John Ason

Kewpie Associates

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John has been a professional angel investor for about 18 years. Over that span he's funded about 60 startup companies and currently has over 20 active companies. The majority of these companies were pre revenue with many consisting of one or two people in a kitchen or garage. In about half of the companies, John was the lead angel. Some examples of the companies he's invested in are: Xlibris.com, Bikini.com, Diapers.com, Soap.com, FulcrumGallery.com, AppyCouple.com, GetMaid.com, LiveLook.com. HotList.com, Centrak.com, TuckerToys.com, CallunaVineyards.com, Ology.com, Koding.com, WeHostels.com, DoodleDeals.com, MotionMathGames.com, OffTrackPlanet.com, Monaeo.com, EquityZen.com, EndlessTV.com, Primary.com, and Spling.com. He typically invests in industries he knows little about but will avoid, medical, biotech and “green” industries. His notable exits have been Xlibris, LiveLook bought by Oracle and Diapers.com bought by Amazon for $545 million.

He mentors the Entrepreneur Roundtable, DreamIt, RG/A Techstars, TechLaunch, and Worldwide Investor Network accelerators.

He mentors and advises women’s organizations like Astia, Springboard, Pipeline Fellowship, Girls Raising, 37Angels and Topstone angels.

He is a guest lecturer at NYU, Rutgers, NJIT, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Wharton, and a mentor at the Iacocca Institute and the University of Nottingham.

John has presented at international conferences in Seoul South Korea, Mexico City Mexico, Kiev Ukraine, Minsk Belarus, Vilnius Lithuania, Dublin Ireland and Oviedo Spain.