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Jeremy Stoppelman
Stoppelman in 2013
Born (1977-11-10) November 10, 1977 (age 46)[1]
Arlington, Virginia, US
Alma materUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (BS)
Harvard University
OccupationCEO of Yelp
Websiteyelp.com/management

Jeremy Stoppelman (born November 10, 1977) is an American business executive. He is the CEO of Yelp, which he co-founded in 2004. Stoppelman obtained a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1999. After briefly working for @Home Network, he worked at X.com and later became the VP of Engineering after the company was renamed PayPal. Stoppelman left PayPal to attend Harvard Business School. During a summer internship at MRL Ventures, he and others came up with the idea for Yelp Inc. He turned down an acquisition offer by Google and took the company public in 2012.

Early life

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Stoppelman was born in Arlington, Virginia, in 1977.[2][3] His mother, Lynn, was an English teacher, and his father, John, was a securities lawyer.[4] Stoppelman is Jewish.[5] He attended Langley High School and a Reform temple as a child and had a bar mitzvah.[6] As a child Stoppelman had an interest in computers and business[7][8] and began investing in stocks at the age of 14.[4][7] Stoppelman aspired to be a video game developer and took computer programming classes, where he learned the Turbo Pascal software programming system.[4][8] He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and obtained a bachelor's degree in computer engineering in 1999.[9] After graduating he took a job with @Home Network.[3]

Career

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After four months of working for @Home Network, Stoppelman accepted a position as an engineer at X.com,[4] which later became PayPal. It was here that Stoppelman met businessman Max Levchin, who later became an investor in Stoppelman's company, Yelp Inc.[4][10] Stoppelman became the V.P. of engineering at PayPal,[11] and is one of a group of PayPal's early employees sometimes referred to as the PayPal Mafia.[11][12][13]

Stoppelman left PayPal after its 2003 acquisition by eBay and attended Harvard Business School for one year.[7][14][15][16] During Stoppelman's school break[4] Levchin persuaded Stoppelman to do an internship at the business incubator, MRL ventures.[9][17][18]

Yelp

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In the summer of 2004, Jeremy Stoppelman got the flu[19] and had a hard time finding recommendations for a local doctor. He and former PayPal colleague, Russel Simmons, who was also working at MRL Ventures,[11] began brainstorming on how to create an online community where users could share recommendations for local services.[7][18] Stoppelman and Simmons pitched the idea to Levchin who provided $1 million in initial funding.[18][20][21] Under Stoppelman's leadership, Yelp grew to a market capitalization of $4 billion and hosted 138 million user reviews.[7][18]

Steve Jobs called Stoppelman in January 2010 in an effort to persuade him to turn down an acquisition offer by Google[4][12][22] and in March 2012[23] Stoppelman rang the bell for the New York Stock Exchange after Yelp went public.[4] According to Stoppelman, the biggest challenge at Yelp has been "the same problem Google faces in its rankings." Business owners have been suing reviewers that leave negative reviews and raising allegations that Yelp tampers with reviews to favor companies that advertise, leading to legal troubles for the company.[4][12] In February 2013, Stoppelman accepted a salary of $1, though he continues to earn income from the investment of his 11 percent interest in the company.[24][25][26]

Stoppelman has a hands-on management style and sits at a desk among his employees.[27] In 2016, an open letter on Medium to Stoppelman by a San Francisco employee of Yelp subsidiary Eat24, Talia Jane, went viral, describing how she and her coworkers struggled on their wages to afford groceries or winter heating in the Bay Area. She was immediately fired,[28][29] though Stoppelman said this was not due to the letter.[30] Yelp increased wages and benefits for low-level employees two months later.[31]

In June 2022, following the COVID-19 pandemic, Stoppleman praised fully remote work, eliminating mandatory time in the office, and announced plans to close 450,000 square feet of office space in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.[32]

Personal

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Stoppelman is a "voracious" non-fiction reader,[7][10] and his brother Michael previously worked at Yelp as Senior Vice President of Engineering.[4] As of 2012, Stoppelman had written over one-thousand Yelp reviews.[7][10] As of 2011, his net worth was estimated to be $111 million to $222 million.[26]

Political activism

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Stoppelman advocates for fewer zoning restrictions in order to allow denser housing in the Bay Area as a way of mitigating the California housing shortage.[33] For example, he supports the YIMBY (yes in my backyard) movement.[33][34] He was also a prominent supporter of a bill that would allow denser housing near public transit routes.[35] He lobbied other tech executives to join him in encouraging local governments to build more housing near universities.[35] He also speaks about affordable housing at public events and donates to related causes.[34][36]

Stoppelman advocates for more aggressive enforcement of antitrust regulations against Google and other technology companies. He accuses Google of having a monopoly in digital maps, online search engines, and reviews.[37][38][39] He is also one of the few male CEOs of a public company[40] to be a public advocate for reproductive rights.[41]

