consumer-services
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The Operator Who Knows When Growth Needs a Human Touch
From a dive boat to Pret, David Chang’s delivery kitchen, Levain’s cookie counter and now Heyday’s treatment rooms, Andy Taylor has built a career around one deceptively hard question: how do you make a good experience repeatable without making it ordinary?
Lisa Purdum Has Spent 25 Years Making the First Date Less Accidental
Long before swiping became a reflex, Lisa Purdum was interviewing singles face to face. Her career is a study in what technology still struggles to supply: context, candor, and the nerve to give a promising person another hour.
CJ Edgington Built a $25 Million Bug Business, One Door at a Time
A door-to-door sales crew gave RIDD its first customers. CJ Edgington and his co-founders turned that seasonal hustle into a recurring service operation built to route, renew and scale.
Jamie Brandt and the Quiet Work Behind a Green Lawn
From automotive sales to prairie lawn care, Jamie Brandt built his remit one market at a time - with customer service as the operating system.
Nicolas Gaudreau Has Spent a Career Turning Digital Disruption Into a Working System
From Bell and Yellow Pages to fashion, outdoor retail and CAA-Québec, Nicolas Gaudreau’s career offers a practical lesson in transformation: make the strategy clear, build the team around it, and turn disruption into something customers can actually use.
Steven Wagner Built the Bundle Before Streaming Broke It Apart
Across HBO, Disney, NTL and Rogers Cable, Steven Wagner spent three decades turning new communications infrastructure into products people could actually choose, buy and understand.
Dewey Pest
Dewey Pest is the Chief Executive Officer of Dewey Pest & Termite Control (Dewey Services, Inc.), California's largest family-owned pest control company, headquartered in Pasadena. Founded in 1929 by Ray M. Dewey, the company has grown through multiple generations of the Dewey family to operate 32-36 branches across California, employing roughly 750 people and serving both residential and commercial clients with integrated, eco-friendly pest management solutions.
Marshall Doney
Marshall L. Doney is the President and CEO of AAA Mountain West Group, the federation arm serving more than 6.8 million members across Northern California, Nevada and Utah. A 40-year AAA lifer who started in 1984 as an assistant manager at AAA Wisconsin, he climbed through strategy, marketing and automotive services before running the national office for nine years. He took the Mountain West top job permanently on July 2, 2024.
Chad Powell
Chad Powell is the CEO of FLOWER CO. (Flower Company Cannabis), a members-only cannabis delivery service operating in California. He co-founded BloomThat, a Y Combinator-backed same-day flower delivery startup that was acquired by FTD Companies in 2018. After honing his product and growth chops at startups like Nebia and Boosted, Powell joined FLOWER CO. as Head of Growth, rose to VP of Product Development, and eventually became CEO. Under his leadership, FLOWER CO. has scaled to $53.4M in annual revenue with a lean team, offering 40-50% discounts vs. traditional dispensaries through a Costco-style membership model sourcing directly from California cannabis farms.
Kevin Yuann
Kevin Yuann is the CEO of Peerspace, the leading marketplace for hourly venue rentals with over 45,000 unique spaces across seven countries. A veteran operator who spent a decade at NerdWallet - including as Chief Business Officer through a 15x revenue growth period and the company's 2021 IPO - Yuann brings a rare combination of consumer finance expertise and marketplace instincts to Peerspace. He holds a BA in Business Economics and Visual Arts from Brown University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson, and he took the helm at Peerspace in May 2024 as the platform crossed $500 million in total sales and one million bookings.