Jon Kraft
{{short description|American business executive}}
{{notability|1=Biographies|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jon Kraft
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| nationality = American
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| alma_mater = Stanford University (1988)
| occupation = Business executive
| years_active = 1989-present
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Jon Kraft is an American business executive best known as a co-founder of Pandora Media, Inc. and its former CEO.{{cite web |title=Origin Story: The Founding of Pandora Radio |url=https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/origin-story-the-founding-of-pandora-radio/ |access-date=November 29, 2016 |website=startupgrind.com}}{{cite news |last=Frier |first=Sarah |date=March 6, 2015 |title=Etsy's Founder, Written Out of History, Is Not Alone |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-06/etsy-s-founder-written-out-of-history-is-not-alone |access-date=November 30, 2016 |work=Bloomberg}} He also co-founded Thrively, LiftOff, Big Stage Entertainment and Stanford Technology Group. Additionally, he has previously worked for a number of technology companies including, Oracle Corporation, CoreObjects Software, Ubermedia, and Auryn, Inc.{{cite news|last1=Lindner|first1=Melanie|title=America's 20 Most Promising Young Companies|url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/09/16/americas-promising-companies-entrepreneurs-promising_slide_4.html|access-date=November 29, 2016|work=Forbes|date=September 16, 2009}} He currently serves as the Chairman of Thrively, managing partner of LiftOff LLC and the Chief Executive Officer of MuMo, Inc.
Early life and education
Kraft was born in Brooklyn and raised in Plainview, New York. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University.{{rp|21}}{{cite book|title=The Silicon Valley Startup Dream|url=https://betafactory.com/the-silicon-valley-startup-dream-dc86c3f4ca4?gi=3e2ea2d8753e|isbn=9781400841936|access-date=November 30, 2016|last1 = Wasserman|first1 = Noam|date = 25 March 2012| publisher=Princeton University Press }} From 1989 to 1992, he worked for Oracle Corporation as a Senior Technical Analyst.
Career
= Stanford Technology Group =
In 1993, Kraft started his first company, Stanford Technology Group, which developed analytical software and consulted to Fortune 500 companies on the design and implementation of large database management systems. He served as its Vice President until it was acquired by Informix Corporation in 1995. At Informix, Kraft served as the Director of Business Development and Product Marketing for two years.{{cite web|title=Jon Kraft - Executive Profile|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=6906026&privcapId=34214973|publisher=Bloomberg|access-date=November 30, 2016}}
= Pandora Media =
{{Main|Pandora Radio}}
In 1999 Jon Kraft along with Will Glaser and Tim Westergren founded Pandora Media as Savage Beast Technologies in Oakland, California with the idea of The Music Genome Project, a mathematical algorithm to organize music.{{cite news |last=Harrison |first=J.D. |date=February 6, 2015 |title=When we were small: Pandora |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/when-we-were-small-pandora/2015/02/06/11ad75f4-ad5c-11e4-9c91-e9d2f9fde644_story.html |access-date=November 29, 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} He served as its founding Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2002. He, along with the other developers, patented the Music Genome Project: software that uses a mathematical algorithm that attempts to predict a person's musical taste based on a small musical sampling,{{cite news|title=Silicon Beach@USC focuses on next-level technology|url=https://news.usc.edu/109736/silicon-beachusc-looks-into-the-future-of-business-innovation/|access-date=November 30, 2016|work=USC News|date=October 20, 2016}} and is covered by United States Patent No. 7,003,515.{{cite book|last1=Wasserman|first1=Noam|title=The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1400841936|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZjqTQzJW5wC|date=2012-03-25}}{{rp|96}}
= Big Stage Entertainment, Thrively and other works =
In 2002, Kraft joined at CoreObjects Software and served as the Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing until 2005. He co-founded Big Stage Entertainment along with Jonathan Strietzel and Jon Snoddy and served as its Chief Operating Officer from 2006 and 2010.{{cite web|title=Big Stage - Team|url=http://www.bigstage.biz/en/team|access-date=November 29, 2016}} The company was named by Forbes in 2009 as one of “America’s 20 Most Promising Companies.” {{cite news|title=In Depth: Meet America's 20 Most Promising Young Companies|url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/12/17/most-promising-companies-recap-entrepreneurs-finance-promising_slide_4.html|access-date=November 29, 2016|work=Forbes|date=December 17, 2009}} From 2010 to 2012, Kraft served as Chief Operating Officer of Ubermedia, an independent developer of social mobile applications and was a member of the founding team.{{cite web|title=Everything you need to know about Chime.in|url=http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chime-in/|access-date=November 30, 2016|date=19 October 2011}}
He previously served as a member of advisory board at Minerals Corporation Limited since April 2016.{{cite news|last1=Chang|first1=Olivia|title=One of the Pandora founders has joined the board of this ASX-listed company running a global talent quest|url=http://www.businessinsider.com.au/one-of-the-pandora-founders-has-joined-the-board-of-this-asx-listed-company-running-a-global-talent-quest-2016-4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160523221008/http://www.businessinsider.com.au/one-of-the-pandora-founders-has-joined-the-board-of-this-asx-listed-company-running-a-global-talent-quest-2016-4|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 23, 2016|access-date=November 29, 2016|work=Business Insider Australia|date=April 19, 2016}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Stanford University alumni
Category:Businesspeople in software
Category:American corporate directors
Category:American technology chief executives
Category:American technology company founders
Category:American information technology businesspeople