David C. Bohnett (born April 2, 1956) is an American philanthropist and technology entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of the David Bohnett Foundation, a non-profit, grant-making organization devoted to improving society through social activism.
Bohnett founded the social networking site GeoCities in 1994; the highly successful site went public via an IPO in 1998, and was acquired by Yahoo in 1999. Since then he has invested in technology start-ups via Baroda Ventures, a Los Angeles–based venture capital firm he started in 1998.
Early life, education, and early career Bohnett was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1956, and grew up in Hinsdale, an affluent Chicago suburb, with Republican parents. His father was a business executive and his mother was a preschool teacher.Kearns, Michael. "Out on the Web" . LA Weekly. November 24, 1999. His sister Wendy Bohnett Campbell is a past president of the board of the Dayton Philharmonic,Drinan, Ann. "Orchestra Spotlight: The Dayton Philharmonic". Polyphonic.org. March 1, 2010. and his brother William is a retired corporate attorney and was on the national board of the Smithsonian Institution from 2009 to 2018."William Bohnett". Global Innovation Summit 2018."Fulbright Of Counsel Appointed to Smithsonian National Board". Norton Rose Fulbright. November 2009."Fischer Jr., Harry A.". Chicago Tribune. September 18, 2005.Bohnett, David. "Eulogy for my Father, Harry Bohnett, 1923–2010". BohnettFoundation.org. February 25, 2010.
Bohnett was interested in business at an early age, selling Amway products and delivering newspapers. In high school he became fascinated by computers, and chose to attend college at the University of Southern California – where he received a BS in business administration – because it was one of the few universities at the time with a computer science program.Callahan, David. Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America. John Wiley & Sons, 2010. pp. 86–90. He put himself through college by waiting tables, guiding tours at Universal Studios, and other service jobs."Top 50 Cyber Elite. NO. 16: DAVID BOHNETT". Time. October 12, 1998.Klein, Rick. "DAVID BOHNETT: GeoCities". Advertising Age. July 14, 1997.
In his youth, Bohnett experienced the isolation and pain of being gay, first in his conservative suburban hometown, and then in 1978 in college when his first lover, from a small-town Indiana Catholic family, committed suicide. Bohnett became active in gay rights at graduate school at the University of Michigan, beginning in the fall of 1978 as a hotline counselor at the Jim Toy–founded University of Michigan Lesbian and Gay Male Program Office, now called the Spectrum Center.Bohnett, David. "David Bohnett Remarks for the opening of the David Bohnett CyberCenter at The Spectrum Center". BohnettFoundation.org. May 1, 2013."Our History". Spectrum Center. University of Michigan.Bohnett, David. "Founders Award Presentation to James Toy" at the 40th Anniversary of the Spectrum Center. BohnettFoundation.org. November 18, 2011. As an openly gay MBA student, he volunteered to go to freshman psychology classes and, looking like an average Midwesterner, said to the students, "I'm gay, ask me anything." He received his MBA in finance from University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in 1980."Alumni of the Month: David Bohnett". Spectrum Center. University of Michigan. October 2012.
When he returned to Los Angeles after graduate school, he became involved with GLAAD and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, came out to his parents, and in 1983 entered a longterm relationship with fellow activist and openly gay judge Rand Schrader, 11 years his senior."David Bohnett remarks for the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Jewish Committee's Ira Yellin Community Leadership Award". BohnettFoundation.org. January 29, 2014.Boxall, Bettina. "Rand Schrader, Judge and Gay Activist, Dies at 48 : Law: AIDS claims Municipal Court jurist. He is remembered for eloquence and tact in fight for equal rights". Los Angeles Times. June 14, 1993. When Schrader died in the AIDS epidemic in 1993, Bohnett, like many surviving same-sex partners prior to marriage equality, was left with no legal spousal benefits and a significant estate tax bill. He did however receive $386,000 from Schrader's life insurance.Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff. Diversity in the Power Elite: How it Happened, Why it Matters. Rowman & Littlefield, January 1, 2006. pp. 210–211. Bohnett had been a staff information systems consultant at Arthur Andersen from 1980 to 1983 and, unable to be openly gay in that world, he had left to work at software companies instead.Klein, Rick. "DIGITAL MEDIA MASTERS: DAVID BOHNETT: GEOCITIES". Ad Age. July 14, 1997."Meet David Bohnett of Baroda Ventures in Beverly Hills". VoyageLA. July 10, 2018. As his career in software was progressing, and shortly after Schrader's death, he searched for a way to tie together the software and activist sides of his life. Around this time the World Wide Web was just starting to be introduced, and he felt compelled to be a part of it.
