Jon Steinberg

Bio:

Jon Steinberg is the President of BuzzFeed in NYC. He was previously an EIR at Polaris Ventures and part of the team that opened Dogpatch NY. Before that, he was Strategic Partner Development Manager on Google's SMB (Small Medium Business) Partnerships team. Prior to Google, Jon was the Director of Business Development at Majestic Research and the founder of iBuilding, a commercial real estate software company backed by Tishman Speyer Properties, Benchmark Capital, and 12 Entrepreneuring. He is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and holds an MBA from Columbia University.

• Title: President of BuzzFeed
• Age: 33
• Location: SoHo
• Contact: @jonsteinberg

You were at Google for 2 years and Polaris Ventures for 8 months before moving onto BuzzFeed. Is there anything in particular that you miss about working at those two places in particular?

At Google, I miss exposure to all of the early beta and tester products. From Polaris/DogpatchNY I miss seeing all of the great early stage companies. But for the most part, I appreciate things I do during periods of my life/career and don't really "miss."

What is the best thing you have ever done in your life?

Married my wife Jill. And had Cooper and Edie.

You wrote a post back in August of last year titled Naming Things, where you said that the best names for products are the ones found spontaneously and that it’s a lot like naming children. Is this how you went about naming your children?  

Yes. I named Edie, and Jill named Cooper. We each came to the names as flashes of insight. Edie was named for my grandmother Edythe; Jill always loved the name Cooper.

BuzzFeed created a list of the 50 most viral posts of 2010 at the end of last year. What post is your personal favorite?

Sad Keanu. But my new favorite is this one that is just getting going.

Bizarre that the original newspaper photographer didn't call this out as so odd. And I think ice cream guy in snow storm has a lot of legs and possibilities. He could be the spokesman for Carvel in 2 months.

Saw that you’re a fan of Mad Men... Which character on the show do you feel as if you relate to the most and why?

I went as Don Draper for Buzzfeed Halloween. But really I'm more Bert Cooper: part sales, part ops, part product, all eccentric.