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United States Bryan Johnson is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist known for founding Braintree, OS Fund, and Kernel, significantly impacting payment systems and neurotechnology.
Johnson was the founder, chairman, and CEO of Braintree, a company specializing in mobile and web payment systems for e-commerce companies. Braintree acquired Venmo in 2012 and was later acquired by PayPal for $800 million in 2013.
Braintree, under Bryan Johnson's leadership, acquired Venmo in 2012 for $26.2 million. Venmo is an app that allows users to send and receive money from each other electronically.
PayPal acquired Braintree, which included Venmo, for $800 million in 2013. This acquisition significantly contributed to Bryan Johnson's wealth.
Johnson founded OS Fund in October 2014, backing it with $100 million of his personal capital. This venture capital firm invests in early-stage science and technology companies, with a focus on tackling humanity's pressing problems and fostering innovations beyond current lifetimes.
Johnson founded Kernel in 2016, investing $100 million of his own money to launch the company. Kernel develops hardware that measures electrical and hemodynamic signals produced by the brain, aiming for applications in Alzheimer's disease, aging, concussions, meditation states, and strokes. By July 2020, Kernel had raised an additional $53 million from outside investors.
Johnson launched Blueprint in 2021 with the aim to measure (and reverse) the aging process of 70 of his own organs and share his learnings with the world. He recently claimed to have reversed his epigenetic age by 5.1 years. Blueprint focuses on health interventions based upon clinical trials, and has been described as 'the most nutritious food program in history' and developing an algorithm for personal care.
Bryan Johnson was born on August 22, 1977, in Provo, Utah, and raised in Springville. After his parents divorced, he lived with his mother and stepfather. At 19, Johnson became a Latter-day Saint missionary, spending two years in Ecuador. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Brigham Young University in 2003 and earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2007. Prior to his major successes, Johnson launched several startups between 1999 and 2003, including a cell phone sales venture that helped fund his education and Inquist, a VoIP company that ceased operations in 2001.
Johnson’s career saw a significant turning point with the founding of Braintree in 2007, a company specializing in mobile and web payment systems. Under his leadership as founder, chairman, and CEO, Braintree quickly gained recognition, appearing on Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in 2011 (47th) and 2012 (415th). In 2012, Braintree acquired Venmo for $26.2 million. The combined entity was subsequently acquired by PayPal for $800 million in 2013, with Johnson reportedly walking away with over $300 million from the sale. Following this success, Johnson continued his entrepreneurial endeavors, establishing OS Fund in 2014 with $100 million of his personal capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage science and technology companies. He later founded Kernel in 2016, investing another $100 million to develop devices that monitor and record brain activity, aiming to address conditions such as Alzheimer’s, aging, and strokes.
More recently, Johnson has gained media attention for his ambitious “Project Blueprint,” launched in 2021, an intensive anti-aging attempt involving a strict dietary and lifestyle regimen. He has documented his interventions, including plasma transfusions, to reverse his biological age. While some of his methods have been met with skepticism from experts, Johnson continues to push the boundaries of life extension research. His work has been featured in documentaries like ‘I Am Human’ (2020) and the upcoming Netflix documentary ‘Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever’ (2025). In 2016, he received the University of Chicago Booth’s Distinguished Alumni Award, acknowledging his significant contributions to the business and technology sectors.
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