What is Caterina Fake’s Net Worth?
Caterina Fake is an Internet entrepreneur and businesswoman who has a net worth of $25 million. Caterina Fake earned her fortune by co-founding the websites Flickr and Hunch. For her role in the creation of Flickr, she was named to Time magazine’s Time 100 in 2006. Among her other endeavors, Fake served as the chairwoman of the e-commerce company Etsy.
Early Life and Education
Caterina Fake was born on June 13, 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a Filipina mother and an American father. Raised in New Jersey, her hobbies included playing classical music and reading poetry. After graduating from the prestigious Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, Fake attended Smith College in Massachusetts. She then transferred to Vassar College in New York, earning a degree in English from the school in 1991.
Career Beginnings
After graduating from college, Fake worked a number of odd jobs, including painter’s assistant and investment banker. Having become well-versed in the Internet in the meantime, she took a job in 1997 managing the community forums of the web browser Netscape.
Flickr
In the summer of 2002, Fake co-founded the company Ludicorp in Vancouver, Canada with Stewart Butterfield and Jason Classon. The company went on to launch the website Flickr in 2004. Originally a means for photographers to host high-resolution photos, the site became one of the world’s most popular photo-sharing services, and in 2005 was acquired by Yahoo! for around $30 million. Flickr subsequently added such Web 2.0 features as social networking, tagging, and community-open APIs. Following the acquisition of the site, Fake took a job at Yahoo! running its technology development group. She resigned from the company in 2008.
Hunch
In 2007, Fake co-founded the company Hunch with Chris Dixon. Two years later, the company launched its website, which offered product recommendations based on the interests of users. Hunch was acquired by eBay in late 2011 for around $80 million. While eBay proceeded to use the company’s recommendation engine technology, the public-facing Hunch website was shut down in 2014.
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Other Endeavors and Activities
Among her other endeavors, Fake founded the mobile photo-sharing site Findery, formerly Pinwheel. It launched under limited beta in early 2012. Elsewhere, Fake has sat on a number of boards, including the board of directors of Creative Commons and the board of trustees of the Sundance Institute. She was also the chairwoman of the e-commerce company Etsy, and served on the board of directors of the company until her resignation in 2014. Later, Fake hosted the Quartz-produced podcast “Should This Exist?”
Honors and Awards
Fake has been the recipient of many honors for her work as an entrepreneur and businesswoman. She has been named on lists of top business leaders in such publications as Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Fast Company, and Red Herring. For her role in the creation of Flickr, Fake was named to Time magazine’s Time 100 in 2006 alongside her co-founder Stewart Butterfield. She later received honorary doctorates from the Rhode Island School of Design and the New School. In 2018, Fake earned the Visionary Award from the Silicon Valley Forum in recognition of her contributions to angel investing in the industry.
Personal Life
In 2001, Fake married fellow Internet entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield, with whom she would co-found Ludicorp and Flickr. They had a daughter named Mint before divorcing in 2007. Fake went on to begin a relationship with entrepreneur Jyri Engeström; they have three children between them.
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