References

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  1. ^ "Dior Home Party". SFGate. 9 November 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  2. ^ Internet Innovators. Salem Press. February 2013. pp. 354–355.
  3. ^ a b "Q&A: Yelp CEO prizes company's independence". San Jose Mercury News. June 22, 2010. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guthrie, Julian (July 16, 2012). "Yelp's Jeremy Stoppelman: a profile". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  5. ^ Kamp, David (2014-09-23). "How Yelp C.E.O. Jeremy Stoppelman Created a Revolutionary Product". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  6. ^ Kamp, David. "What You Should Know About Jeremy Stoppelman: A panoply of eccentric biographical data re: the ur-yelper". Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g McNichol, Tom (Fall 2012). "Word on the Street" (PDF). NYSE Magazine. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 21, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  8. ^ a b Balcita, Angela (January–February 2008). "The Startup Boys: A Conversation with Yelp.com founders Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman" (PDF). Imagine. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  9. ^ a b Maiellaro, Bridget (March 29, 2007), Like YouTube, PayPal, Yelp Has Illinois Root, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, retrieved August 5, 2013
  10. ^ a b c Chafkin, Max (November 26, 2012). "Not just another Web 2.0 company, Yelp basks in its star power". Fast Company. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  11. ^ a b c Jarvis, Rebecca (December 4, 2012). "Yelp co-founder: "Be ready to bleed for your cause"". CBS News. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  12. ^ a b c "42: Jeremy Stoppelman". Vanity Fair. 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  13. ^ Nisen, Max (November 27, 2012). "Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman On What Created The 'PayPal Mafia' Of Successful Entrepreneurs". Business Insider. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  14. ^ "For Yelp, Locals Aren't Yokels". Newsweek. October 21, 2009. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  15. ^ Wei, William (December 10, 2012). "How Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman Became a Ridiculously Successful Tech Entrepreneur Worth Millions". Business Insider. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  16. ^ Sarah Lacy (2008). Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0. Gotham. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-59240-382-0.
  17. ^ Caulfield, Brian (December 8, 2009). "The Not-So-Evil Genius of Jeremy Stoppelman". Forbes. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  18. ^ a b c d Loten, Angus (November 14, 2012). "Search for Doctor Leads to Yelp". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  19. ^ Richmond, Riva (September 10, 2012). "Yelp Co-Founder Jeremy Stoppelman on Innovating and Staying Relevant". Entrepreneur. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  20. ^ Rubin, Courtney (November 30, 2011). "Yelp Goes Live in Australia as It Prepares for IPO". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  21. ^ O'Brien, Jeffrey M. (July 10, 2007). "Business paradigm shifts and free tequila shots". Fortune. Retrieved August 20, 2008.
  22. ^ Fiegerman, Seth (July 16, 2012). "Steve Jobs Called up Yelp and Said Don't Sell out to Google". Business Insider. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  23. ^ Lucchesi, Paolo (March 2, 2012). "Eye-Openers: Yelp goes public, Toronado gets sassy". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  24. ^ Grove, Jennifer (February 8, 2013). "Yelp CEO takes $1 salary". CNET. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  25. ^ Brown, Steven (February 8, 2013). "Yelp Inc. CEO Stoppelman's 2013 salary is $1". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  26. ^ a b Lynley, Matt (November 17, 2011). "You Won't Believe How Much Yelp's Top Shareholders are Worth Now". Business Insider. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  27. ^ Guthrie, Julian (15 July 2012). "Yelp's Jeremy Stoppelman: a profile". SFGate. SFGate. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  28. ^ Mack, David (20 February 2016). "This Woman's Post On Poverty Went Viral And She Lost Her Job". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  29. ^ Bever, Lindsey (23 February 2016). "The Yelp employee who wasn't making enough money to eat". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  30. ^ "Yelp v Talia Jane: Entitled Millennial or starving ex-employee?". BBC News. 23 February 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  31. ^ Truong, Alice (28 April 2016). "Yelp increases wages after firing an employee who was critical about her low pay". Quartz. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  32. ^ Sisson, Patrick (2022-07-19). "Yelp's Decision on Return to Office Reverberating". Commercial Observer. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  33. ^ a b Green, Alisha (April 19, 2018). "Yelp CEO: Company boards are asking about hiring outside of the Bay Area because housing costs are too high locally". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved October 6, 2021. Stoppelman has been an outspoken YIMBY for years, opining on the housing crisis on his Twitter feed and pushing for less restrictive development policies in the Bay Area and across the state.
  34. ^ a b Dougherty, Conor (2020). Golden gates : fighting for housing in America (in Dutch). New York: Penguin Press. pp. 26, 219. ISBN 978-0-525-56021-0. OCLC 1119743965.
  35. ^ a b Pender, Kathleen (April 19, 2018). "Yelp CEO calls on Google, Facebook to help housing crisis". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 6, 2021. one of its biggest supporters — Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman
  36. ^ Li, Roland (March 30, 2015). "Pro-density renters group grows, snags tech giant CEO gift". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  37. ^ Honan, Mat (November 5, 2019). "Jeremy Stoppelman's Long Battle With Google Is Finally Paying Off". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  38. ^ Dougherty, Conor (June 1, 2017). "Inside Yelp's Six-Year Grudge Against Google". The New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  39. ^ Marino, Andrew (August 25, 2020). "Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman welcomes you to Team Antitrust". The Verge. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  40. ^ Hinchliffe, Emma (June 6, 2022). "Remote work made figuring out its abortion policies even more critical for Yelp". Fortune. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  41. ^ Glazer, Emily (June 24, 2022). "Yelp Chief Urges Business Leaders to Speak Out on Decision". The Wall Street Journal.
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