Gary Kremen
Template:Short description Gary Kremen (born 20 September 1963<ref name=kieren />) is an American engineer, entrepreneur and politician who founded the personals site Match.com, was the first registrant of Sex.com and founder of Clean Power Finance, and was a board member of the Santa Clara Valley Water District from 2014 through 2022. Since 1993, Kremen has been a private and angel investor in over 100 companies (individually or through venture capital funds), of which several have gone public or had liquidity events.
Early life
Born in Chicago and raised in a Jewish household<ref>From Sex.com to Clean and Green, Forward</ref> in nearby Lincolnwood, Illinois, Kremen graduated from Niles West High School in 1981. He then graduated with bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Northwestern University in 1985 and an MBA from Stanford University in 1989.<ref>Showley, Roger M. Web site founder adjusts to life in Rancho Santa Fe Template:Webarchive. SignOnSanDiego.com, 2004-05-24. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref><ref name="sec">Brightcube Inc, 10SB12G, On 7/13/99 SECInfo.com, 1999-07-13. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref>
Business career
Kremen launched the software firm Los Altos Technology and headed the company until late 1992.<ref name="angwin">Angwin, Julia. "Love's labor lost: Online matchmaker still seeks love, money." San Francisco Chronicle, via sfgate.com, 1998-02-12. Retrieved on 2007-08-13.</ref>
In 1993, Kremen founded Match.com. Funded by private investors in November 1994, he launched the online personals service Match.com in April 1995.<ref name="angwin" /> After troubles with venture capitalists over his insistence that the company serve profitable alternative market segments including the LGBT market, he left Match.com in March 1996, remaining on the board. Over Kremen's objections, Match.com was sold to Cendant Corporation for $7 million in 1998<ref name="angwin" /> and sold by Cendant to Ticketmaster a year and a half later for $50 million.<ref>O'Brien, Chris. "The Prisoner of Sex.com." Wired, via wired.com, August 2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-13.</ref>
From 1995 to 1996, Kremen co-founded and served as president of NetAngels.com, Inc., an Internet profiling and personalization company<ref name="sec" /> that suggested web sites to users. It merged with Firefly Networks, and then was sold to Microsoft.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1999, Kremen was listed as an equity-holding officer or director of Brightcube, Inc.<ref name="sec" /> The same year, he sold Computer.com for $500,000.<ref name=kieren>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kremen is credited as a primary inventor on a 1995-filed patent for dynamic web pages, US patent number 5,706,434,<ref>United States Patent 5706434 United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1998-01-06. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref> which he later sold for over $1,000,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, Kremen holds two other patents in financial-related systems management: US patent number 7,698,219<ref>United States Patent number 7,698,219 Issued April 13, 2010: Methods, systems and agreements for increasing the likelihood of repayments under a financing agreement for renewable energy equipment.</ref> and US patent number 7,890,436.<ref>United States Patent number 7,890,436 Issued February 15, 2011: Billing and payment methods and systems enabling consumer premises equipment</ref> and a patent for verifying employment online: United States Patent number 8,533,110.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
A 2007 New York Times article on "millionaires who don't feel rich" reported that Kremen estimated his net worth at $10 million.<ref>Rivlin, Gary (2007-08-05). "In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don't Feel Rich". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref>
Kremen is the founder of residential solar financing start-up Clean Power Finance, Inc., which raised $6.9 million from investors in January 2010,<ref>[1] Greentech Media, Retrieved on 2009-01-05</ref> $25 million from Kleiner Perkins, $75 million from Google<ref>[2] Google invests $75M into Clean Power Finance solar fund</ref> in September 2011,<ref>[3] Google Invests $75 Million in Home Solar Venture</ref> and $62 million from other investors.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
He was also founder and chairman of Sociogramics, a financial services company that focuses on bringing credit to the underbanked, having raised seed capital from Tugboat Ventures, Harmony Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, Greylock Partners, Claremont Creek Ventures, and QED Investors.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Kremen is the founding investor and a board member of CrowdFlower,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> WaterSmart Software<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and CapGain Solutions <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as well as involved with local non-profit organizations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is also a co-founder of Menlo Incubator, which is an early-stage startup program that focuses heavily on mentorship<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Cross Coin Ventures. On February 24, 2014, Identiv appointed him a member of the Board of Directors.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
