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Emerson James Spartz (born February 17, 1987) is the founder of the viral media company Dose and the founder of
MuggleNet MuggleNet is the Internet's oldest and largest ''Harry Potter'' and Wizarding World fansite. Founded in 1999, MuggleNet distinguished itself early on by its unique and comprehensive content. Barely one year after it was launched, the site was see ...
, a
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
fansite A fansite, fan site, fan blog or fan page is a website created and maintained by a fan or devotee about a celebrity, thing, or particular cultural phenomenon. Fansites may offer specialized information on the subject (e.g., episode listings, bi ...
.


Early life

Spartz was born in
La Porte, Indiana La Porte (French for "The Door") is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States, of which it is the county seat. Its population was estimated to be 21,341 in 2022. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, India ...
to Tom and Maggi Spartz. He is the oldest of three brothers. 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, which his parents supplemented by requiring him to read four single-page biographies of successful people every day, which were collected from the pages of ''
Investor's Business Daily ''Investor's Business Daily'' (''IBD'') is an American newspaper and website covering the stock market, international business, finance and economics. Founded in 1984 by William O'Neil as a print news publication, it is owned by News Corp and is ...
''. Spartz has subsequently attributed some of his entrepreneurial success to reading these short biographies.


Career


MuggleNet

Using the
WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...
site-building tool
Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...
, Spartz founded
MuggleNet MuggleNet is the Internet's oldest and largest ''Harry Potter'' and Wizarding World fansite. Founded in 1999, MuggleNet distinguished itself early on by its unique and comprehensive content. Barely one year after it was launched, the site was see ...
, a Harry Potter news website and
forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...
, in 1999, at the age of twelve. In fall 2006, while a junior at Notre Dame, Emerson co-authored a book, ''MuggleNet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7'', which speculated on plot elements of the final Harry Potter book to be released in July 2007. The book remained on the ''New York Times'' Children's Bestseller List for six months, peaking in the number two position and selling 350,000 copies. In June 2007, Spartz went on a tour with Ben Schoen, another MuggleNet staff member, to promote their work. In 2009, Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen wrote another book, ''MuggleNet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views From The #1 Fan Site''. By 2007, Spartz was receiving a six-figure income for running MuggleNet and had recruited six paid and 120 volunteer staff to the site. In 2015, he stated, "As I became less motivated by my passion for the books, I got obsessed with the entrepreneurial side of uggleNet the game of maximizing patterns and seeing how big my reach could get." Spartz sold MuggleNet and severed his relationship with the magical brand soon after. MuggleNet became an independent brand in 2020. They work closely with their business partner
Topix Media


Dose

In 2009, Spartz launched Spartz Media, now called Dose, a company that originally crowdsourced viral web content across thirty websites. In May 2009, Spartz and Gaby Montero founded
GivesMeHope GivesMeHope (GMH) was founded in May 2009 in response to the popular site, FMyLife (FML), itself a spin-off of popular France, French website :fr:Viedemerde.fr, Viedemerde.fr. It was part of the Spartz Media Network. On the site, people share w ...
, a website where contributors share answers to the question "what gives you hope?" in the form of anonymous anecdotes. The site was created in response to
FMyLife FMyLife is an English-language blog that serves as "a recollection of everyday anecdotes likely to happen to anyone". Posts on the site are short, user-submitted stories of unfortunate happenings that begin with "Today" and end with "FML". At its ...
. In January 2010, Spartz launched OMG Facts. In 2012, OMGFacts.com received 30 million monthly page views, and had 500,000 subscribers on YouTube. Spartz has launched at least thirty websites under the Spartz Media brand, all of which primarily rely on social media sites for web traffic. Because these sites have increasingly operated by republishing previously developed viral content, Spartz's content strategy has been characterized as
arbitrage In economics and finance, arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals to capitalise on the difference, the profit being the difference between the ...
, and has been criticized for failing to license or provide attribution for copyrighted media. In 2014, the company launched Dose.com. In 2015, the company changed its name to Dose and raised $25 million in venture financing, bringing its total capital raised to $34.5 million. In 2016 Spartz was named to th
Forbes 30 Under 30
list.


Personal life

Spartz graduated in May 2009 from the
University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
's
Mendoza College of Business The Mendoza College of Business is the business school at the University of Notre Dame, a private university in Notre Dame, Indiana. Founded in 1921, it offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is ranked among the top 30 business scho ...
. Emerson has stated that he read one book of nonfiction per day during college. Spartz married
Gaby Spartz Gaby Spartz (née Montero) (born September 1, 1987) is an Ecuadorian Twitch streamer and YouTube gamer. She is also the founder of the market research company Dose. Career In 2009, Spartz launched Spartz Media (now Dose), a company that crowds ...
(née Montero), his college girlfriend, in 2011. They divorced in 2017.https://courtlink.lexisnexis.com/cookcounty/FindDock.aspx?DocketKey=CABHDAABGIG0DR


References


External links


Emerson Spartz Official Site

Dose

MuggleNet

Emerson 2.0
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spartz, Emerson 1987 births Living people American chief executives People from La Porte, Indiana University of Notre Dame alumni Businesspeople from Indiana 21st-century American businesspeople