Apple hires Josh Elman, former VC & Robinhood VP for App Store role

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Josh Elman, principal at Greylock Partners, speaks during the TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2016 Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. TechCrunch Disrupt, the world
Josh Elman, principal at Greylock Partners, speaks during the TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2016 Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. TechCrunch Disrupt, the world (Image credit: David Paul Morris/ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

What you need to know

  • Apple has hired Jason Elman to help with app discovery on the App Store.
  • Elman was previously the VP of Product at Robinhood and a prominent venture capitalist.

Reported by Bloomberg, Apple has hired Josh Elman, a former venture capitalist at Greylock Partners and Vice President of Product at Robinhood Markets Inc, for a role working on the App Store. Elman will be focusing on app discovery for users of Apple's devices.

Elman's role will focus on app discovery for customers, he said in a statement Monday. He'll step back from investing and the corporate boards that he serves on, which includes the communications app Discord and the blogging site Medium.

The executive announced his new role earlier today on Twitter.

Two apps that Elman worked on have since been acquired by some of Apple's competitors, including SmartThings and HouseParty.

Two of Elman's most successful investments now belong to two major Apple agitators. SmartThings, which makes technology for connected homes, was acquired by Samsung Electronics Co. HouseParty, which develops games for smartphones, is now owned by Epic Games Inc., the Fortnite maker that's suing Apple over its rules for the App Store.

Elman has been involved in multiple apps that have become hits on the App Store, so his hire is a big win for app discovery for Apple and potential acquisition opportunities for the company. It may also help to build Apple's relationships with developers which have been especially shaky as of late, specifically with some of its major apps like Spotify and Fortnite.

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.