James Altucher


James Altucher is an American hedge-fund manager, author, podcaster and entrepreneur who has founded or cofounded over 20 companies. He has published 20 books and he is a contributor to publications including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and The Huffington Post.

Career

Altucher graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1989. Altucher's first job after graduating was in the IT department at HBO. At one point, Altucher hosted an HBO program, III:am.
In 1998, Altucher left HBO, sold a company he founded, Reset Inc., for approximately $15 million, and used the proceeds to fund new internet investments. Altucher has said he began this period with $15 million and lost it all in two years, which led him to re-evaluate his approach to both business and life. During this time, Jim Cramer of TheStreet.com hired him to write about stocks, and Altucher began trading for hedge funds.
From 2002 to 2005, he traded for several hedge funds, and from 2004–2006, he ran a fund of hedge funds.
In 2006, Altucher founded the financial social network, StockPickr. The website was named one of Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites of 2007. Altucher sold the company for $10 million in 2007.
In 2017, he began advising on cryptocurrency investing, despite having condemned Bitcoin in 2013 as "a fad, or a scam, or a ponzi scheme, or worse." However, in May, 2013, he built a store to sell his book, "Choose Yourself" for Bitcoin a month before he released it on Amazon. He was interviewed by Business Insider about why he reversed his stance on Bitcoin.
Altucher was a seed investor in Buddy Media, which later sold to Salesforce.com for $745 million in 2012.

Podcasts

In August 2015, Altucher launched a podcast with Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, called Question of the Day, based on questions from Quora. Altucher also hosts The James Altucher Show, which has featured Tim Ferriss, Mark Cuban, and Arianna Huffington, among others.

Authorship

The author of over 20 books, Altucher's work has appeared on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and USA Today's list of best business books of all time in 2014.
Altucher is a co-owner of Stand Up NY, where he also performs stand-up comedy. He is a National Chess Master with an Elo rating of 2204 as of 2012.