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Mahbod Moghadam

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Mahbod Moghadam
Mahbod Moghadam at TechCrunch Disrupt New York 2013
Born(1982-11-17)November 17, 1982
DiedMarch 25, 2024(2024-03-25) (aged 41)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materYale University (BA)
Stanford Law School (JD)
OccupationInternet entrepreneur
Employer(s)Everipedia (2015–2019)
Genius (2009–2014)
Known for

Mahbod Moghadam ((1982-11-17)November 17, 1982 – March 25, 2024) was an American[1] internet entrepreneur.[2] In 2009, he, Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory co-founded Rap Genius (now Genius), a website on which users can submit annotations and interpretations of song lyrics and other content. In 2015, he, Sam Kazemian and Theodor Forselius co-founded Everipedia, a wiki-based online encyclopedia, where he worked as the Chief Community Officer for several years. After leaving Everipedia, he became an entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture capital firm Mucker Capital, then worked on HellaDoge, a cryptocurrency-based social network.

Early life and education

Moghadam was born to an Iranian Jewish family on November 17, 1982,[3] and grew up in Encino, California.[1] His family emigrated from Iran to the United States shortly before he was born.[1]

He graduated from Yale University in 2004 with a major in History and International Studies. In 2005, he went to France on a Fulbright scholarship. When he returned in 2005, he enrolled at Stanford Law School, and graduated in 2008 with a J.D.[1]

Career

After graduating from law school in 2008, Moghadam became an attorney at the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf.[1] In 2009, many law offices who were trying to endure the Great Recession placed junior employees on "deferral", paying them a partial salary to take time off and encouraging them to intern at other companies. While on deferral from Dewey & LeBoeuf, Moghadam was hired as an intern at Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska. However, shortly before departing for his internship, the internship offer was rescinded and he was fired by Dewey & LeBeouf when a Berkshire Hathaway employee discovered a satirical memo he had written and published on his blog, addressed to "Ballstate Insurance Company" (a reference to the Allstate insurance company, which was a client of Dewey & LeBoeuf).[4][5]

Genius

In August 2009, Moghadam, Tom Lehman, and Ilan Zechory founded Rap Genius, a website that initially allowed users to annotate and interpret song lyrics.[6] Moghadam inspired Lehman to build the site when he explained Cam'ron's lyric "80 holes in your shirt, there: your own Jamaican clothes" to Lehman.[7][8]

Moghadam was included in the 2013 Forbes 30 Under 30 list along with the other Rap Genius cofounders.[6] In 2014, Rap Genius rebranded to Genius and expanded to support annotations for news stories, poetry, and other documents.[9] Moghadam resigned from Genius that same year after receiving negative media attention when he added annotations to the manifesto written by the perpetrator of the 2014 Isla Vista killings, describing it as "beautifully written".[10][11][12] His comments were described by CNN as "tasteless and creepy";[10] later, Genius co-founder Lehman said in a statement that the annotations "not only didn't attempt to enhance anyone's understanding of the text, but [also] went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny."[13][14][15]

In 2021, Moghadam said he was angered by the "fire sale" of Genius to MediaLab that year, a deal which reportedly made Lehman and Zechory multi-millionaires but did not pay anything to him.[16]

Other activities

After leaving Genius, Moghadam started an internet controversy by writing an article in Thought Catalog titled "How To Steal From Whole Foods".[5] Thought Catalog later removed the article, along with the other articles Moghadam had published with the site.[1]

In 2015, Moghadam met Sam Kazemian and joined him as co-founder and Chief Community Officer of Everipedia, a blockchain- and wiki-based online encyclopedia.[5][17][18][19] He left Everipedia in 2019.[20]

Moghadam began working at venture capital firm Mucker Capital in 2019.[21] Moghadam later worked on HellaDoge, a social media platform based around the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.[16]

Personal life

Moghadam was known for his “outlandish” personality and behavior.[22][23][13] In 2013 he received media attention for telling Mark Zuckerberg in an interview and Warren Buffett in a tweet to "suck [his] dick", and for his subsequent public apology to them during an onstage appearance at the TechCrunch Disrupt New York conference.[24][25][26][27] He later attributed some of his behavior to a benign brain tumor that was discovered and removed in 2013.[26]

In August 2018, Moghadam appeared as a guest on Sacha Baron Cohen's television series Who is America?, in which Cohen adopted various disguises and personas to capture his guests behaving in embarrassing ways.[28] Believing he was doing a photoshoot with a "playboy photographer" named Gio, Moghadam is shown making the Bloods gang sign and imitating shooting a gun when Cohen asks him to "do something like a black guy." Later Cohen has him pose in front of a green screen so he could later be photoshopped into scenes as though he is feeding starving children.[13][29][30]

In September 2018, Moghadam had an epileptic seizure attributable to a second brain tumor, and had brain surgery later that month.[31]

