Jon Oringer was born in 1974 in
Scarsdale, New York, where he spent his childhood. Oringer is Jewish. He began learning
computer programming in elementary school, using his
Apple IIe to code "simple games and plug-ins for bulletin board systems." As he grew older he also developed his own photos as a hobby. Attending
Scarsdale High School from 1988 to 1992, by the age of fifteen Oringer was teaching guitar lessons, later moving on to fixing computers out of his parents house when he realized it was more lucrative. Oringer started selling his own software products over the internet when he began attending
Stony Brook University in 1993, inventing and selling thousands of copies of what
Forbes describes as "one of the Web's first
pop-up blockers." After graduating with a
BS in
computer science and mathematics in 1997, from 1996 to 1998 he studied computer science at
Columbia University, graduating with an
MS. While enrolled at Columbia he continued "trying to create products to complement the pop-up blocker," using a subscription model to sell "personal
firewalls, accounting software, cookie blockers, trademark managers," and other small programs. Oringer estimates that he founded about ten small startup companies, most of which had Oringer as the sole employee. ==Career==