People

John Borthwick

John Borthwick

Formal First Name
John

John Borthwick has been a leader, entrepreneur, and early-stage technology investor in New York for over two decades. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Betaworks, a startup platform that builds and invests in companies across the social, data-driven media internet. As the company’s CEO, he has led Betaworks’ building and investment process since 2008. Under his leadership, Betaworks has helped build companies such as Giphy, Dots, bitly, and Chartbeat, along with investments made on Venmo, Tumblr, Twitter, Gimlet, and Anchor. Previously, John was SVP of Alliances and Technology Strategy for Time Warner Inc.; CEO of Fotolog, one of the first social photo sharing sites; and head of AOL’s product development studio after they acquired his first company, WP Studio, one of Silicon Alley’s first content studios.

Professional Experience


Academic History

BETAWORKS

  • Betaworks creates, operates and invests in companies with a primary focus on real-time web and social distribution.

  • The company focuses on conversational interfaces such as words, bots, verbal computing and AI.

  • Launched in 2016, Betaworks Camp became a thematic residency and investment program for early-stage companies.

  • Betalab is an investment program catalyzing startups around Fixing The Internet.

  • In 2018, Betaworks Studios was launched, an IRL social club and virtual community for founders and funders in the NY tech space.


AFFILIATIONS