Alex K.

Background

About Alex K.

Alex Kruglov is the co-founder and CEO of pop.in, a venture-backed iOS and Android app that helps people make lifelong friends and spend quality time together by playing fun group games. pop.in empowers human connection in an intimate setting (think friends and family), larger group setting (think "virtual local pub"), and at scale (think "town square"), enabling players from around the world to socialize without leaving home. pop.in's mission is to reverse the epidemic of loneliness by creating a ubiquitous opportunity for anyone to join a kind caring inclusive community regardless of their location, time of day, or financial means. We call it "joyful togetherness." To get a sense of how users feel about pop.in and its community, here's a short video they recorded: http://bit.ly/pop-in-community. Alex is also an advisor to a number of companies in media, gaming, hardware and software as well as a founding partner in Starts With Us, a nonprofit committed to overcoming extreme division. Prior to pop.in, Alex was co-founder and CEO of Smiletime, an interactive live streaming platform used by independent creators and major media companies including The CW, TMZ, Sony, The Hollywood Reporter, and many others. Alex was part of Hulu's launch team and spent six years there, overseeing all of its content acquisition efforts from nearly 500 content providers, including every studio and major network in the U.S. and most major television and film companies in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He led the vision and creation of the Hulu Originals brand, including content selection, business affairs and the recruiting of its creative team. Alex was a direct report to two of Hulu's CEOs. Before Hulu, Alex was a 3x entrepreneur, co-founding his first company, a publication that later sold to National Geographic, while an undergrad. His other experience includes producing a hit hip-hop musical (sold out run in LA and an off-Broadway run in New York), stints at Sony Pictures and Fox Searchlight, and consulting at McKinsey in 5 countries. Alex graduated magna cum laude from Brown University where he headed the Entrepreneurship Program and received his M.B.A from Harvard Business School, where he graduated in the top 5 percent of his class as a Baker Scholar. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Alex recently moved to NY with his wife and three daughters.