Most people assume that the high point of my professional career came on April 18, 2017, when the owners of PetSmart paid $3.35 billion for Chewy.com, the pet retailer I had cofounded six years earlier.
No doubt, that day was incredible. It represented the culmination of a dream and a tremendous amount of work. But believe it or not, another handshake—another deal—mattered even more to me.
That one happened on September 26, 2013. I had launched Chewy two years earlier with Michael Day, using our own cash and small loans, but my vision was to build a large business, and I knew that significant capital would be required to finance the growth. We approached dozens of VC firms—I even flew out to Silicon Valley from our South Florida headquarters and went door-to-door on Sand Hill Road explaining how Chewy would succeed by delighting customers and running an ultra-efficient operation. But everyone turned us down.
Larry Cheng at Volition Capital was one of the people we pitched our company to. We first met him in 2012; he was en route to Disney World with his family and agreed to make a quick stop at our office. I remember that he asked me, “Who’s going to take this company to $100 million in sales?” I was 26 and probably looked even younger, but I confidently answered, “I am.” He didn’t invest.
He followed up with us about six months later, though...
read more (HBR)
No doubt, that day was incredible. It represented the culmination of a dream and a tremendous amount of work. But believe it or not, another handshake—another deal—mattered even more to me.
That one happened on September 26, 2013. I had launched Chewy two years earlier with Michael Day, using our own cash and small loans, but my vision was to build a large business, and I knew that significant capital would be required to finance the growth. We approached dozens of VC firms—I even flew out to Silicon Valley from our South Florida headquarters and went door-to-door on Sand Hill Road explaining how Chewy would succeed by delighting customers and running an ultra-efficient operation. But everyone turned us down.
Larry Cheng at Volition Capital was one of the people we pitched our company to. We first met him in 2012; he was en route to Disney World with his family and agreed to make a quick stop at our office. I remember that he asked me, “Who’s going to take this company to $100 million in sales?” I was 26 and probably looked even younger, but I confidently answered, “I am.” He didn’t invest.
He followed up with us about six months later, though...
read more (HBR)
