J. Melissa Cooper is an internet entrepreneur
and Real Estate Developer. She has started and monetized five companies, including a staffing firm at 23, and a career services firm at the intersection of executive search and technology, which grew to 500 employees with wholesale customers such as Monster.com and Indeed.com.
She successfully navigated her first exit in 2014 to TopResume.com & Talent, Inc. Shortly after, she authored a book Freelance Nation on her experience in the developing ‘gig economy’.
She now owns and operates Phoenix Development, a real estate development firm focused on 10-50 unit condominium buildings in the Greater Boston Area. Melissa has been an angel investor in several start-up companies, having lived in California, and is still an active owner in her original search firm HirePerfect, in Boston-Cambridge.
She has been featured in Enterprising Women, Forbes, Fortune, and Entrepreneur, and is the recipient of several Stevie Awards for Women in Business, among them best Young Female Entrepreneur of the year. She is a three time 50-fastest Amex Open winner, topping the list at #1 in 2020.
Melissa holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA in English Literature, and a Master of Science from New York University in New York, NY in Business and Human Resource Management.