David Karp

David Karp was born on July 6, 1986, in New York City, growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He developed an interest in technology and programming early in his life, teaching himself HTML at the age of 11. At 15, he left the Bronx High School of Science and began homeschooling to pursue an internship with Frederator Studios, an animation company. Through connections at Frederator, he secured a Web development position for UrbanBaby, an online message board for parents. He primarily worked remotely and, at 17, moved to Japan briefly to engage with its technology sector. Following his return to New York, he became chief technology officer at UrbanBaby. Upon the sale of UrbanBaby in 2006, he used capital to establish his own consultancy, Davidville, where he collaborated with programmer Marco Arment.

During a period of reduced client work at Davidville, Karp collaborated with Arment to develop a blogging site he had conceptualized. This site, Tumblr, was launched in private beta in 2006 and publicly in early 2007. It facilitated “tumblelogs”—short-form blogs encompassing text, photos, videos, audio clips, links, quotes, and chat logs. The platform allowed users to customize their blog themes, offering default options, personal modifications, or purchasable themes, which served as one of the site’s initial revenue streams. Tumblr also generated income through partnerships with companies for marketing purposes. Similar to Twitter, Tumblr allowed users to “follow” other blogs, with new posts appearing in a user’s “dashboard.” The platform intentionally avoided a prominent comment section to minimize negativity, instead offering “reblogging” for users to share posts with their own followers and add their own commentary. By emphasizing ease of use and fostering a positive environment with terms like “fan mail,” Tumblr grew significantly, reaching over 70 million blogs and employing approximately 100 individuals within five years of its public launch.

In 2013, Yahoo! acquired Tumblr for over $1 billion, with Karp continuing as CEO. However, the acquisition did not meet financial expectations, leading Yahoo! to devalue the company significantly. In 2017, Tumblr became part of Oath, a Verizon subsidiary formed after Yahoo!’s acquisition. Later that year, Karp announced his resignation from Tumblr. He has since made personal investments in several companies, including Superpedestrian, Inc., Sherpaa, Inc., and Splash. Karp also joined the Planned Parenthood Board of Directors in 2014 and, in 2017, collaborated with Planned Parenthood for an initiative encouraging tech industry support for women’s health.