Michael Fertik
CEO and founder, Modelcode.ai; managing partner and founder, Verdict Capital
Education and Reputation.com
Michael Fertik is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School[1]. He founded Reputation.com and served as its CEO and executive chairman; his website now describes him as the company's former executive chairman, CEO and founder[2][1]. A 2015 Bocconi University book notice described Reputation.com as a company in digital reputation management and privacy[1].
The same notice described Fertik as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the WEF's Global Agenda Council on the future of the internet, a lecturer at Harvard Law School and an inventor on numerous patents in internet technology[1]. His website says he holds more than a dozen patents[2]. A 2025 report republished by Ynetnews described Reputation.com as having thousands of employees across the US, Europe and Latin America[3].
His website also lists him as founder and CEO of b4.ai, WaveShift and Sightglass Vision[2].
The Reputation Economy
Fertik wrote The Reputation Economy with David C. Thompson, Reputation.com's first general counsel and chief privacy officer[4][1]. Crown published the book on 20 January 2015[4]. Penguin Random House describes it as a guide to controlling, curating and optimising a digital reputation in a world where reputation is as valuable as cash[4].
The book argues that reputation determines whether a bank will lend money, whether a landlord will accept a tenant and which employers will hire a person[4]. An Italian edition was published by Egea in 2015[1]. Fertik's website states that the book reached number 7 on the New York Times best sellers list[2].
Venture investing
Fertik was founder and managing partner of Heroic Ventures[2]. He is now managing partner and founder of Verdict Capital, which his website says focuses almost exclusively on what it calls First Money investing[2]. His website describes him as the first investor in Anysphere, the company behind the Cursor code editor[5].
His Times of Israel author bio lists Israeli companies NextSilicon, Sunbit and SentinelOne among his portfolio investments[6]. In February 2025 he told The Media Line that he had been investing in Israeli startups for 10 years[3].
Modelcode.ai and commentary on AI
Fertik is CEO and founder of Modelcode.ai and sits on its board alongside David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners[7]. The company builds Morph, a platform that uses AI to modernize production codebases through approved plans, reviewable milestones and measurable validation[7]. In February 2026 Modelcode published RepoMod-Bench, a benchmark for repository modernization covering 21 repositories, 8 languages and 1.6 million lines of code[8].
In early 2025 Fertik launched Modelcode Chai, an Israeli subsidiary of Modelcode, and made its first four hires of software developers and data scientists[3]. He told The Media Line that modernizing a bank's old code had in the past cost upwards of a billion dollars and taken 12 years[3]. In a May 2025 Times of Israel op-ed he wrote about Israel's prospects in applied AI[6].
His website lists frequent CNBC appearances in 2026, including discussion of OpenAI's and Anthropic's IPO plans and of Anysphere's acquisition by SpaceX[2][5].
Known for
- Founding Reputation.com
- The Reputation Economy (Crown, 2015)
- Modelcode.ai and AI code modernization
- Early investment in Anysphere (Cursor)
Sources
- Università Bocconi: Reputation Economy (book notice), May 2015 (Italian) — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Michael Fertik's website — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Ynetnews / The Media Line: Michael Fertik is hiring in Israel for the first time, February 2025 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Penguin Random House: The Reputation Economy, January 2015 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Michael Fertik's website: CNBC appearance on Anysphere, June 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026
- The Times of Israel: Michael Fertik author page — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Modelcode.ai: About — checked 6 Nov 2026
- Modelcode.ai: Research (RepoMod-Bench, February 2026) — checked 6 Nov 2026