Ryan Cohen

In 2011, at the age of 25, Cohen founded Chewy under its original name of MrChewy.[3] Cohen says his inspiration for picking the pet category came from his experience shopping for his poodle Tylee.[4] He cites his father Ted, who ran a glassware importing business, as a mentor.[5][6] In need of capital, Cohen says he originally approached over 100 venture capital firms and was rejected by all of them.[7][8] In 2013, Cohen secured the company's first outside investment from Volition Capital for $15 million.[9] By 2016, he had raised capital from investors including BlackRock and T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund.[10] That year the company had $900 million in sales and had become the number 1 online pet retailer.[11] By 2017, he raised $350 million and was preparing for an IPO.[12]

In April 2017, PetSmart purchased Chewy for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition of all time.[12] That year Fortune named Cohen one of its “40 under 40"[13] and Vox named him to its Recode 100 list.[14] Cohen remained CEO following the acquisition and operated the business largely as an independent unit of PetSmart.[11] In March 2018, he stepped down as CEO to pursue personal goals and spend time with his family.[2] In June 2019, Chewy went public at a valuation of $8.7 billion.[15]