| University of Colorado, B.S. | |
| Business |
Jon is an investor in UsingMiles.com, a TechStars.org company, and became CEO in January 2011. UsingMiles is an innovative start-up focused on combining travel meta-search with loyalty program aggregation. UsingMiles has secured $2.7 million in Series A funding from iSherpa Capital.
Jon was also co-founder of eBags.com and CEO from 1998 through mid-2008. eBags became profitable during the dot-bomb and delivered a 34% compound annual growth rate between 2000 and mid-2008. Operating websites in the USA, Germany, Japan and the U.K., eBags was one of the first five retailers to solicit customer-generated product reviews (more than 1.4 million on eBags.com as of 2008) and one of the Web’s first all-encompassing drop-shippers utilizing about 400 warehouses, thus creating a business model built on top of a strong negative cash conversion rate like Dell Computer. eBags was funded by Technology Crossover Ventures, Amerindo, Benchmark Capital, Royal Bank of Canada, and Mitsubishi out of Japan.
Jon is a private company angel investor in companies like RedTricycle.com (San Francisco CA), Nuzzel.com (Palo Alto CA), BlogMutt.com (Denver CO), BazaarVoice (Austin TX), Clearhead (Austin TX), Swiftpage.com (Denver CO), RentalRoost.com (Salt Lake City UT), KoKoChe (Los Angeles CA). He serves in formal advisor roles with companies like uMix.tv (Russia), uGift.com.ua (Ukraine), Gagager, Beondesk, EgoBoom (Denver).
Boards (including advsory) include HappyFarm.com.ua, eBags, UsingMiles, Colorado Technology Association, COIN.
Jon graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Colorado.
| Company | Date | Round | Size | Participants |
| Red Tricycle | 11/12 | Series A | $1.5M | 8 |
| Rentalroost.com | 11/12 | Seed | $250k | 3 |
ForresterResearch view of eBags early version of ratings and testimonials, as written in Groundswell (authors: Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff)
Added: 8/5/11