Internet career GeoCities In 1994 Bohnett's business and software expertise, and his interest in giving people a voice and a chance to meet people of similar interests, led him to develop GeoCities.com, with John Rezner as co-founder and chief technical officer.Belanger, Lydia. "Founders of AOL, Twitter and More Share the Best and Worst Moments in Internet History: David Bohnett". Entrepreneur. August 6, 2016. GeoCities was one of the first web hosting companies and one of the first social networking sites on the internet, an early forerunner of MySpace and Facebook.Berman, Dennis. "For Facebook, GeoCities Offers a Cautionary Tale". The Wall Street Journal. September 25, 2007.Kelly, Heather. "25 years of the World Wide Web". CNN. March 12, 2014."Domain vs. Hosting: Understanding the Basic Elements of a Website" . Donklephant.com. October 4, 2018. It allowed users to engage in a variety of innovative activities, such as creating their own free webpages, organized into communities of interest; connecting with others online; expressing their passions, creativity, and individuality; and engaging in e-commerce."GeoCities". Quartz. January 19, 2018. The site grew very rapidly, receiving millions of users who set up webpages;Weber, Marc. "A Tale of Deleted Cities". Computer History Museum. September 21, 2016. at its peak it ultimately reached 38 million pages, created by individual users. GeoCities was the first large internet venture built on user-generated content,Manjoo, Farhad. "How GeoCities Invented the Internet". Slate. October 27, 2009. and in 2008 TechRadar cited it as #2 in its list of "20 websites that changed the world".Douglas, Paul. "20 websites that changed the world". TechRadar October 10, 2008.
By 1997 it was the fifth most popular site on the internet, with over one million users. The company went public in 1998, nearly doubling its initial share price in its first day of trading; Bohnett used the increased funding to add various features including a search engine, numerous tools and templates which made page creation easy and which completely bypassed any need for HTML coding, and social tools which made it easy to interact. GeoCities also hosted business sites, sites for world news, and shopping sites. By December 1998 it was the third most visited internet site, and had 41 theme-based interest categories called "neighborhoods", whose topics ranged to areas as varied as fan fiction, fine dining, arts and literature, campus life, computers and technology, investing and finance, individual sports and recreational activities, education and philosophy, politics, family, kids' interests, chat and romance, the environment, travel, home life, cooking, health, fan pages, entertainment genres, women, and multiple international-interest pages.Dolan, Kerry A. "Purple People". Forbes. September 1, 2003. Yahoo! Inc. purchased GeoCities during the dotcom boom in 1999 for $3.57 billion, and Bohnett netted about $300 million.
Baroda Ventures By 1998 Bohnett's success with GeoCities allowed him to begin investing in other technology companies, and he founded Baroda Ventures, a Los Angeles–based venture capital firm which makes early-stage investments in tech-related ventures. Baroda's investments focus mainly on consumer internet, e-commerce, mobile, SaaS, and digital media industries, with a particular interest in companies based in Los Angeles.Baroda Ventures – About Us. BarodaVentures.com. Some of Baroda's investments have included SteelHouse, Retention Science, ID90T, Surf Air, DogVacay, and Gamesville."LA Technology Investor Bohnett Appointed To Kennedy Center Board". SoCalTech.com. September 4, 2012.
Bohnett has become actively involved in many of Baroda's investment vehicles. These include NetZero, Stamps.com, Xdrive, LowerMyBills.com, Wireimage, OVGuide, FilmOn, and Online Partners (the parent company of Gay.com). In each of these he has maintained a significant investment stake, directorship, and active involvement with the entrepreneurs and management team."Interview with David Bohnett, OVGuide.com". SoCalTech.com. January 9, 2008. He has also been a board member of NCR Corporation.
Philanthropic activities
David Bohnett Foundation
Immediately after selling his popular internet social-network company GeoCities to Yahoo! in 1999, Bohnett turned his attention to activism. He created the David Bohnett Foundation, "a nonprofit grant-making organization focused on providing resources for organizations pursuing societal change and social justice through activism", with an initial endowment of $32million."Out in Business" . The Harbus. Harvard Business School. October 14, 2003. According to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, he "invests where he can actually improve lives, empower individuals and build viable communities in meaningful ways".Kotick, Nina. "Eli Broad & David Bohnett: Cause/Effect". Los Angeles Times Magazine. May 2009. To serve as executive director and strategist for his foundation he hired Michael Fleming, who had been a media leader for the American Civil Liberties Union.Michael Fleming. LinkedIn.
The David Bohnett Foundation is devoted to improving society through community-building and social activism, and it provides funding, state-of-the-art technology, and technical support to relevant innovative organizations and institutions."DAVID BOHNETT FOUNDATION". GuideStar.com."All Programs". David Bohnett Foundation. BohnettFoundation.org. Retrieved July 2, 2020. As of the end of 2025, the foundation had donated over $135 million. Its current primary funding areas are:
The Fund for Los Angeles, which supports a broad spectrum of arts, educational, and civic programs in Los AngelesFund For Los Angeles. BohnettFoundation.org. LGBT-related causes AIDS services and research Voting rights and voter registration Gun violence prevention Animal research and animal rights