Where is chewy from

As the owner of a toy poodle, Tylee, Cohen was well aware of how fragmented the market was at that point and how underpenetrated it was online.

He saw an opportunity to fix it. Within a few months, Cohen and his cofounder, Michael Day, had pivoted from jewelry and were selling pet food online under the name of Mr. Chewy, which later became Chewy. He told Business Insider that the key to the company's success was providing an online service that Amazon wasn't, and understanding the emotional connection that pet owners have with their animals. I just knew how strong it was and how fanatical pet owners are. When Cohen set out to raise capital in at the age of 25, investors initially balked at his pitch.

That one company would be Amazon, the e-commerce giant that was flexing its muscles across the retail sector at the time and building up a giant customer base, which was drawing business away from other retailers.

Amazon had been in the business of selling pet food since the late s but at that time, the market for pet food was still largely offline, Cohen said, adding: "It didn't feel like Amazon was super disruptive in the category. Still, Amazon was already showing its weight elsewhere. In the same year that Chewy launched, the US' second-largest bookstore, Borders, filed for bankruptcy , and Amazon's rise was widely cited as being one of the key contributors to its demise.

Cohen's rebuttal to potential investors was that Chewy was offering a shopping experience that Amazon wasn't: around-the-clock customer service where shoppers could speak to agents who were well-versed in the products that it was selling. Cohen added: "That was really important to me because my pet was a family member, and I had a lot of questions.

Pets can't speak, so you need to speak to someone who is an expert. Meanwhile, Amazon customers lean on reviews from other customers to find out more about the products being sold on the site. Many people quit stable jobs and relocated with their families from across the country to join us. It was a tremendous sacrifice that we never took lightly.

That got us thinking about an IPO for our next round of financing. We had about 7, employees and six warehouses, with plans to add another two in the next 12 months. From an operational and strategic perspective, the company was strong. I received an email from Raymond Svider, a partner and the chairman of BC Partners, the private equity group that had completed its acquisition of PetSmart in March of He said he was interested in buying Chewy and wanted to talk.

PetSmart was one of our top competitors, so we proceeded carefully. I explained that we were preparing for an IPO, so we expected a certain price in an all-cash, public-style deal. I told Svider that if he wanted to make the acquisition, he would need to do it quickly.

To his credit, he did. It was the largest e-commerce acquisition in history. Our investors were happy too. The early-stage ones made huge gains, and the later-stage ones earned significant money. Those investors put their trust in me and my vision, and I repaid them with returns. I left the company in March of The company was sound, the foundation strong, and the vision set.

But I was no longer in full control. My work was complete. I relished the challenges of disrupting an entire industry and trying to delight customers to a degree that had never been achieved before. The excitement I felt from putting together a world-class team of employees and investors, succeeding against all odds, and building a multibillion-dollar retail leader from nothing was unequivocally the greatest of my career.

You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. When PetSmart bought Chewy in , it was the largest acquisition price paid to date for an e-commerce startup. Its user interface is dated, and the shopping experience has become more difficult for the consumer, with a flood of third-party merchandise and sponsored ads pushing aside organic search results. Those are weaknesses a competitor can exploit, Cohen said.

When you search Amazon the default search used to be best-selling product. Now the default search is really sponsored ads. Cohen was an obsessed pet parent when he started Chewy. Sure you want a direct-to-consumer relationship, but does the consumer want one with you? Everyone wants to have a direct-to-customer relationship, but does the customer want to have one with you?

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