24 Facts About Jeff Pulver

Jeff Pulver is an American Internet entrepreneur and futurist known for his work as an innovator in the field of Voice over Internet Protocol.

Jeff Pulver has organized conferences and spoken extensively on the development of VoIP telephony, the evolution of the internet, and technological futurism, and created an online school, pulveREDU, centered on internet technology topics.

Jeff Pulver is engaged in lobbying activities for the need to develop an alternative to government regulation of internet and telecommunication applications.

Jeff Pulver grew up in a Jewish family in Kings Point, New York.

Jeff Pulver graduated from Great Neck North High School in 1980, and subsequently attended Hofstra University, where he graduated with a degree in accounting.

In September 1995, Jeff Pulver teamed first with Izak Jenie, and later Brandon Lucas, to establish an experimental platform for VoIP communications called Free World Dialup.

Jeff Pulver pursued all of these activities at night while simultaneously holding his day job at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Ten days after the petition was filed, Jeff Pulver launched his first lobbying organization, the VON Coalition; 110 companies from around the world quickly joined.

Jeff Pulver wrote a book, The Internet Telephony Toolkit, which offered explanations of the technology and predictions for the industry's future.

The success of the conference attracted the interest of Key3Media, organizer of the influential COMDEX trade show, and Jeff Pulver agreed to sell the business for $40 million.

Jeff Pulver later credited his journey into VoIP, and the subsequent loss of his job it resulted in, with inadvertently saving his life.

Jeff Pulver continued to host and produce the conference until 2008, when ownership of the conference again changed hands.

In 1998, while simultaneously running the VON Conference and continuing his lobbying work with the Von Coalition, Jeff Pulver founded a new venture, Min-X.

Citron and Bhola subsequently became CEO and president, respectively, while Jeff Pulver remained on the company's board until 2002, when he left to focus on a refresh of his first VoIP company, Free World Dialup.

Jeff Pulver's lobbying activities reached their high point following his departure from Vonage.

Jeff Pulver spent much of the 2000s and 2010s investing in emerging companies, often as an early stage pre-angel investor, with such investments typically being non-liquid micro-minority shareholdings.

In total, Jeff Pulver had invested in over 400 startups by the late 2010s.

In 2013, Jeff Pulver launched the Israel-based startup Zula in conjunction with fellow technologist Jacob Ner-David; the company focused on providing business team communication software and raised over $3 million in investment from M12, Morton Meyerson, and other backers.

Jeff Pulver continued to emphasize his production of live events and conferences.

In 2019, Jeff Pulver joined the advisory board of First Growth Advisory, an Australian cryptocurrency-focused investment bank.

Jeff Pulver rekindled his early interest in amateur radio in 2019 and has since actively used it to communicate with fellow enthusiasts worldwide.

Jeff Pulver is interested in astrophotography and has released some of his photographs as NFTs.

Jeff Pulver has supported diabetes research by contributing to the Miller School of Medicine and the Barton Center for Diabetes Education, including by organizing a celebrity poker tournament.

Jeff Pulver has organized fundraisers for WhyHunger and the Long Island Cares Harry Chapin Food Bank.