Emerson Spartz (b. February 17, 1987 in LaPorte, Indiana) is the founder of the Harry Potter fansite, Mugglenet.com. He currently serves as the CEO of Mugglenet.com.[1] Spartz founded the MuggleNet website in 1999 as a homeschooled eleven-year-old. As CEO, he oversees 120 volunteers and a paid staff.[2] In 2007, Spartz incorporated Spartz Inc. to serve as the legal entity representing his MuggleNet e-business.[1][3]
In 2007, Emerson co-authored a book - "MuggleNet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 - Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love, and How the Series Finally Ends." As of July 21, 2007, 'What Will Happen' sold 335,000 copies and reached #2 on the New York Times Children's Bestseller List. It spent 6 months on the list. Spartz and his co-authors launched a marketing campaign in June 2007 to promote their work. This included a tour of the United States where they stopped at bookstores nationwide and discussed their various theories and revelations. Emerson went on this tour with Ben Schoen.
In 2009, Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen penned another book, "MuggleNet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views From The #1 Fan Site". A cross-country book tour took place in the summer of 2009.
A self-taught home-schooler through high school, in May 2009, he graduated with a degree in management concentration from the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.[1]
On May 31, 2009, Emerson and his fiance launched the website GivesMeHope. The website was created in response to the popular website fmylife.com, in which users share how their day was ruined. On GivesMeHope, users share their most inspiring, uplifting stories, and allow others to draw strength from their experiences.The website receives approximately 1.2 million unique visitors per month.
On December 30, 2009, Emerson and Gaby launched the GivesMeHope spin-off site LoveGivesMeHope.com. The website's slogan is "Stories That Make You Go 'Aww!'" According to the site, LoveGivesMeHope is for those "who can't get enough of the love stories" on GivesMeHope. The website receives approximately 1 million unique visitors per month.
On June 23, 2009, the two launched another site, Givoogle.com, a website that raises money for the American Cancer Society with every search.[citation needed] The website received 1.1 million unique visitors per month and raised a total of $6,569.89. On February 11, 2010, Givoogle.com was taken down and replaced with SavesWatts.com, with a claim that lawyers from Google forced the site closure. SavesWatts.com is a search engine that saves energy due to its black background.
In January 2010 Emerson and Gaby collaborated with sixteen year old Adorian Deck to create OMG-Facts.com a site similar to GMH, in which visitors can view interesting facts, and vote on upcoming facts. As of October 7, 2010, the OMGFacts Twitter account has over 1.1 million followers. The site's YouTube account, created in March, has over 200,000 subscribers.
In early May 2010, Emerson and Gaby created another site called SixBillionSecrets.com. In the site, people share hopes, fears and dreams in an open community. The site is likePostSecret, but instead, it updates daily and not all secrets are posted. The website, like OMG-Facts.com, LoveGivesMeHope.com, SavesWatts.com and GivesMeHope.com is part of the Spartz Network.
As of August 2010, 'The GMH Network' has been renamed to 'The Spartz Network.' Also, GivesMeHope will release a book of the top 127 stories from GivesMeHope. In the book, each story will by accompanied by an illustration. The book will appear on shelves in fall 2010.
In early September 2010, Emerson launched a new site, called Kids Give Me Hope, in which people submit stories in which they have been inspired by something a child has done/said.
Another addition to the Spartz Network is Taste of Awesome - a brand new site launched in late October 2010, described as " pics + epic captions".