JOHN PLEASANTS | FOUNDING MEMBER
John Pleasants is a digital executive and entrepreneur who has consistently led private and public companies to billions of dollars in market capitalization and investor gains across gaming, ticketing, online dating, local services, healthcare and connected hardware. He has a strong passion for high growth and transformative consumer-facing businesses that improve people’s lives.
Pleasants currently serves as Co-founder and CEO of Brava Home, a company dedicated to elevating the way people cook at home through a radically innovative cooking device. The company debuted the Brava smart oven in November 2018 and sold to the Middleby Corporation in November 2019.
Prior to Brava, Pleasants led Samsung's Media Solutions division that developed an ecosystem of virtual reality platforms and content, streaming music and video services, kids platforms, media and developer partnerships and convergence and loyalty platforms.
From 2008 to 2014, Pleasants served in various leadership roles in the gaming industry. As Co-President of Disney Interactive he led the overall strategy for Disney Interactive’s $1+ billion games business, mobile network and content services. Prior to that, Pleasants served as CEO of Playdom, a leading social gaming company, which was acquired by Disney in August 2010. Before leading Playdom, Pleasants served as President of Publishing and Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts (EA), then the world’s leading game publisher, where he oversaw global operations for the company and drove EA's digital agenda.
From 1996-2005, Pleasants served in various capacities at Ticketmaster and parent company Interactive Corp (IAC). He served as CEO of Ticketmaster from 2000-2005 (NASDAQ: TMCS for 14 quarters before going private). During his tenure as President of Information and Services at IAC, Pleasants oversaw leading online entities including Match.com, CitySearch.com, Evite.com, Entertainment Publishing and ReserveAmerica.com.
Pleasants has served on the board of three public companies: Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Ticketmaster (NASDAQ: TMCS) and the Leaf Group (NYSE: LEAF); and over a dozen private companies including - Actively: Displate (e-commerce marketplace) and Amber (game development) and previously: Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON), Playdom, Revolution Health, Ticketmaster-Online Citysearch, Active.com (NASDAQ: ACTV), Fastclick, The Artists Den, Trebel Music, The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and Saatchi Art Online. He is an advisor to Signalfire Ventures, Spark Labs Global Ventures, Signia Ventures, Scalefast (sold to ESW), Big Box VR (sold to Facebook), Freedom Squares (humanitarian aid initiative), the BLVD (Web3) and The Leadership Now Project. He actively invests in consumer facing start-ups, democracy and environmental advocacy organizations and philanthropic entities. Currently exploring climate tech innovations.
Pleasants holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School. He is an active member of YPO (Barbary Coast chapter).
He currently resides in Portola Valley, CA and is married to wonderful wife Jen, with children Jack (25), James (22) and Josie (17).