Doug Dohring

Doug Dohring founded Neopets Inc. after buying neopets.com from Adam and Donna Powell in February 2000. Dohring was Chairman and CEO of the company through June 2005, when he sold Neopets to Viacom (owners of Nickelodeon and MTV as well as many other channels) for USD$160 million.^[1] He continued to serve as CEO of Neopets until September 2006 when he, at the request of Viacom management, completed a successful transition to a new MTV Networks management team. Neopets and Dohring were the subject of a case study by the Harvard Business Review.^[2]

Dohring fully left Neopets to found the education technology company Age of Learning in February 2007.^[3] As Neopets was, the company is based in Glendale, California. Dohring and Age of Learning launched the ABCmouse Early Learning Academy in 2010.^[4]

Still owned by Doug Dohring, Age of Learning raised $150 million in 2016, giving the company a $1 billion valuation.[5]

The company's education access initiatives offer ABCmouse at no cost to individual teachers, libraries, Head Start programs, public housing authorities, and other community institutions. ABCmouse for Schools launched in 2016 to offer schools and school districts a comprehensive early learning solution.

Doug Dohring's first successful company was the marketing research firm called The Dohring Company. Based in Glendale, California, The Dohring Company became a top-100 US market research firm and the nation’s largest provider of custom market research to the retail automotive industry. Rik Kinney and Lee Borth, who have worked with Doug Dohring at both Age of Learning and Neopets, began working with him at the Dohring Company. Some of the websites owned by The Dohring Company include OpinionSurveys.com, RestaurantSurveys.com, and SatisfactionSurveys.com. In 2004, OpinionSurveys.com was acquired by Greenfield Online, a NASDAQ-listed public company and one of the largest market research firms in the country at the time (later acquired by Microsoft). Doug Dohring was the owner of Digital Lightwave for a very short period.

Doug Dohring has been married to his wife, Laurie Dohring, since 1979.

References

1. ^ The Wall Street Journal, (June 20, 2005) - Viacom to Acquire Web Company Neopets
2. ^ Harvard Business Review, (March 12, 2002) - NeoPets, Inc.
3. ^ The Wall Street Journal, (November 15, 2010) - From Neopets to Teachers’ Pets
4. ^ Age of Learning, (November 16, 2010) - Three Years in Development, Full Online Curriculum, Preschool Through Kindergarten Educational Website is Bringing Learning to Life®
5. ^ EdSurge, (May 3, 2016) - From Mouse to Unicorn: Age of Learning Raises $150M at $1B Valuation, Eyes Expansion Into Schools