John Brown
Visiting Scholar and Advisor to the Provost @ University of Southern California
Palo Alto, United States
John Brown is a seed investor at University of Southern California in Palo Alto focused on News and SaaS. John Brown is the Board Director of Amazon.com .He is also an Independent Co - Chairman of the Deloitte’s Center for the Edge. A visiting Scholar and Advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California (USC). Prior to that he was the Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation and the Director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)—a positionhe held for nearly two decades. While head of PARC, Brown expanded the role of corporate research to include such topics as the management of radical innovation, organizational learning, complex adaptive systems, and nano technologies. He was a Co - Founder of the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL). His personal research interests include digital youth culture, digital media and institutional innovation. John, or as he is often called JSB. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education.Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and of AAAS and a Trustee of the MacArthur Foundation. He serves on numerous public Boards,Amazon, Corning, Varian Medical Systems and private Boards of Directors. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals. With Paul Duguid he co-authored the acclaimed book The Social Life of Information (HBS Press, 2000) that has been translated into 9 languages with a second addition in April 2002. With John Hagel he Co - Authored the book The Only Sustainable Edge which is about new forms of collaborative innovation and The Power of Pull: how small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion, published April 2010. His current book, The New Culture of Learning Co - Authored with Professor Doug Thomas at USC, was released January 2011.JSB received a BA from Brown University in 1962 in Mathematics & Physics, PhD from University of Michigan in 1970 in Computer & Communication Sciences. He has received six Honorary Degrees including: May 2000, Brown University, Doctor of Science Degree, July 2001, the London Business School, Honorary Doctor of Science in Economics,May 2004, Claremont Graduate University, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters,May 2005, University of Michigan, Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, May 2009, North Carolina State University, Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, May 2011, Illinois Institute of Technology, Honorary Doctor of Design.
- Total investments:
- 3
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 0%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries John Brown invests in
Stages John Brown invests in
Countries John Brown invests in
Round sizes
Round size
- Angel
- $900k–$1.5M
Investment Focus
Industry
- News 1 (33%)
- SaaS 1 (33%)
- Local 1 (33%)
- Computer 1 (33%)
- Internet 1 (33%)
Stage
- Seed 1 (33%)
- Angel 1 (33%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Taloflow
|
Taloflow (YC W21) is a buying insights platform for the tech stack. We help CTOs at digital-native companies pick the best cloud infrastructure and API products for their specific use case, saving them weeks of soul-sucking analysis and costly mistakes for every big decision they make. | $1.5M / Seed / Jan 12, 2021 | |
Outside.in
|
New York-based Outside.in comes from a series of angels as well as a few VC firms. Those firms include Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners, and Village Ventures. | $1.5M / Angel / Oct 01, 2007 | |
|
Outside.in
|
New York-based Outside.in comes from a series of angels as well as a few VC firms. Those firms include Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners, and Village Ventures. | $900K / Angel / Feb 01, 2007 |
Co-Investors
About University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is one of the world’s leading private research universities. An anchor institution in Los Angeles, a global center for arts, technology and international business, USC’s diverse curricular offerings provide extensive opportunities for interdisciplinary study and collaboration with leading researchers in highlyadvanced learning environments.
University of Southern California Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Jason Lee
Assistant Professor
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Mike Fischer
Professor, Interactive Media
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Anthony Borquez
Professor
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Ashutosh Nandeshwar
Assistant Vice President, Relationship Management and Data Sciences
|
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Bob Kocher
Senior Fellow, Schaeffer Center for Healthcare Policy
|
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FAQ
What does John Brown invest in?
John Brown invests primarily in News, SaaS and Local startups, most often at Seed and Angel stage. Most of the 3 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is John Brown's check size?
John Brown typically joins rounds of $900k–$1.5M at Angel. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds John Brown participates in.
When did John Brown last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for John Brown closed in Jan 2021. Shizune tracks 3 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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