Josh Knauer

General Partner & Founder

Josh has been a social entrepreneur, technologist and speaker/lecturer for the past 25 years, creating and leading successful organizations in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. His ability to spot emerging trends in technology and how they can be used for the betterment of society and the environment have caused him to be considered a leading expert in the field. Josh has raised over $12 million from investors and has successfully sold two of his startups to public companies.

In addition to helping to found and run JumpScale, Josh is a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an Executive in Residence and Advisor at Columbia University Technology Ventures/NYSERDA.

Josh was appointed by President Obama to his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He’s been featured in Time, Fortune, Newsweek and Wired magazines, and was even named a New Media Hero by the Utne Reader and one of the Smart 50 by Smart Business Magazine. Josh has been the keynote speaker at conferences, corporate board meetings and community events around the world including CES, SXSW, Adweek and the International Television Festival, to name a few.

After selling his company Rhiza to Nielsen in 2017, Josh served as Nielsen's Senior Vice President of Product and Strategy. He led Nielsen's efforts to deliver Nielsen data and insights via the Rhiza platform to brands and advertisers. The Rhiza platform helps unify all of the data brands need into one easy-to-use interface so they can quickly and easily find the answers to their most pressing business questions. By incorporating cutting edge technologies like artificial intelligence, voice-based queries and best-in-class data visualization, Rhiza is helping to make data truly useful to everyone in the enterprise.

Prior to Rhiza, Josh led MAYA Design's Information Commons project. Before that, he was the founder and CEO of Green Marketplace, a clearing-house for socially and environmentally responsible products, services and information, which he sold to Gaiam in 2002. In 1991, Josh founded and served as Executive Director of the EnviroLink Network, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping organizations adopt emerging technologies, and was one of the first .orgs on the Internet.

Involvement in the community is very important to Josh. He enjoys speaking with students about being an entrepreneur and has mentored many up-and-coming entrepreneurs who are creating socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

Josh lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, children, dogs and chickens. When not starting up a new business, he can be found in his garden tending organic and heirloom vegetables or out hiking in the woods.