Emerson Spartz

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Emerson Spartz
Born (1987-02-17) February 17, 1987
LaPorte, Indiana, U.S.A.
Nationality American
Occupation CEO of Spartz Media
Known for MuggleNet, OMG Facts, GivesMeHope
Website
spartzmedia.com

Emerson Spartz (born February 17, 1987) is a New York Times best selling author and CEO of Chicago-based Spartz Media.[1] Spartz founded the Harry Potter site MuggleNet at age 12.[1][2]

Early life

Spartz was raised in La Porte, Ind.[1] At the age of twelve, Spartz convinced his parents to allow him to drop out of school and homeschool himself. He developed his own curriculum,[3] which his parents supplemented by requiring him to read four short biographies of successful people every day.[1]

Career

MuggleNet

Spartz founded the MuggleNet website in 1999.[4] In 2007, Emerson co-authored a book - MuggleNet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love, and How the Series Finally Ends.[5] As of July 21, 2007, the book sold 335,000 copies and reached #2 on the New York Times Children's Bestseller List, where it spent six months. Spartz went on a tour with Ben Schoen, another MuggleNet.com staff member, in June 2007 to promote their work.[6]

In 2009, Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen penned another book, MuggleNet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views From The #1 Fan Site.[7]

Spartz Media

In 2009, Spartz launched Spartz Media.[1] In May 2009, GivesMeHope (GMH) was founded by Spartz and Gaby Montero. On GivesMeHope, users share true stories of kindness and generosity.[8] On the site, people share with the world their most hopeful, uplifting moments while answering the question, "what gives you hope?"[9] The site was created in response to, FMyLife (FML), and give itself a spin-off of popular French website Viedemerde.fr.[9][10][11]

In November 2010, GivesMeHope released a book of the top 127 stories from the site. In the book, each story is accompanied by an illustration.[12]

In January 2010 Spartz launched OMG Facts.[13] OMG-Facts.com receives 30 million monthly page views,[3] has 500,000 subscribers on YouTube,[14] and 5.5 million followers on Twitter.[15]

Personal life

Spartz graduated in May of 2009 with a degree in management from the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.[16] In addition to taking a full load of classes while at Notre Dame, Spartz devised his own self-teaching curriculum around initialisms, mnemonics, and flash-cards in order to retain larger quantities of information. He is a voracious reader and aims to read at least one book of nonfiction per day.[13]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Moore, Ann. "Crain's". Crain's. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
  2. ↑ "Chicago Man Inspired By Harry Potter Conjures Up Career". http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/07/14/chicago-man-inspired-by-harry-potter-conjures-up-career/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gilbert, Trevor. "PandoDaily". PandoDaily. Retrieved 16 July 2012. 
  4. ↑ "Wild About Harry". http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2007/db20070622_592856.htm. 
  5. ↑ "Children’s Books". http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/books/review/Siegel.t.html?ex=1173330000&en=e9991ddbf4ca0d3f&ei=5070. 
  6. ↑ "The Planet Provides Web Hosting for Harry Potter Site". http://www.tophosts.com/articles/005630.html. 
  7. ↑ "Creator of Most Popular Harry Potter Fan Site Speaks at Fordham University". http://www.theramonline.com/news/creator-of-most-popular-harry-potter-fan-site-speaks-at-fordham-university-1.2462132. 
  8. ↑ Anjarwalla, Tas. "CNN". CNN. Retrieved 2 Aug 2010. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Emerson Spartz, Gaby Montero. GivesMeHope: "About GMH"
  10. ↑ Matt Sullivan. Esquire: "GivesMeHope.com: When Bankruptcy, Plane Crashes, and Mondays Get You Down" June 1, 2009.
  11. ↑ WSBT Evening News (CBS 22): "Need some good news?" Jul 16, 2009.
  12. ↑ "GMH Book". http://www.givesmehope.com/gmhbook. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "From Interviewing JK Rowling To Inspiring Millions Every Month – with Emerson Spartz". http://www.entrepreneursunpluggd.com/blog/emerson-spartz-interview. 
  14. ↑ Frobes, Marissa. "The Observer". The Observer. Retrieved 14 September 2011. 
  15. ↑ Liebermann, Gabrielle. "Crain's". Crain's. Retrieved 16 July 2012. 
  16. ↑ Johnson, Nancy. "Emerson 2.0". Notre Dame Business Magazine. Mendoza College of Business. Retrieved 16 November 2013. 

External links

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