Josh Tetrick

Last updated
Josh Tetrick
Joshua Tetrick.jpg
Born
Joshua Stephen Tetrick

March 23, 1980 (1980-03-23) (age 43)
Birmingham, Alabama
Nationality American
Education Bachelor's degree, Juris Doctor
Alma mater West Virginia University
Cornell University
University of Michigan Law School
Occupation(s)Founder and CEO of JUST, Inc.

Joshua Stephen Tetrick (born March 23, 1980) [1] is an American social entrepreneur and speaker. He is currently the CEO of JUST, Inc., a food startup company based in Northern California. [2] [3]

Contents

Tetrick spent three years in Sub-Saharan Africa working on various social campaigns, including a United Nations initiative in Kenya and teaching street children in multiple African countries as a Fulbright Scholar. [4]

Early life

Joshua Stephen Tetrick was raised in Birmingham, Alabama where he lived until his family relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a football player in high school and went on to play at West Virginia University, where he shared the scout team player of the year award in 2000. [5] While in law school, Tetrick was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that he says makes him more appreciative of "life's fragility." [6] The diagnosis meant he could no longer lift weights, or play basketball or football at full speed. [7]

Education

In 2004, Tetrick received a BA in Africana studies from Cornell University and received a J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School. [8] Tetrick was also a participant in the Fulbright Scholar program, although he did not complete it, [9] and taught street children in Nigeria and South Africa before beginning his business career. [10] Tetrick has said in multiple interviews that he spent seven years in Africa, but it was in fact three years. [9]

Philanthropy

Tetrick was hired by the Liberian government to work on the reform of Liberia's investment laws for its president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a job that he has said in interviews he was not qualified for at the time but learned a tremendous amount in doing. [11] He also worked on other social campaigns, including teaching street children and working to encourage child prostitutes to move away from lives on the streets and into schools. This work formed the basis of the non-profit organization More Than Me. [12] [13] It was in Africa that Tetrick also first noticed serious problems with the global food system. [14]

In January 2011, he launched a crowdfunding website for social startups called 33needs. [15] The venture ended 11 months later, in late 2011. [1]

Business career

After returning from Africa, Tetrick worked for Toms Shoes for a short period of time before launching 33needs. [16] In June 2011, Tetrick developed the idea for Hampton Creek with his friend Josh Balk. The idea stemmed from problems both of them noticed in the global food system. [17] [3] Tetrick began initial business plans and meetings with Khosla Ventures, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm later that summer. Hampton Creek received its first round of funding in December 2011 and a second round (after a relocation to San Francisco) in June 2012. [17]

Tetrick has been interviewed for his work with Hampton Creek in Bloomberg Businessweek , [18] NPR, [19] and The New York Times . [17] In March 2013, Tetrick and Hampton Creek became one of three companies to be featured in Bill Gates' documentary, The Future of Food. [20] In June 2013 Tetrick spoke at a TED conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on the future of food. [21]

In June 2014, Inc. included Tetrick in its annual "35 Under 35" list. [22] That same month, CNBC named Hampton Creek to its annual "Disruptor 50" list and invited Tetrick to appear live on air with Jim Cramer. [23]

Fundraising

Tetrick invested $37,000 of his own money into Hampton Creek in 2011, shortly before Khosla Ventures provided $500,000 in seed funding to the company. [8] He is responsible for attracting investors including Li Ka-Shing, Peter Thiel, and Vinod Khosla to Hampton Creek, [8] [24] and his efforts have resulted in a total of $120 million in fundraising for the company. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinod Khosla</span> Indian-American businessman (born 1955)

Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Case</span> American businesswoman

Jean Case is an American businesswoman, author, and philanthropist who is chair of the board of National Geographic, CEO of Case Impact Network, and CEO of the Case Foundation. She is married to AOL co-founder Steve Case.

Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successful investments include Affirm, DoorDash, Square, Impossible Foods, Instacart, and OpenAI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Cohler</span> American venture capitalist

Matt Cohler is an American venture capitalist. He worked as Vice President of Product Management for Facebook until June 2008 and was formerly a general partner at Benchmark. Cohler has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top technology investors and in 2019 was named to the New York Times and CB Insights list of top 10 venture capital investors. Cohler made the Forbes 'America's 40 Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40' list in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GV (company)</span> Venture capital unit of Alphabet Inc.

