# Julia Enthoven

> Julia Enthoven is the co-founder and CEO of Kapwing, a San Francisco-based online video editing platform that has grown to 25 million registered users. A Stanford Math & CS graduate and former Google Product Manager, she co-founded Kapwing in 2017 with Eric Lu after they both left Google. Under her leadership, Kapwing evolved from a simple meme maker into a comprehensive AI-powered video editing suite used by creators, brands, and educators worldwide. Named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Consumer Tech (2020) and Product Hunt Maker of the Year (2018), she has also launched Tess, an artist-compensating AI image generator, and is an outspoken voice on building ethical AI tools.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Kapwing
- **Organizations:** Kapwing, Tess (tess.design), General Assembly (instructor)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Mathematics and Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Product Hunt Maker of the Year 2018, Forbes 30 Under 30 Consumer Technology 2020, 51 Video Commerce Experts to Watch in 2025

## Career timeline

- **2013** — Internship at Rubicon International
- **2014** — Software Engineering Intern at Apple
- **2015** — Graduated Stanford University with Math & CS degree
- **2015-2017** — Associate Product Manager at Google (Identity/Authentication, then Image Search teams)
- **2017** — Left Google to co-found Kapwing with Eric Lu
- **2018** — Named Product Hunt Maker of the Year; Kapwing named Best Website 2018 by American Association of School Librarians
- **2019** — Kapwing raises Series A ($11M); total funding reaches $14.4M
- **2020** — Named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Consumer Technology
- **2024** — Launched Tess, an AI image generator that compensates artists 50% royalties
- **2025** — Launched Kai, the AI assistant for creative assets; Kapwing reaches 25M+ registered users; spoke at NAB Show 2025
- **2026-01** — Tess shut down after 20 months; published detailed retrospective on the experiment
- **2026-04** — Published 'How We Achieved 100% Adoption of AI Coding Agents' documenting Kapwing's AI-first engineering culture

## Achievements

- Product Hunt Maker of the Year 2018
- Forbes 30 Under 30 Consumer Technology 2020
- 51 Video Commerce Experts to Watch in 2025
- NAB Show 2025 speaker
- Kapwing named Best Website of 2018 by American Association of School Librarians
- Grew Kapwing to 25+ million registered users
- Raised $14.4M in venture funding (Seed + Series A)
- Launched and documented Tess, an artist-compensating AI image generator
- Achieved 100% AI coding agent adoption at Kapwing in Q1 2026

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Published essay on achieving 100% AI coding agent adoption at Kapwing in Q1 2026
- **2026-03** — Published retrospective on Tess.design royalty experiment and lessons learned
- **2026-01** — Shut down Tess.design after 20 months following $12K gross revenue and unresolved copyright litigation challenges
- **2025-11** — Launched Kai, Kapwing's AI assistant for creative assets
- **2025-04** — Spoke at NAB Show 2025
- **2025-05** — Published article on how AI is changing engineering recruiting at Kapwing
- **2025-03** — Published essay 'The Riskiest Thing You've Ever Done' on fear and risk in entrepreneurship

## Links

- Website: https://kapwing.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaenthoven/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/JuliaEnthoven
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Kapwing
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ju_enthoven/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kapwing

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/julia-enthoven
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-14