He is the CEO of FriendFinder Networks Inc. Conru grew up in northwestern Indiana and attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, earning undergraduate degrees in economics and chemical engineering.
[3][4] The company created PWS (Personal Web Site), an early customized advertising product used by Hewlett-Packard and Egghead Software.
[12][13] In December 2007, Conru sold the company to Penthouse Media Group for $500 million, much of which came in the form of IOUs.
[19][20] In 2010, Conru launched the non-profit foundation Compute.org, which awards internet and software startups with grants in amounts of $50,000–100,000.
[23] In October 2024, Hope not Hate discovered through an undercover investigation that Conru had donated over $1 million to the far-right Human Diversity Foundation which publishes discredited ideas of eugenics and racism through podcasts, online magazines and dubious papers.