Mahbod Moghadam

Mahbod Moghadam (November 17, 1982 – March 25, 2024) was an Iranian-American internet entrepreneur best known for co-founding Rap Genius, later renamed Genius, and for joining the founding team of the blockchain-based encyclopedia Everipedia. A Yale graduate and Stanford Law-trained attorney, Moghadam began his career as a lawyer at Dewey & LeBoeuf before co-founding Rap Genius in 2009 alongside Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory. The platform evolved from a collaborative rap-lyrics annotation site into Genius, a broader digital media and cultural annotation platform. After leaving Genius in 2014, Moghadam joined Everipedia as a co-founder in 2015 and served as its Chief Community Officer, helping guide the encyclopedia through its transition toward blockchain-based knowledge infrastructure and token incentives. Everipedia was later rebranded as IQ.wiki in 2022. Following his departure from Everipedia, Moghadam worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the venture capital firm Mucker Capital and pursued angel investing and later internet and crypto projects. He was also a documented early angel investor in Coinbase. Moghadam died on March 25, 2024, at age 41, from complications related to a recurring brain tumor, as confirmed by his family.