Michael Birch (businessman)
| Michael Birch | |
|---|---|
Birch in 2012
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| Born |
7 July 1970 Sawston, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Occupation | Computer programmer, entrepreneur, businessman |
| Spouse(s) | Xochi Birch |
Michael Birch (born 7 July 1970) is an English computer programmer and entrepreneur.
Birch was born in Sawston, Cambridgeshire and raised in Hertfordshire. He attended Imperial College London from 1988 to 1991, studying for a BSc in Physics.
Birch and his wife Xochi Birch have co-founded over half a dozen startups in the past 15 years. Together with Birch's brother Paul, they founded BirthdayAlarm.com and with Morgan Sowden they founded Ringo.com (which was sold to tickle.com in 2003). Birch and Xochi later founded the online social networking website Bebo in January 2005, with a major launch in July 2005. In 2007, Bebo had over 45 million registered users and was the sixth most popular site in the UK, bigger than AOL, Amazon.co.uk and bbc.co.uk.
Michael and Xochi Birch sold Bebo to AOL in March 2008 for $850 million. Their combined 70% stake yielded a profit of $595 million from the deal. The Bebo franchise quickly declined under its new owners and fell into bankruptcy; in 2013 the couple bought Bebo back for $1 million.
Since 2008, the couple has started five separate companies they run in parallel. and also invested in MyStore.com along with Gordon Crawford, Julian Lennon and Todd Meagher. In 2013 the Birches founded an exclusive but not elite members club called The Battery, in San Francisco, with their vision stated as “to create a culture where inspiration is embraced, diverse communities come together and egos are checked at the door.”
In July 2009, Michael co-founded PROfounders Capital with Brent Hoberman Peter Dubens, Jonnie Goodwin, Rogan Angelini-Hurll and Sean Seton-Rogers.
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