In March 2024, Moghadam died at the age of 41 due to complications from his recurrent brain tumor.[32][33]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Bruno, Kohler (January 23, 2015). "A genius out in the cold". The Yale Herald. 59 (1): 12–15. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023 – via Issuu.
  2. ^ "Mahbod Moghadam: An Obituary – Moghadam Family". Genius. Retrieved 2024-04-06.
  3. ^ Moghadam, Mahbod [@mahbodpedia] (July 9, 2021). "#tbt dug up old legal documents with @afsarmm - including her and my dad's drivers licenses from Iran!" – via Instagram.
  4. ^ Rubino, Kathryn (December 12, 2016). "Controversial Former Biglaw Attorney Relaunches His Career As Internet Mogul". Above the Law. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Schwartz, Zachary (February 7, 2019). "Blockchain Wikipedia is a dish best served cold". Engadget. Archived from the original on June 23, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  6. ^ a b "30 Under 30: Music: Mahbod Moghadam, Ilan Zechory, Tom Lehman". Forbes. 2013. Archived from the original on December 30, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  7. ^ Gray, Tyler (May 13, 2013). "91. Mahbod Moghadam". FastCompany. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  8. ^ Wiedeman, Reeves (January 4, 2015). "Can the Brogrammers of Rap Genius Annotate the World?". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  9. ^ Brustein, Joshua (November 9, 2012). "Yale Graduates Seek a Degree in Hip-Hop". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  10. ^ a b Gross, Doug (May 27, 2014). "Tech exec fired for comments about California rampage". CNN. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  11. ^ Van Dyke, Michelle Broder (May 26, 2014). "Rap Genius Co-Founder Resigns After Writing Offensive Comments On Elliot Rodger's Manifesto". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  12. ^ Swisher, Kara (May 26, 2014). "Rap Genius Co-Founder Moghadam Fired Over Tasteless Comments on Santa Barbara Shooting". Vox. Archived from the original on July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  13. ^ a b c Miller, Matt (August 13, 2018). "Sacha Baron Cohen Humiliated the Tech Bro Founder of Rap Genius". Esquire. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  14. ^ Swisher, Kara (May 26, 2014). "Rap Genius Co-Founder Moghadam Fired Over Tasteless Comments on Santa Barbara Shooting". Recode. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  15. ^ Levy, Karyne (May 26, 2014). "Rap Genius' Cofounder Has Been Fired After Comments About California Shooter". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  16. ^ a b Peterson, Becky (November 11, 2021). "Genius sold for $80 million, making two of its founders millionaires. Its third most notorious founder got $0". Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 24, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  17. ^ Bowman, Bryan (December 7, 2016). "From UMass to Silicon Valley: An interview with 'Everipedia' founders". Amherst Wire. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  18. ^ Lindström, Emil (December 16, 2015). "Emil möter: Theodor Forselius" [Emil meets: Theodor Forselius]. Emil Lindström (in Swedish). Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  19. ^ Thompson, Patrick (November 24, 2018). "Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam weighs in on Everipedia, the bear market, and more". Timestamp Magazine. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2019.
  20. ^ Moghadam, Mahbod (December 30, 2020). "Mahbod Moghadam on leaving Genius: 'I had started getting on people's nerves after we raised our Series A.'". The Business of Business (Interview). Interviewed by Greg Ugwi.
  21. ^ Canellis, David (February 3, 2022). "Crypto founder: LA mayor 'prolly got rona and aids' from maskless Magic Johnson". Protos. Archived from the original on January 30, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  22. ^ Gayomali, Chris (May 27, 2014). "Rap Genius's Mahbod Moghadam Resigns After Annotating Santa Barbara Killer's Manifesto With Awful Comments". Fast Company. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  23. ^ Colburn, Randall (August 13, 2018). "Sacha Baron Cohen delivers the laughs, but overplays his hand on an uneven Who Is America?". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  24. ^ Teicher, Jordan (February 22, 2013). "What Does Rap Genius Have Against Warren Buffett?". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  25. ^ Kumparak, Greg (May 1, 2013). "Rap Genius' Co-Founder Apologizes To Zuck (Then Says They'll Be Bigger Than Facebook)". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  26. ^ a b Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (November 15, 2013). "RapGenius co-founder says brain tumour made him attack Mark Zuckerberg". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  27. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (December 27, 2013). "It's not just Google: The many feuds of Rap Genius". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  28. ^ Heritage, Stuart (August 28, 2018). "Who is America?: Why Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy failed to land a punch". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  29. ^ Swartz, Anna (August 13, 2018). "Who got fooled on episode 5 of 'Who Is America?' and what did they say about it?". Mic. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  30. ^ Lynch, John (August 27, 2018). "All the notable people and politicians Sacha Baron Cohen 'duped' this season on 'Who Is America?'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  31. ^ Geroulis, Tasha (October 15, 2018). "Second Brain Tumor Inspires Mahbod Moghadam to Change Corporate Philosophy". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  32. ^ "Mahbod Moghadam: An Obituary – Moghadam Family". Genius. March 4, 2024. Archived from the original on April 7, 2024. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  33. ^ Loizos, Connie (April 7, 2024). "Mahbod Moghadam, who rose to fame as the co-founder of Genius, has died". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
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