience startup uses helmets to measure brain activity". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  7. "OS Fund LLC: Private Company Information". Bloomberg. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  8. Mangalindan, JP. "Crazy, insane start-ups are this tech investor's meat and potatoes". Fortune.
  9. Wortham, Jenna (August 16, 2012). "Braintree, a Payments Company, Buys Venmo for $26.2 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  10. Hardawar, Devindra. "Ebay buys payments startup Braintree for $800M, yet another win for PayPal". VentureBeat. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  11. "Bryan Johnson". Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  12. "Bryan Johnson". The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  13. Tim Ferriss (June 12, 2015). "The Rags to Riches Philosopher: Bryan Johnson's Path to $800 Million". fourhourworkweek.com (Podcast). Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  14. "Founder Stories at 1871: Braintree's Bryan Johnson". Doejo. July 12, 2012.
  15. Barr, Alistair (September 26, 2013). "PayPal agrees to acquire Braintree for $800 million". USA Today. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  16. "The 2011 Inc. 5000". Inc. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  17. "The 2012 Inc. 5000". Inc. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  18. Deamicis, Carmel (September 20, 2013). "Mobile payments are one-third of Braintree's business". Pando Daily. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  19. Chowdhry, Amit (September 26, 2013). "eBay Buys Braintree For $800 Million To Accelerate Its Mobile Payments Revenue". Forbes.
  20. Bomkamp, Samantha (September 26, 2013). "EBay buying Chicago-based Braintree". Chicago Tribune.
  21. "OS Fund". OS Fund. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  22. Limas, Marianna (2015-03-18). "Ginkgo Bioworks secures $9 million in a Series A financing". SynBioBeta. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  23. "NuMat Technologies closes $12.4M funding round". FinSMEs. 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  24. Cosgrove, Emma (2017-11-30). "Update: Arzeda closes Series A on $15.2m for plant-based computational protein production, led by OS Fund". AgFunderNews. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  25. Mannes, John (October 20, 2016). "Bryan Johnson invests $100 million in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  26. O'Brien, Chris (2020-07-09). "Kernel raises $53 million to bring neuroscience insights to businesses". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  27. "Bryan R. Johnson". www.chicagobooth.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  28. "I AM HUMAN | 2019 Tribeca Film Festival". Tribeca. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  29. "Bryan R. Johnson". Amazon. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  30. Falcon, William (November 30, 2018). "This Is The Future Of AI According To 23 World-Leading AI Experts". Forbes. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  31. Jason Calacanis (September 18, 2015). "Episode 579: Founder Bryan Johnson sold Braintree to build an extraordinary world with OS Fund and next-level synthetic biology, A.I., space tools, transportation, and more". This Week in Startups (Podcast). Retrieved October 8, 2015.
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