Jerry Kaplan

Samuel Jerrold "Jerry" Kaplan (born March 25, 1952) is an American computer scientist, author, futurist, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his work on pen computing and tablet computers. He is the founder of numerous companies, including GO Corporation, whose technology was used to develop the first smartphone and tablet PC. Kaplan is the co-founder of OnSale, the first B2C online auction site launched in 1994, five months prior to eBay. and author of the book Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure. Kaplan is also the author of the 2015 book Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Additional companies he has co-founded include artificial intelligence company Teknowledge, Inc. and social game website Winster.com. sold by Digital Keyboards, Inc. In 1980. The Synergy was used by Wendy Carlos to compose Digital Moonscapes. In 1981 he co-founded the company Teknowledge, Inc., a publicly traded artificial intelligence company. Kaplan was hired by Lotus Development Corporation to develop and design software based on Al techniques, working as the company's principal technologist. While at Lotus he developed Lotus Agenda, an early DOS-based personal information manager along with Ed Belove and Mitchell Kapor. He got the idea for another venture while riding in a plane with Kapor and discussing computer technology and the need for a notebook type computer. Go Corporation was a well-funded startup focused on pen computer technology. Kaplan later authored Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure, a book about the history of the company in which he details his experience with company investors as well as pitching the idea to Microsoft and Apple who began to develop their own tablets as opposed to investing in GO. The book was selected as one of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year by Businessweek and was translated into Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese.

Kaplan is also the co-founder of OnSale, an online auction website that he co-founded in 1994 and launched in 1995, five months prior to eBay. OnSale auctioned items primarily in the computer sector, namely products from manufacturers that included AT&T, Apple, Packard-Bell, Sony, Compaq, and Dell. The company was later purchased by Egghead Software in 1999 for $400 million.

In 2004, Kaplan launched a new venture called Winster, Inc., a social gaming website with multi-player casual games. It received its first funding from U.S. Venture Partners in 2007 and received a total of $5 million in funding as of 2011.

Kaplan is interviewed in the 2018 documentary on artificial intelligence, Do You Trust This Computer?

Personal life Kaplan and his sister Amy Kaplan Eckman are the subject of a 1964 oil-on-canvas painting by Wayne Thiebaud. The painting is titled Amy and Jerrold, Children of the Sixties and was commissioned by their mother Muriel Kaplan. He is also involved in philanthropy and in 1998 donated $250,000 to The Robert and Mary Montgomery Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Florida in honor of his mother Muriel Kaplan, a former sculpture instructor at the center. Kaplan made a $500,000 gift to the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2001, to endow a chair in honor of faculty member Aravind K. Joshi.