GV Management Company, L.L.C. is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides seed, venture, and growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Ventures in 2010, the firm has operated independently of Google, Alphabet's search and advertising division, since 2015. GV invests in startup companies in a variety of fields ranging from the Internet, software, and hardware to life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, transportation, cyber security and agriculture. It has helped finance more than 300 companies that include Uber, Nest, Slack, and Flatiron Health.

The American Egg Board (AEB) is a United States checkoff marketing organization, which focuses on marketing and promotion of eggs for human consumption. The AEB is best known for its long-running slogan, "The Incredible, Edible Egg", and the Just Mayo scandal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Rabois</span> American technology executive and investor

Keith Rabois is an American technology executive and investor. He is currently a general partner at Founders Fund. He is widely known for his early-stage startup investments and his executive roles at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, and Square. Rabois invested in Yelp and Xoom prior to each company's initial public offering ("IPO") and sits on both companies' boards of directors. He is considered a member of the PayPal Mafia, a group that includes PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, and PayPal employee and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. Additionally, Rabois has been involved in investments in YouTube, Palantir, Lyft, Airbnb, Eventbrite, Wish, and The Org.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Linkner</span> Entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author

Joshua M. "Josh" Linkner is an American entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author. He founded several companies including ePrize, an interactive promotion agency, where he served as CEO and Executive chairman. Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Gwendolyn Bounds noted that ePrize is targeted at small businesses that don't have the resources to do this type of marketing themselves but cautioned that the service is not of the pay-per-sale type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AngelList</span> Website connecting startups, angel investors, and job-seekers

AngelList is a U.S. website for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Balk</span>

Josh Balk is the co-founder and CEO of The Accountability Board. Previously, he was vice president of farm animal protection for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) farm animal division. In addition, he is a cofounder of JUST, a food technology company. Prior to working with HSUS and founding JUST, he was known for his work at Animal Outlook. Balk is best known for leading successful legislative campaigns for farm animals, along with his work with food companies in enacting animal welfare policies that include eliminating gestation crates for breeding pigs and battery cages for chickens. He is also known for his work with the food industry to shift its focus onto plant-based foods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Stefanovich</span> American business consultant

Andy Stefanovich is an American speaker, bestselling author, and business consultant. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Stefanovich is currently the founding partner of a consulting firm called Life. Previously, he was a partner with Richmond, Virginia-based venture capital firm New Richmond Ventures LLC. Before that, Stefanovich was "chief curator and provocateur" at Prophet, a global business and creative consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco.

Eat Just, Inc. is a private company headquartered in San Francisco, California, US. It develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced egg products, as well as cultivated meat products. Eat Just was founded in 2011 by Josh Tetrick and Josh Balk. It raised about $120 million in early venture capital and became a unicorn in 2016 by surpassing a $1 billion valuation. It has been involved in several highly publicized disputes with traditional egg industry interests. In December 2020, its cultivated chicken meat became the first cultured meat to receive regulatory approval in Singapore. Shortly thereafter, Eat Just's cultured meat was sold to diners at the Singapore restaurant 1880, making it the "world's first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat".

Alexander Asseily is a British/Lebanese technology entrepreneur and investor. He has been a founder of various companies including consumer electronics company Jawbone, women's health company Elvie and Zulu Group. His business interests in the field are extensive, and he has held executive roles with companies such as Lilium, Atomico Ventures and Azimo.

Just Mayo is an egg substitute mayonnaise-like produced by Eat Just, Inc, formerly known as Hampton Creek. Just Mayo was first released in Northern California Whole Foods Markets on September 19, 2013. Just Mayo comes in original, wasabi, truffle, sesame ginger, garlic, chipotle and sriracha flavors. It has been described as "a vegan spread that has rattled the egg industry."

Carmudi is an online car site that focuses on emerging markets. The portal was launched in 2013 and is owned by Rocket Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Cooney</span>

Nick Cooney is a managing partner at Lever VC, an investment fund focused on alternative protein companies.

Oscar Health, Inc. is an American health insurance company, founded in 2012 by Joshua Kushner, Kevin Nazemi and Mario Schlosser, and is headquartered in New York City. The company focuses on the health insurance industry through telemedicine, healthcare focused technological interfaces, and transparent claims pricing systems which would make it easier for patients to navigate.

