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Maveron
Maveron is an American venture capital firm that invests in consumer-only and early-stage companies, with offices in Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, California. The firm was co-founded by Dan Levitan and former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz in 1998. Maveron invests in consumer-only businesses centered on technology-enabled products and services in commerce, education, and health and wellness. As of 2020, the firm had a total of $1.3 billion in assets under management (AUM). History The firm was co-founded in Seattle by Dan Levitan, former investment banker at Schroder Wertheim & Co., and Howard Schultz, former CEO, president, and chairman of Starbucks. During his time at Schroder Wertheim & Co., Levitan helped take Starbucks public in 1992, which is where his relationship with Schultz was formed. By 1993, Levitan and Schultz began investing together in several consumer businesses. In 1997, Levitan decided to leave New York and head west to Seattle to st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eargo
Eargo, Inc. is an American hearing aid manufacturer based in San Jose, California, San Jose, California. Christian Gormsen was CEO until 2023 when William Brownie replaced him. History Eargo was founded in 2010 by Florent Michel, his son Raphael Michel, and Daniel Shen. Florent was an Otorhinolaryngology, ear, nose, and throat surgeon serving as the designer and inventor. Raphael served as the company's first chief executive officer, CEO and Shen the company's chief science & clinical officer. In 2013, they received seed funding from various a range of funds and angels, including Maveron. In June 2015, they received $13.6 million in Series A funding from a group of 9 investors, including Maveron, Crosslink Capital, Dolby Family Ventures, and Birchmere Ventures. Eargo announced $25 million in Series B funding, Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates in December 2015, and in October 2017 closed the first tranche of Series C funding intended to raise $45m. There were o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dan Levitan
Dan Levitan is a former investment banker turned venture capital investor. He is co-founding partner at Maveron, which invests in consumer-only businesses centered on technology-enabled products and services in commerce, education, and health and wellness. Early life Levitan is the son of Minna and Milton Levitan.New York Times: "WEDDINGS; Stacey Winston, Dan Levitan" November 8, 1998 Levitan is . He is a graduate of and |
Howard Schultz
Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) is an American businessman and author who was the chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and interim CEO from 2022 to 2023. Schultz owned the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team from 2001 to 2006. Schultz began working at Starbucks in 1982. He later left and opened Il Giornale, a specialty coffeeshop that merged with Starbucks during the late 1980s. Under Schultz, the company established a large network of stores which has influenced coffee culture in Seattle, the U.S., and internationally. Following large-scale distribution deals, Starbucks became the largest coffee-house chain in the world. Schultz took the company public in 1992 and used a $271 million valuation to double their store count in a series of highly publicized coffee wars. He stepped down as CEO in 2000, succeeded by Orin Smith. Due to the rapid expansion of Starbucks under Schultz's leadership, he has been described as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spyce Kitchen
Spyce Kitchen or just Spyce was a robotic-powered restaurant which prepares food in "three minutes or less". History MIT mechanical engineering graduates Michael Farid, Brady Knight, Luke Schlueter and Kale Rogers developed the kitchen using seven autonomous work stations to prepare bowl-based meals using healthy ingredients such as kale, beans and grains. The four graduates wanted to make healthy meals more affordable, so they built the robotic technology and initially served the food to students at an MIT dining hall. The group received the $10,000 "Eat It" Lemelson-MIT undergraduate prize in 2016 as one of America's top two collegiate inventors in food technology. The four then teamed up with chef Daniel Boulud to create the new menu for their restaurant. Prices started at $7.50 for an entire meal in a bowl at their first real branch, which opened on May 3, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts. Referred to as the "Spyce Boys", the four founders were inspired by their experiences as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovevery
Lovevery is an American company based in Boise, Idaho that produces Montessori-inspired toys and play-kit subscription boxes for children. It is a certified B Corporation. History Lovevery was founded in 2015 by Jessica Rolph and Roderick Morris. In 2019, Maveron led a $20 million funding cycle for Lovevery, along with Google Ventures and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. In October 2021, Lovevery raised $100 million in new investments, led by TCG. Other investors include Reach Capital, SoGal Ventures, as well as the Collaborative Fund. Description Lovevery produces educational toys, books, and games via play-kit subscription boxes "designed to meet the developmental needs and brain development of toddlers and babies." The toys, produced in consultation with child development experts, physical therapists, and cognitive developmental psychologists, follow the Montessori educational model. The company offers subscription boxes and off-the-shelf toys from birth through ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Booster Fuels
