Joshua Kushner (born June 12, 1985) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, co-founder of Oscar Health, and the son of billionaire real estate magnate Charles Kushner. His brother is Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and former senior advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Early life
Kushner grew up in a Jewish family in Livingston, New Jersey. Several years after his father donated $2.5 million to Harvard he was accepted and graduated in 2008, and graduated from Harvard Business School in 2011.
Career
Early career
During his sophomore year, Kushner was founding executive editor of Scene, a new Brooks Brothers-sponsored student-publication that aimed to be “Harvard’s version of Vogue and Vanity Fair“. According to The Harvard Crimson, Scene “faced blistering criticism upon its release”, with students going so far as creating a “Scene Magazine is Bullshit” Facebook group criticizing it for its “completely ludicrous … skewed portrayal of the Harvard community” and “lack of models who were minorities”.
In the spring of his junior year, with two graduate students he pooled $10,000 to found social network Vostu, which aimed to “fill a void left by online communities in which English is the lingua franca”, like Facebook. According to Kushner, Latin America was a promising market for a Facebook-alternative and new social networking site because ” a place where Internet use is increasing every year, and technology is booming at a rapid pace”.
The year after graduation, he also co-founded a start-up called Unithrive, with the cousin of the president of Kiva who was also a Harvard student. Unithrive was inspired by the peer-to-peer loan model of Kiva, but aimed to “ease the crisis in paying for college” by matching “alumni lenders to cash-strapped students … who post photographs and biographical information and request up to $2,000”, interest-free for repayment within five years of graduation. After graduating from Harvard, he started his career in the Private Equity Group at Goldman Sachs, in the Merchant Banking Division, but left after a short stint.
Thrive Capital
He founded Thrive Capital in 2009, his private equity and venture capital firm that focuses on media and internet investments. Since its founding, Thrive has raised $750 million from institutional investors, including Princeton University. Thrive has raised several capital funds, including Thrive II, which raised $40 million in 2011, Thrive III, which raised $150 million in 2012, and Thrive IV, which raised $400 million in September 2014.
As an investor in Instagram, Kushner was the second largest investor in Instagram’s Series B fundraising round. Valued at $500 million, Thrive soon doubled its money after Instagram was sold to Facebook.
For his work with Thrive, Kushner was named to Forbes‘ 30 Under 30, Inc. Magazine’s 35 Under 35, Crain’s 40 Under 40, and Vanity Fair’s Next Establishment.
Oscar
Kushner is a co-founder of Oscar Health, a health insurance start-up. Founded in 2012, Oscar was valued at $2.7 billion in 2016. During calendar year 2020 Oscar’s net income was -$400 million. It filed to go public in 2021.
Cadre
In 2015, Kushner founded a new company called Cadre with his brother Jared and their friend Ryan Williams, with Williams as Cadre’s CEO. Cadre is a technology platform designed to help certain types of client, such as family offices and endowments, invest in real estate.
Personal life
Kushner started dating model Karlie Kloss in 2012. The couple got engaged in July 2018, and were married on October 18, 2018.
A Bombardier Challenger 300, N2618K, owned by Kushner landing in Ireland.
As the brother of Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Joshua stated through his spokesman that “he loved his brother and did not want to say anything that might embarrass him.” Nevertheless, the spokesman also said that “Josh is a life-long Democrat and did not vote for Donald Trump in November”, with their parents being Democratic donors until 2016.
In 2021 Kushner purchased a house in Miami, Florida for $23.5 million.
He and his wife published photos in support of the March for Our Lives.
Kushner owns a Bombardier Challenger 300 private jet which he purchased in 2019.
He traveled to Saudi Arabia to attend conferences and has met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Joshua Kushner purchased a minority stake in the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019. He donated to Beto O’Rourke and his 2018 campaign for U.S. Senate in Texas.