Kremen is a University of California, Merced foundation board member.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is also a board member of the nonprofit Saline Preservation Association.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Political career
Kremen was an elected board member and president of the local Purissima Hills Water District<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> from 2010-2014. Kremen's romantic partner Essy Stone now serves on that board.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kremen was appointed to the Proposition 39 Citizens Oversight Board by California State Controller John Chiang in January 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kremen was elected to the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors in the 2014 election, after spending $479,000 on the election for a job that paid $53,626.74, described as "stunning...for a water board election".<ref name=sjspotlight1 /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On January 13, 2015, the Board elected him as the 2015 Board Chair. He was re-elected in 2018 after spending only about $10,000 on his campaign.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, he cast a key vote in a 4-3 decision to put a "deliberately misleading" initiative on the ballot, which claimed to be imposing term limits on the Water Board, but which actually lengthened the existing (and unmentioned) term limits. The vote cost the water board's taxpayers $3.2 million dollars, and barely passed with 50.56% of the public vote. This initiative extended Kremen's own term as well as the terms of board members who had been there for 26 and 22 years, with salaries and benefits up to $79,000 per year for the part-time job.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kremen was at some point appointed by the Water Board to The Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Joint Powers Authority.Template:Citation needed
He ran for the political job of Santa Clara County Assessor in 2021 and 2022, seeking to unseat 27-year incumbent Larry Stone. After contributing $170,000 of his own money, and raising another $71,000 from others, he dropped his campaign in February 2022 after getting into conflict with a campaign staffer, who resigned and took her complaints public.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He asked a staffer to sift through a large photo dump, looking for photos useful to the campaign, but the staffer stopped and was outraged when she saw pictures which included Kremen's breastfeeding romantic partner with one breast visible. The partner, Essy Stone, reportedly said, "He was just being careless, there’s nothing malicious about it."<ref name=sjspotlight1>Template:Cite news</ref> But there were other accusations, including bullying, campaigning as a nonprofit, and a threat to harm a Democratic club that planned a Middle East resolution that Kremen opposed. Multiple local politicians rapidly and publicly called on Kremen to step down, leading to him ending the campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In addition, the resulting attention revealed 11 internal complaints from Water Board employees, causing Kremen to step down as Water Board Chair, while retaining his board seat.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An internal investigation followed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Sex.com legal case
Template:Main Kremen first registered the domain name sex.com in 1994<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as well as jobs.com, housing.com, and autos.com. In 1995, Stephen M. Cohen contacted Network Solutions and fraudulently had the domain transferred to his name. Kremen sued Cohen for the return of the sex.com domain name. As Cohen had profited from sex.com while assigned to him, Kremen was awarded a judgment of $65 million against Cohen. Cohen fled to Mexico and moved the money offshore. Kremen obtained Cohen's Rancho Santa Fe mansion, to which he relocated after the court case resolved. In 2003, Kremen successfully litigated against Network Solutions.<ref>Kozinski, Alex. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 01-15899 D.C. No. CV-98-20718-JW Opinion Findlaw, 2003-07-25. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On October 28, 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported Cohen had been arrested in Mexico and turned over to US authorities.<ref>McCarthy, Kieren. Sex.com thief arrested The Register, 2005-10-28. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref> Kremen sold sex.com in 2006 to Boston-based Escom LLC for $15 million in cash and stock, and sold sex.net for $454,500 later that year.<ref>Sex.com Sold for $12M Foxnews.com, 2006-01-24. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref><ref>Jackson, Ron. Be Careful what You Wish For: The Continuing Saga of Gary Kremen and Sex.com DNJournal.com, March, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref><ref>Jackson, Ron. Diamond.com Shines Bright After Selling for $7.5 Million in One of the Biggest Domain Deals Ever Reported DNJournal.com, 2006-05-23. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.</ref>
References
Additional reading
- David Kushner, The Players Ball. NY:Simon& Schuster, 2019 Template:ISBN (an account of the conflict between Gary Kremen and Stephen Michael Cohen for control of the internet domain sex.com).