Scott Kurnit


Scott P. Kurnit is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor in
media and technology.

Career

Early career

After graduating from Hampshire College with a BA in Communications, Kurnit
became a Program Director at WGBY-TV He was the youngest program director
in the PBS system and served as program director for QUBE, the world’s
first fully interactive cable television
system.

Showtime

He started the first pay-per-view cable network and co-led the team that
implemented the first use of national caller ID. Subsequently, he was president of Showtime Event
Television

Prodigy and MCI

Kurnit led the team that put the first web browser into an
online service at the Prodigy network. Following Prodigy, Kurnit joined
MCI to oversee MCI's attempts to grow its business in the Internet market.

About.com

Kurnit founded About.com and served as its
CEO during its
growth to a public market value of $1.5
billion.
About.com was acquired by PRIMEDIA in 2001, and later sold again to the New York Times Company in 2005. Kurnit left the CEO position in 2001 after the sale to Primedia. In 2002 a class action suit was brought against About.com, Primedia, Kurnit and others. The court dismissed all claims against Kurnit from the suit in August 2007.

Keep Holdings

Kurnit founded AdKeeper.com in early 2010. He is the Chairman & CEO of Keep Holdings.com, the parent company of Keep.com, TheSwizzle.com, and AdKeeper.com.

Investor and advisor

Kurnit is either an investor or Board Member of the following companies: Mashlogic, Brightcove, Goodmail, Dotomi, OpenSky.

Personal interests

Kurnit serves on the boards or is active with Paley Center for Media.

Awards and honors

Kurnit was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement, received the Vanguard Award from the National Cable Television Association, and won an Emmy Award as producer of a weekly television news magazine. Upside magazine named him one of the “Elite 100” leading the digital revolution. He was listed as one of the Silicon Alley 100 by The Business Insider for 2008