LightSail Energy (2008–2018) was an American compressed air energy storage technology startup. The company shut down in 2018, failing to produce a product. The unused tanks were sold away to natural gas companies in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresia Gouw</span>

Theresia Gouw is an entrepreneur and venture capital investor in the technology sector. She worked at Bain & Company, Release Software and Accel Partners before co-founding Aspect Ventures, a female-led venture capital firm, in 2014. Gouw was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine. and has been recognized seven times on the Forbes Midas List as one of the "world's smartest tech investors". According to Forbes, Gouw is the richest female venture capitalist, with a net worth of approximately $500 million, primarily due to her involvement with Accel (company)'s early investment in Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synack</span>

Synack is an American technology company based in Redwood City, California. The company uses a crowdsourced network of white-hat hackers to find exploitable vulnerabilities and a SaaS platform enabled by AI and machine learning to identify exploitable vulnerabilities. Customers include government agencies and businesses in retail, healthcare and the manufacturing industry.

References

  1. 1 2 Bosker, Bianca (2017-10-02). "Mayonnaise, Disrupted". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  2. ↑ Watrous, Monica (April 4, 2018). "A new name – and outlook – for Hampton Creek". BakingBusiness.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 Rinde, Meir (2017). "Ingredients for Success". Distillations. 3 (2): 26–37.
  4. ↑ One Founder's Quest to Eliminate Eggs from Food Supply Chains, Triple Pundit, 22 July 2013, retrieved 12 March 2014
  5. ↑ "Record Book Supplement" (PDF). West Virginia Mountaineers. p. 40. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  6. ↑ Schatz, Robin D. "Hampton Creek's CEO Josh Tetrick Talks About The Challenges Of Scaling Fast". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  7. ↑ "Hampton Creek is taking on Big Food (Wired UK)". Wired UK. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  8. 1 2 3 "Bill Gates' Food Fetish: Hampton Creek Foods Looks To Crack The Egg Industry", Forbes Magazine, 16 December 2013, retrieved 12 March 2014
  9. 1 2 "How Hampton Creek Sold Silicon Valley On A Fake-Mayo Miracle", Bloomberg, 22 September 2016, retrieved 4 May 2022
  10. ↑ "Meet Hampton Creek founder Josh Tetrick". The Washington Post. 23 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "Cornell E-clips". Cornell University. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  12. ↑ Zipkin, Nina. "This Mega-Funded Start-up Wants to Forget The Chicken and Reinvent the Egg". Entrepreneur . Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  13. ↑ "Iscol speaker: 'Thrive' by making a difference". Cornell Chronicle . Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  14. ↑ "Former jock hatching new food biz with help from tech". USA Today . Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  15. ↑ Schonfeld, Erick (January 31, 2011). "33Needs Brings Crowdsourced Funding To Social Startups". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  16. ↑ "The Omnivore's Disrupter". Nymag.com. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  17. 1 2 3 "Venture Capitalists Are Making Bigger Bets On Food Start-Ups", New York Times, 28 April 2013, retrieved 12 March 2014
  18. ↑ "Venture Capital Sees Promise in Lab Created Eco Foods", Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, 24 January 2013, archived from the original on January 24, 2013, retrieved 14 March 2014
  19. ↑ "Why Bill Gates is Investing in Chicken-less eggs", NPR.org, National Public Radio, retrieved 12 March 2014
  20. ↑ The Future of Food, The Gates Notes, retrieved 12 March 2014
  21. ↑ The Future of Food: Josh Tetrick at TEDxEdmonton, TEDx, retrieved 12 March 2014
  22. ↑ Fenn, Donna (24 June 2014). "Generation Why Not: Meet the 35 Under 35, Class of 2014". Inc.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  23. ↑ staff, CNBC com (17 June 2014). "CNBC Disruptor 50". Cnbc.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  24. ↑ "Egg Replacing Startup Hampton Creek Foods Raises $23 Million From Asia's Richest Man And Yahoo Co-founder Jerry Yang", Forbes Magazine, 17 February 2014, retrieved 12 March 2014
  25. ↑ Lora Kolodny (17 February 2014), Hampton Creek Raises $23M to Make Eggs Obsolete, The Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch, retrieved 12 March 2014

Wikiquote-logo.svg Quotations related to Josh Tetrick at Wikiquote

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.