Booster Fuels is a company that develops an app-based service (also called Booster Fuels) to deliver and pump gas in office parking lots. The San Mateo, California-based startup partners with campus-based companies, commercial real estate owners, universities, and commercial fleets. The company has stated that it serves tens of thousands of commuters working at more than 300 companies, including Cisco, Oracle, eBay, Pepsico, and Facebook. History Booster Fuels was founded in 2015 by Frank Mycroft, Diego Netto and Tyler Raugh. In its first 18 months, the company reportedly delivered more than 3 million gallons of gasoline to its customers in the San Francisco Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs. By the end of 2020, Booster had announced expansion into new markets including Seattle, Washington D.C. and Maryland. Business Booster Fuels' service delivers fuel to fleet and office and commercial parking lots using company-branded purple fuel trucks. Customers order fuel through contract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allbirds
Allbirds is an American public benefit company originating in New Zealand that sells footwear and apparel, co-founded in 2015 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, and is known for their minimalist designs, association with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, and Silicon Valley. Its business model has relied on direct-to-consumer commerce, although it also has brick and mortar commerce. Allbirds was founded through an initial fundraising of US$119,000 on Kickstarter and has based its corporate identity on sustainability. Since the 2020s, the company has been criticized by legal scholars for greenwashing after a case about their reporting of carbon offsets was dismissed. Allbirds went public on November 3, 2021, but experienced poor sales soon afterwards; executive turnover followed the company through the end of 2024. On April 8, 2024, the company received a non-compliance notice from Nasdaq for performing bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potbelly Sandwich Works
Potbelly Corporation, more commonly known as Potbelly Sandwich Shop or Potbelly Sandwich Works, is a publicly traded American fast-casual restaurant chain that focuses on submarine sandwiches and milkshakes. Potbelly was founded in 1977 in Chicago, and its name refers to the potbelly stove. Potbelly's menu features a variety of sandwiches that are all served hot, and the menu includes soup, shakes, smoothies, potato chips, and cookies. Some locations formerly presented live music from local musicians during the lunch hours. History In 1971, Peter Hastings started an antique store, Hindsight, at 2264 North Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. The store had an old potbelly stove, which Hastings began using to make toasted sandwiches to serve to shoppers. In 1977, the Hindsight store was retooled into a restaurant, Potbelly Sandwich Works. Since 1977, Potbelly has partnered with Turano in Chicago for their bread products. In 1996, Bryant Keil purchased the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Everlane
Everlane is an American clothing retailer that sells primarily online. Headquartered in San Francisco, California with stores in New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, Austin, and Palo Alto, the company was founded in 2011 by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer with the mission of selling clothing with transparent pricing. History Everlane was founded in 2011 by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer as a direct-to-consumer online menswear retailer. Preysman and Farmer collaborated with Andy Zhang for the sourcing of ethical materials. The company enables customers to see how much each item costs to produce and how big the company's markup is. Everlane started with a referral invite list that gained 60,000 subscribers in five days, although the company only had 1,500 T-shirts in inventory. In 2014, Everlane began a partnership with delivery company Postmates to provide same-day delivery to consumers in San Francisco and New York. The company opened brick-and-mortar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common (company)
Common is an American coliving company founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City. Brad Hargreaves is the company's CEO and founder. As of June 2020, Common manages 48 multifamily buildings in nine cities across the U.S.: New York, Jersey City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Philadelphia, and Fort Lauderdale. The company has plans to expand to 22 cities across the globe, and has 15,000 beds signed and under development. In March 2019, Common partnered with New York real-estate developer Tishman Speyer to launch the brand Kin, whose "buildings will feature playrooms, family-size units and on-demand child care through an internal mobile app that also helps connect families looking to share nannies and babysitters." In May 2020, Common announced the launch of Noah, a workforce housing brand. Noah operates “Class B and C multifamily buildings where renters earn 40 percent to 80 percent of the area median income” and as of March 2020, is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wharton School Publishing
Wharton School Press (WSP) is the book publishing arm of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. It was established in 2011 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton School Press publishes a select list of books on a variety of topics, including leadership, management, strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, social impact, and public policy. The first book it published was The Leader's Checklist, by Wharton professor Michael Useem. As of 2023, the publishing organization has published more than 30 books. Wharton School Press developed a fast-reading business book format that underpins its publishing program, and is also considered the first business-school press to launch a digital press. As of July 2023, Wharton School Press is an imprint of University of Pennsylvania Press. History and background Wharton School Press was launched in 2011 by Stephen J. Kobrin, William H. Wurster Emeritus Professor of Multinational Manage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
