Josh Knauer

My professional background

I've always been fascinated by how people can use emerging technology and information to make decisions for a better future. My career has taken me from deep in the Amazon rainforest to help an indigenous tribe use data to protect its land, to the board rooms of Fortune 100 companies, and startups, universities and non-profits in between. President Obama asked me to join the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to help think through and implement open data initiatives throughout the federal government.

I'm a serial tech entrepreneur. Two of the companies I founded, Green Marketplace and Rhiza, were acquired by publicly traded companies. Both ventures were bootstrapped and profitable from the start. I then raised over $12 million from investors to grow the companies while managing to ensure that they operated in a way that benefited people, planet and the financial bottom line.

Currently, I am a founder and General Partner at JumpScale, an adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an Executive-in-Residence at Columbia University Ventures/NYSERDA. I'm also now a photographer, with a focus on all things natural.

I have served on a wide range of local, national and international non-profit boards, including the Social Venture Network and WQED Multimedia. I enjoy mentoring emerging entrepreneurs at the intersection of technology and social innovation. I also have been a frequent speaker at events like SXSW, AdWeek, CES, the International Television Festival and many universities.