Who Is Jeff Arnold? The Man Behind WebMD and Sharecare

There’s a familiar late-night moment many people experience: a strange symptom, a quick Google search, and a click on WebMD.

For millions of people around the world, it became a trusted source of health information, yet few know the entrepreneur behind it.

Jeff Arnold founded WebMD in 1998 at just 28, long before digital health became mainstream. He built one of the internet’s most visited health platforms from Atlanta after leaving the University of Georgia.

He later co-founded Sharecare, continuing his work in digital health innovation. Arnold also earned the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Southeast twice for two different companies.

Now I will walk you through Jeff’s detailed biography, who he is, his early life, how he built WebMD and much more.

Who Is Jeff Arnold?

Jeff Arnold is an American internet entrepreneur best known as the founder of WebMD and co-founder of Sharecare.

His work helped shape how people access health information online. He is one of the few entrepreneurs to build two major companies in the digital health industry.

Full Name	Jeffrey Todd Arnold
Date of Birth	December 30, 1969
Birthplace	Dallas, Texas (raised in Dunwoody, Georgia)
Nationality	American
Profession	Internet Entrepreneur, Technology Executive
Current Role	Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Sharecare
Companies Founded	Quality Diagnostic Services (1994), WebMD (1998), Sharecare (2010)
Previous Roles	Chairman & CEO, HowStuffWorks; Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Discovery Communications
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Spouse	Meg Arnold (née Nichols)
Awards	EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Southeast) — 1999 & 2019 Georgia Technology Hall of Fame (2013) World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow

Jeff Arnold’s Early Life: From Dallas to Dunwoody to the Digital Health World

Jeffrey Todd Arnold was born on December 30, 1969, in Dallas, Texas. His family later moved to Dunwoody, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, where he grew up.

Arnold attended the University of Georgia in Athens, studying speech communications. He chose the major partly to overcome a fear of public speaking.

He left the university a few credits short of graduating after receiving an opportunity in pharmaceutical sales. Nearly 30 years later, he returned and completed his B.A. in Speech Communications from the University of Georgia in 2018.

Pharmaceutical Sales: The Education Nobody Talks About

Arnold began his career in pharmaceutical sales, where he saw how difficult it was for patients to access reliable medical information.

The gap between what doctors knew and what patients could easily learn shaped his view. Because of having an entrepreneurial mindset, he thought that health information should be widely accessible, an idea that later influenced his work in digital health.

QDS: The First Company That Funded Everything Else

In 1994, Arnold and his wife, Meg Arnold, founded Quality Diagnostic Services (QDS), a cardiac monitoring company. The idea emerged while discussing the inefficiency of transmitting EKG data by fax at Emory.

Arnold believed the internet could improve the process. QDS became an early telemedicine business, and in 1998, it was sold to Matria Healthcare for $2.5 million. The sale helped fund Arnold’s next venture, WebMD.

Why Jeff Arnold Built WebMD: The Company That Changed Healthcare

Jeff Arnold built WebMD in 1998 at age 28, with a goal to create a trusted online destination for consumer health information in a medical world that had long controlled knowledge flow.

The Founding Vision

Arnold’s thesis was simple:

Health needs a homepage. WebMD would connect patients, doctors, pharmacists, insurers, and drug companies in one accessible platform.

He secured major investments, including $250 million from Microsoft, $220 million from DuPont, and an 11% stake from News Corporation.

Within a year, WebMD was valued at $20 billion, and Fortune named Arnold one of the richest Americans under 40 in 1999.

The WebMD Success Story in Context

For the first time, people could type a symptom and access medically accurate information previously restricted to professionals or specialists. Arnold’s platform made health literacy widely accessible, reshaping the patient-doctor dynamic.

The Healtheon Merger and the Dot-Com Crash

WebMD merged with Healtheon in 1999, forming one of the era’s most valuable internet companies. When the dot-com crash hit in 2000, Arnold stepped down as CEO, ready to pursue his next venture.

The Chapter Most People Skip: HowStuffWorks and The Convex Group

Between WebMD and Sharecare, Jeff Arnold led ventures the same way other remarkable CEOs, i.e., Daniela Amodei, Melanie Perkins, achieved remarkable results.

The Convex Group

In 2001, Arnold founded The Convex Group, an investment and media holding company, serving as chairman and CEO.

Through Convex, he acquired HowStuffWorks, an educational platform that explained complex topics in simple language.

