The document profiles 12 founders of successful ecommerce businesses and their unusual career paths prior to founding their companies. It describes founders who had worked as a sandwich artist, thrift store seller, extreme sewer, nightclub photographer, financial advisor, talent agent, pizza seller, and more. Many pivoted from unrelated fields and utilized a variety of skills and experiences to eventually create successful ecommerce businesses.

1. and their unusual career paths
ecommerce
legends
ecommerce
legends
22
PRESENTS

2. Ever wondered what the founders of your
favorite ecommerce businesses were doing
before that FATEFUL spark of inspiration?
We did too, so We Compiled
a list of 12 founders with
the coolest CAREER transitions:

3. NASTYGAL
Sophia Amoruso has been a Subway Sandwich Artist, sellerof stolen books and art school security guard. She dove intodumpsters and haggled at thrift stores, selling her finds oneBay under the name “Nasty Gal Vintage”. The author of"#GIRLBOSS" has since turned her eBay store into a $100million fashion business.
DUMPSTER DIVing sandwich artist

4. BLACK MILK CLOTHING
James Lillis lived in a little yellow house in Brisbane
surrounded by mango trees, working odd jobs to cover
his rent. Overcome by a sudden urge to sew, he pawned
his CD player and bought a sewing machine.
Subsisting on mangoes to fund his passion,
Lillis soon found himself selling leggings at flea
markets. The business went online and became
Black Milk Clothing.
extreme SEWING ENTHUSIAST

5. TATCHIES
Markus Andersson grew
up in a family who
encouraged his creative side. He started out as a freelance
designer while working on various startups. For additional
income, Andersson worked as a nightclub photographer,
image retoucher, sound engineer, event manager
and a DJ. He went on to become the Digital Art
Director at Stockholm's The ViralCompany, where he
founded Tatchies.
The man of a 1000 odd jobs

6. Diapers.com
Executive Vice President of Sanwa International Bank, Marc
Lore and Wall Street Lawyer Vinit Bharara co-founded The
Pit, an avenue to trade sports memorabilia as you would
stocks. Toy maker The Topps Company acquired The Pit
and appointed Lore as Chief Operating Officer while
Bharara became their General Counsel. The duo went on to create
Diapers.com,the world's largest online retailer of baby products.
THE Titans
of the
Toy industry

7. ZAPPOS
While at Harvard, Tony Hsieh managed
the Quincy House Grille selling pizza to the students
in his dorm. Post Harvard, Hsieh worked for Oracle Corporation then
co-founded and sold internet advertising network Link Exchange to
Microsoft in 1999 for $265 Million. Tony Hsieh joined Zappos and
his number one customer from his days selling pizza, Alfred Lin,
became his CFO and COO.
HARVARD's PIZZA PEDDLER

8. BEARDBRAND
Eric Bandholz worked as an Account Executive at Sunset
Direct and Boingo Graphics before moving on to become a
graphic designer at Wakomo. He spent a year as a
financial advisor at Merrill Lynch then did marketing
at Sovrnty, a graphic design firm. Inspired by
feedback from the beard community, Bandholz
founded BeardBrand in 2013.
MULTI-CAREER-Man

9. ZULILY
Darrell Cavens developed large web properties at
starwave during the internet boom such as ESPN.com,
NBC.com and ABCNews.com. Cavens met eventual
business partner Mark Vadon while the pair served as CTO
and CEO respectively at Blue Nile, the largest online
diamond and fine jewellery retailer. Cavens spent
a year at Microsoft working on the BizTalk Server
product before the pair Co-founded Zulily.
DYNAMIC DIAMOND
DEALING DUO

10. SHOPIFY
OPEN SOURCE SUPERHERO
The year was 2004, and Tobias Lütke was tired of developing
financial backend software. He wanted to sell snowboards,
but was frustrated by the existing ecommerce platforms.
Then he discovered Ruby on Rails, and with newfound
enthusiasm, built the software he wished
existed. That software is called
Shopify, and now powers
100,000 stores worldwide.

11. THE DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB
Professional Funny man
Fresh out of college,
Michael Dubin moved to New York City and worked
as a page at NBC. For about a decade, Dubin was a student
and performer of sketch comedy and improv at the Upright
Citizens Brigade. His experience undoubtedly contributed
to the success of The Dollar Shave Club, which exploded in
popularity after its hilarious promotional video went viral.

12. GREATS
TALENT AGENT + MANAGER
Ryan Babenzien embarked on his curvy career path as
an agent and manager in the entertainment business,
during which he also consulted for streetwear brands. He burst into
the sneaker industry as the Head of Entertainment Marketing at
PUMA before lending his talents to K-Swiss. Babenzien staged a
revival of sportswear brand Boast USA before teaming
up with Jon Buscemi to bring beautiful, reasonably
sneakers to the masses through GREATS.

13. we love
ecommerce success stories.
check out
referralcandy.com
to see how we can
help you write yours!

14. SOURCES:
http://www.nicekicks.com/2014/06/03/industry-interview-ryan-babenzien-talks-greats-brand-the-bab/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-vadon/4b/563/913
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellcavens
http://tobi.lutke.com/pages/about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hsieh
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/marc-lore
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/vinit-bharara
http://www.inc.com/tom-foster/how-nasty-gal-sophia-amoruso-went-from-shoplifter-to-ceo.html
https://onepagetheme.com/brain-picking-with-markus-andersson-the-creative-behind-tatchies/
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-12/dollar-shave-clubs-founder-yes-i-am-a-funny-guy
https://blackmilkclothing.com/pages/about-us
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