Irv Cohen

Most recently Mr. Cohen became CEO and Chairman of the Board for CodeBoxx, a St. Pete-based Technology School is dedicated to empowering the community through software development. CodeBoxx focuses on providing access to career paths based on potential rather than privilege and is intentional about diversity and inclusivity. Mr. Cohen is a founding partner of Seedfunders, which provides funding and mentoring for pre-revenue technology concepts, and Florida Funders, a hybrid venture capital fund, and an angel investor network. Mr. Cohen has drawn on his vast experience to become an active investor in multiple early-stage companies. He has a special interest in mentoring entrepreneurs, offering leadership and guidance to the startup community, and private equity groups and other sources of capital to the funding table. In 2020, Seedfunders announced the launch of the Seedfunders Opportunity Fund, a committed capital fund that makes pre-seed stage investments in Black-owned startups throughout the state. Mr. Cohen leads the management board for the fund. As an investor, Mr. Cohen looks for innovation by keeping his finger on the pulse of the community and seeking effective, passionate entrepreneurs who share his enthusiasm for business growth. As a philanthropist, he maintains these principles through holding positions on the executive committees of all nonprofits he engages and supports social entrepreneurs and enterprises that advance the public good. Mr. Cohen is a partner and co-founder of the St. Petersburg Group, an influential consulting and media business that includes in its holdings The Catalyst, a rapidly growing civic engagement, news, and social media platform. He is a board member of its nonprofit philanthropic arm, the St. Petersburg Foundation, which builds capacity in the nonprofit sector and community via consulting services and the fostering of public, private, and philanthropic partnerships. Mr. Cohen is a founding partner of Social Venture Partners Tampa Bay, a global network of engaged philanthropists leveraging time, expertise, and resources for sustainable solutions to social problems. His many areas of civic engagement include board membership at the Florida Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Tampa Bay.