Bryan Johnson

Bryan Johnson (born August 22, 1977) is an American entrepreneurand venture capitalist. He is the founder and CEO of Kernel, a company developing advanced neural interfaces, and OS Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage science and technology companies.

He was also founder, chairman and CEO of Braintree, a company which specializes in mobile and web payment systems for ecommerce companies. Braintree was later acquired by eBay in 2013 for $800 million.

Johnson lives in Los Angeles.

Johnson was born in Provo, Utah, and raised in Springville, Utah, the middle child of three brothers and a sister. After his parents divorced, Johnson lived with his mother and his stepfather, the owner of a trucking company. At 19, Johnson became a Mormon missionary, customary for young men in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),spending two years in Ecuador.

Johnson graduated with a BA in International Studies from Brigham Young University in 2003 and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2007.

Early Ventures

Johnson, who has been described as a “serial tech entrepreneur,”launched three startups, whilst at university, between 1999 and 2003. The first, which sold cell phones, helped pay his way through Brigham Young University. In that business, Johnson hired other college students to sell service plans along with cell phones; Johnson earned about a $300 commission on each sale.

Johnson also started two other businesses. Inquist, a VOIP company Johnson co-founded with three other partners, with combined features of Vonage and Skype. It ended operations in 2001. After that, he joined his brother and another partner on a $70 million real estate project later in 2001. The project did not achieve sales goals.

Braintree

Johnson formed the idea for Braintree while he was working at a part-time job selling credit card processing services to businesses .The firm's rapid growth was spurred by clients in the technology industry including OpenTable, Uber, Shopify, Airbnb, and others. The company was 47th on Inc. magazine’s 2011 list of the 500 fastest-growing companies and 415th in 2012. That year, Braintree purchased Venmo, a startup --now owned by PayPal--that lets users send and receive money from each other electronically, for $26.2 million.

By September 2013, the company announced it was processing $12 billion in payments annually, with $4 billion of that on mobile. Shortly afterward, on Sept. 26, 2013, the company was acquired by eBay for $800 million.

OS Fund

In October 2014, at 37, Johnson announced his creation of OS Fund, which he backed with $100 million of his personal capital. The venture capital firm invests in early-stage science and technology companies led by "inventors and scientists who aim to benefit humanity through quantum leap discoveries at the operating system, or OS, level,” Johnson said. In 2016 he launched an online video series, “Explorations,” featuring interviews with leaders of some of the companies backed by OS Fund.

Kernel

Johnson started Kernel in 2016, making a personal investment of $100 million. The company's goal is to build an implantable device to improve brain function in humans, such as memory, while interfacing with artificial intelligence (AI)..

Johnson has three children. Johnson was raised in the Mormon faith, but has said he left the LDS Church when he was 34. He is an experienced outdoor enthusiast: Johnson has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, as well as Toubkal, the highest peak of North Africa.He is also a pilot and has written a children’s book, Code 7.

On March 17, 2018, he became engaged to his girlfriend, artist and producer Taryn Southern.

Johnson contributed one chapter to the 2018 book Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building it by the American futurist Martin Ford.