About Me
A teacher, writer, and convenor, Aaron Cohen is a serial internet entrepreneur who co-founded or led five startups and generated nearly $100mm for shareholders. Aaron is an entrepreneur in residence at NYU Steinhardt’s school of Media, Education and Culture where he founded INC@NYU to catalyze creative partnerships between the technology community and the university. INC@NYU nurtures interdisciplinary scholarship about the evolution of network culture and digital media history. Aaron also leads strategic partnerships for the Governance Lab. With funding from the John T. And Catherine P. MacArthur Foundation and the John and James L. Knight Foundation, The GovLab is dedicated to enabling citizens to engage and improve government using technology-based solutions.
An adjunct professor of internet history and culture in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, , Aaron created and hosts Inside the Internet Garage, an NYU live-event series on the Internet history of the digital age. The Garage has hosted such luminaries as Open Government leader and industry sage Tim O’Reilly, former Huffington Post CEO and top venture capitalist Eric Hippeau, The Wall Street Journal team of Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, and Priceline founder Jay Walker. In 2013 Aaron plans to welcome Mary Meeker and Steve Case to NYU.
Prior to NYU, Aaron was the CEO of AnyClip — a web service to find any moment from any film ever made. He oversaw the company’s first major studio deals and launched the product. In September of 2009, AnyClip won the audience choice award at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Aaron became the CEO of MenuPages in February of 2008. As CEO, he expanded relationships with MenuPages partners including CitySearch and Tribune Company, and completed a sale of the company to Wasserstein Media’s New York Magazine after only 6 months on the job. The company is now owned by Seamless.
Before MenuPages, Aaron was the CEO of Bolt Media and lead the company for 3 years during which he boosted revenue by 100% and repositioned the company as a leading video-based community. During Aaron’s tenure at Bolt, unique visitors grew from 1mm to 6mm per month.
Aaron served as CEO of Concrete Media a website development and media company. In this capacity Aaron lead two companies– Concrete Media and its subsidiary Girls On (sold to Oxygen Media in 2000). Concrete Media specialized in enabling large corporations including Tommy Hilfiger, Bechtel Enterprises, McKesson, and the Avon corporations to carve out new internet divisions.
Aaron began his career working for Time Inc in Tokyo, Japan devising content, curriculum and marketing initiatives for the hot new technology of the period – the CD-rom.
In 1993, Aaron left the corporate sector for 2 years to work as a journalist at States News Service in Washington DC – his hometown. He covered Congress and wrote stories for the St. Petersburg Times, The Denver Post and numerous other publications. Aaron has subsequently also contributed articles for Fast Company, Advertising Age, AlleyInsider and Billboard.
A frequent speaker on internet history, Aaron has hosted summits on Internet business, economics, and and culture with Fortune Magazine and McKinsey and Company at their global headquarters in New York City.
Aaron has a BA from Hampshire College and attended Columbia Business School. He lives in Chelsea with his wife Nina – an executive at Sotheby’s — and his children — Ry and Georgia.