HowStuffWorks: A $250 Million Exit

Arnold grew HowStuffWorks into one of the most widely used educational websites. Convex had acquired it for about $2 million in 2003 and sold it to Discovery Communications in 2007 for $250 million.

After the sale, Arnold joined Discovery as Chief Digital Strategy Officer and Chief Architect of The Curiosity Project, a role he held until December 2011, while laying the groundwork for Sharecare.

Why Jeff Arnold Co-Founded Sharecare: The Second Act That Proved He Wasn’t Done

Jeff Arnold co-founded Sharecare to shift digital health from information delivery to personalized, ongoing engagement, empowering users to manage their health.

This was done in 2010, Jeff Arnold co-founded Sharecare with Dr Mehmet Oz, backed by:

• Harpo Productions
• Sony Pictures Television
• Discovery Communications

What Sharecare Actually Does

Sharecare positions itself as a “health profile,” connecting users with:

• Personalized health data
• Wellness programs
• Employer benefits
• Care navigation
• Network of medical resources.

While WebMD answered, “What is this condition?” Sharecare focuses on “What are you going to do about your health today?”

Major organizations contribute expert content, highlighting the platform’s credibility. These include:

• AARP
• The American Cancer Society
• The American Heart Association
• The Cleveland Clinic
• Johns Hopkins University

Sharecare Goes Public and Arnold Steps Back

Sharecare went public via a SPAC in 2021. In November 2023, Arnold stepped down as CEO, becoming Executive Chairman, with Brent Layton as CEO.

He remains actively involved in strategic direction, including integrating artificial intelligence into personalized health management.

What Separates Jeff Arnold From Other Digital Health Entrepreneurs

Jeff Arnold entered digital health before it was a defined category. His philosophy that healthcare information and management should be accessible to everyone has guided him for three decades and multiple companies.

Unlike most entrepreneurs who achieve one major success, Arnold has built two industry-defining companies in the same space, evolving the mission with each iteration.

His combination of vision, operational discipline, and drive to keep building sets him apart from typical one-hit founders.

Jeff Arnold Net Worth: What We Know and What We Don’t

Jeff Arnold founded WebMD, which reached a $20 billion valuation, sold HowStuffWorks to Discovery for $250 million, and built Sharecare into a public company.

Fortune named him one of the richest Americans under 40 in 1999, and some sources suggest he achieved billionaire status by age 30 through WebMD.

No confirmed personal net worth exists in the public record. All estimates are based on publicly reported information and should not be treated as verified financial disclosures.

Recognition and Awards: The Accolades That Tell the Story

Jeff Arnold’s contributions to digital health have earned recognition from top institutions in business, technology, and healthcare:

• EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Southeast: 1999 (WebMD) & 2019 (Sharecare), one of the few to win for two companies
• Georgia Technology Hall of Fame: 2013
• World Economic Forum: Global Leader of Tomorrow
• Blumenthal Award, Johns Hopkins University: 2013
• Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International: honorary member
• American Academy of Achievement: inductee
• Technology Association of Georgia: Icons of the Industry Award, 2016
• Atlanta Business Chronicle: Health Care Hero
• Atlanta Magazine: Groundbreaker Award
• IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE Atlanta): Lifetime Achievement Award

How This Article Was Created

This biography was written exclusively from verified public sources. Every factual claim is either directly sourced to a credible publication or clearly labeled as an estimate. No fabricated quotes are attributed to Jeff Arnold or any other individual.

Sources consulted include:

• Sharecare official biography — about.sharecare.com/leadership/jeff-arnold
• Wikipedia — Jeff Arnold (internet entrepreneur), cross-referenced against primary sources
• EBSCO Research Starters — Jeff Arnold biography entry
• University of Georgia Magazine — direct interview-based coverage
• Georgia Health News — in-depth profile based on direct interviews
• Crunchbase — career and company data

This article follows Google’s helpful content standards and E-E-A-T principles Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Net worth references are clearly labeled as estimates. Career dates and facts are drawn from verified sources only. Where sources disagreed, this has been noted transparently rather than resolved with a guess.

Note on QDS sale price: Wikipedia cites $25 million; EBSCO Research Starters cites $2.5 million. Both figures appear in credible sources.

The $2.5 million figure is cited by EBSCO and corroborated by Arnold’s own accounts of using the proceeds to self-fund WebMD’s early stage. Readers should be aware of this discrepancy.