Ryan Cohen


Ryan Cohen is the co-founder and former CEO of e-commerce company Chewy, which was acquired by PetSmart in 2017 for $3.35 billion.

Career

In 2011, at the age of 25, Cohen founded Chewy under its original name of MrChewy.
Cohen says his inspiration for picking the pet category came from his experience shopping for his poodle Tylee. He cites his father Ted, who ran a glassware importing business, as a mentor. In need of capital, Cohen says he originally approached over 100 venture capital firms and was rejected by all of them. In 2013, Cohen secured the company's first outside investment from Volition Capital for $15 million. By 2016, he had raised capital from investors including BlackRock and T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund. That year the company had $900 million in sales and had become the number 1 online pet retailer. By 2017, Cohen had raised $350 million and was preparing for an IPO.
In April 2017, PetSmart purchased Chewy for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition of all time. That year Fortune named Cohen one of its “40 under 40" and Vox named him to its Recode 100 list. Cohen remained CEO following the acquisition and operated the business largely as an independent unit of PetSmart. In March 2018, he stepped down as CEO to pursue personal goals and spend time with his family. In June 2019, Chewy went public at a valuation of $8.7 billion.

Investments

Following the sale of Chewy, Cohen made significant investments into two companies, Apple and Wells Fargo. His Apple investment has made him the largest individual shareholder of the tech company with 1.55 million shares.