 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(November 2024) |
Jennifer Rubio is an American businesswoman. She is the co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of Away, a luggage manufacturer and retailer. [1] Rubio was head of social media at Warby Parker [2] [3] and global director of innovation at fashion company AllSaints. [4]
Rubio was born in the Philippines, and moved to New Jersey when she was seven years old. [5] She grew up traveling, and lived in seven cities on three continents. [4] [6] When she was young, Rubio bought a lemonade stand from another child who lived on her street for $20 which she borrowed from her father. She has called it her first merger and acquisition. [1] Rubio later went on to attend college at Penn State University, where she pursued a supply-chain management major. She was placed at Johnson & Johnson as part of Penn State's co-op program. [7] After discovering her desire to be a businesswoman, Rubio dropped out of Penn State just a few credits shy of graduating, in order to pursue a full-time role at Neutrogena, a company with whom she did another co-op.
In 2011, Rubio joined Warby Parker, leading the company's early content and partnership work as its head of social media. [8] She met Away co-founder Stephanie Korey during her time at Warby Parker. [9] In 2013, she left Warby Parker and went to London, [10] [11] where she was global director of innovation for clothing brand AllSaints. [3] [12] [13] She spent much of a year traveling for the position. [14]
Before Warby Parker, Rubio held different marketing and social media roles, working for brands on the agency side and in-house. [15] She also taught social media as an adjunct professor at Miami Ad School. [16] She has been a guest lecturer at Hyper Island, New York University, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Harvard University. [17]
Rubio co-founded Away Luggage, a direct-to-consumer travel and luggage company, with Stephanie Korey, who also worked at Warby Parker. [13] By 2017, Rubio and Korey had raised $31 million, making it one of the largest seed financed female-backed startups. [18]
In May 2019, Rubio got engaged to her boyfriend, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. [19] They married in 2020 and share two children. [20]
Jennifer Carole Ledger is an English and American musician who serves as the drummer and co-vocalist for the Christian rock band Skillet. At the age of 18, she became Skillet's drummer when Lori Peters retired.
Nasty Gal is an American fast-fashion retailer that specializes in fashion for young women. The company has customers in over 60 countries. Founded by Sophia Amoruso in 2006, Nasty Gal was named "Fastest Growing Retailer" in 2012 by Inc. magazine. Nasty Gal is based in Los Angeles. In 2017, the company was purchased by the BooHoo Group out of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Warby Parker Inc. is an American manufacturer and retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. Founded in 2010, it was initially an online-only retailer. It now receives about 90% of its revenue from its 237 physical retail stores, 232 of which are in the U.S. and 5 of which are in Canada. It also offers eye exams. The company has 2.28 million customers, with an average order value of $263. The company's goal is to operate 900 stores.
Arkadium is a developer of casual web games, which are hosted on its own website, Arkadium.com, as well as across a network of digital publishers including USA Today and the Washington Post. The company is headquartered in New York City, with an additional office in Krasnodar, Russia.
Andy Dunn is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder of Bonobos Inc. Dunn served as CEO for eleven years after co-founding the Bonobos brand in 2007. In June 2017, Walmart announced it was purchasing the Bonobos brand for $310 million in cash. Dunn joined Walmart after the purchase to lead the company's collection of direct-to-consumer brands.
Youngme Moon is the Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. At HBS, Professor Moon has held numerous leadership positions, including Senior Associate Dean for the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Strategy and Innovation, and has launched a number of strategic innovations such as the MBA FIELD curriculum, and the HBX Learning Platform. Moon has received the HBS Award for Teaching Excellence on multiple occasions and currently offers one of the most popular courses in the MBA program. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Hellman Faculty Fellowship, awarded for distinction in research.
Sophia Christina Amoruso is an American businesswoman. Amoruso founded Nasty Gal, a women's fashion retailer, which went on to be named one of "the fastest growing companies" by Inc. Magazine in 2012. In 2016, she was named one of the richest self-made women in the world by Forbes. However, Nasty Gal filed for bankruptcy. In 2017, Amoruso founded Girlboss Media, a company that creates content for women in the millennial generation to progress as people in their personal and professional life.
Chris Hollod is a venture capitalist, angel investor, and advisor in Los Angeles. Hollod was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Tailwind Acquisition Corp. which merged with Terran Orbital in March 2022 in a $1.8 billion deal. Over the course of his career, Hollod has completed more than 150 deals across five different investment entities, including investments in Uber, Airbnb, Houzz, Spotify, Pinterest, Duolingo, Airtable, Oscar Health, Flexport, Casper, and Warby Parker.
Comcast Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm headquartered in New York, NY.
Harry's is an American company that manufactures and sells shaving equipment and men's personal care products via online and retail channels. The company is known for their subscription service where customers receive new razor blades, shaving cream, and other grooming products by mail. Harry's is based in New York.
Letgo was a company that provided a website and app that allows users to buy from, sell to and chat with others locally. The products launched in 2015.
Inverse is an online magazine from Bustle Digital Group, covering topics such as technology, science, and culture for a millennial audience.
Blavity is an American digital media company and website based in Los Angeles targeting black millennials. Their mission is to "economically and creatively support Black millennials across the African scape, so they can pursue the work they love, and change the world in the process."
Lee Jared Fixel is an American venture capitalist and investor. He is the founder of venture capital firm, Addition.
Kirsten Green is an American venture capitalist, the founder and managing partner of Forerunner Ventures.
Away is an American luggage and travel accessories brand founded by Jen Rubio and Steph Korey in 2015 and based in New York City. Having raised $31 million in financing, Away is one of the highest funded female-backed startups.
Melissa Bell is an American journalist and technologist. She helped launch the Indian business newspaper Mint, and held several positions at The Washington Post, starting in 2010. She and Ezra Klein left the newspaper to co-found the news and opinion website Vox with Matthew Yglesias in 2014. Bell was named vice president of growth and analytics for Vox Media in 2015, and was the company's publisher from 2016 until 2024. She is the current CEO of Chicago Public Media.
Figs is an American clothing company based in Santa Monica, California. The company sells scrubs and other products for healthcare professionals. It was founded in 2013 by Heather Hasson and Trina Spear, who are co-CEOs.
Carter Milliken Reum is an American author, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the founder of M13 Ventures, an angel investment firm. He is married to Paris Hilton.
TNW is a website and annual series of conferences focused on new technology and start-up companies in Europe. The Next Web company was established in 2006 by co-founders Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten and Patrick de Laive in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and a technology news website of the same name was started in 2009. TNW's reporting has been sourced by Wired, Mashable, and the Huffington Post, among others.