James Park (entrepreneur)

James Park (born 1976/1977) is an American technology entrepreneur. He co-founded Fitbit and has been its CEO and president since September 2007.[3] He was named in 2015 among Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40, an annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.[4] With a net worth of $660 million estimated by Forbes, he was ranked #29 in the magazine's America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2015.[2] James Park announced that Fitbit became part of Google on January 14, 2021.

James Park
Born1976/1977 (age 43–44)[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard College (drop out)
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder and CEO, Fitbit
Net worthUS$660 million (November 2015)[2]

Early life

Park is of Korean descent.[5] He attended high school at the all-boys University School in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents owned a wig shop in downtown Cleveland.[6]

He studied computer science as an undergraduate at Harvard College but dropped out his junior year to pursue his own business.[6]

Career

Out of college, he co-founded an e-commerce site that managed to raise a few million dollars. The company folded during the dot com crash.[6]

Park co-founded Fitbit with Eric Friedman on March 26, 2007 after according to a Forbes profile "realizing the potential of sensors on the Wii remote such as accelerometers paired with smaller and smaller devices."[7] The co-founders started with an initial investment of $400,000 contributed by them and others but realized one year after starting that more funds would be needed for a product launch. They were able to get additional funding from SoftTech VC and True Ventures. Park found the initial stages of developing the product to be tough, especially in finding a hardware manufacturer. He recalled the search for the right supplier and organizing the production line in Asia left the company "pretty close to being dead."[8]

References
  1. "Fitbit co-founder sprints to success after start-up setbacks". Irish Times. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  2. "#29 James Park". Forbes. November 18, 2015.
  3. "James Park: Executive Profile & Biography". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  4. "40 Under 40". Fortune.
  5. Moon, Gwang-Lip (January 23, 2014). "Fitbit's launch in Korea a big step for company". Korea JoongAng Daily.
  6. Guy Raz (April 27, 2020). "Fitbit: James Park". How I Built This with Guy Raz (Podcast). NPR. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  7. "Fitbit, Inc. - IR Overview - Investor FAQ". investor.fitbit.com. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
  8. Hof, Robert (February 4, 2014). "How Fitbit Survived As A Hardware Startup". Forbes.
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