faire
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Marcelo Cortes Learned Retail on an Intel 286. Now He Is Teaching AI Some Taste
The Faire co-founder grew up watching his parents run a video shop in Brazil, learned code by trying commands he could not yet read, and built a career around one question: how can software give small retailers better odds without taking away their judgment?
Jeff Kolovson and the Business of Making Risk Disappear
Before Faire could connect shopkeepers and brands across borders, its co-founder learned operations the blunt way: sixty futons, thirty-six hours, and no room for excuses.
Daniele Perito Went Around the World to Return to His First Problem
Before he built a wholesale marketplace, Perito studied how systems fail, guarded Cash App against fraud and learned to trust both evidence and instinct. Now AI has brought him back to security, with higher stakes and a larger map.
The Mom Who Turned a Garage Full of Pots Into 1,300 Stores
Blaine Butler started making plant pots in her garage to feel better. Nine years later her matte-colored planters sit in 1,300 stores - and a Bloomingdale's or two.
Max Rhodes
Max Rhodes is co-founder and CEO of Faire, the online wholesale marketplace that connects independent retailers with makers and brands. A Square alumnus from Oklahoma who studied history at Yale, he turned a side hustle importing British umbrellas into a thesis about the messy economics of small-town retail - and built a company that crossed a $12B valuation while courting the very shopkeepers Amazon ignores.
Dan Ashton
Dan Ashton is the CEO and Co-Founder of Brain Co., a San Francisco-based AI company that builds applied intelligence platforms for the world's most complex institutions - from government permit offices to hospital systems. He brought his AI startup Serene AI into Brain Co.'s orbit and now leads a company backed by $30M in Series A funding from Elad Gil, Affinity Partners, Patrick Collison, Reid Hoffman, and Andrej Karpathy. Before Brain Co., he was an early operator at three unicorns - Opendoor, Faire, and Clubhouse - and a McKinsey consultant before that. Brain Co. has already deployed AI that unlocks $375M annually in permitting value and mitigated $100M+ in supply chain losses.
Isaiah Boone
Isaiah Boone is a Partner on Sequoia Capital's growth team, focusing on enterprise applications, infrastructure, commerce, and marketplaces. A Pomona College math and statistics graduate, he cut his teeth at RBC Wealth Management and Leonard Green & Partners before joining Sequoia in December 2020. His portfolio includes category-defining companies like Ramp, Rippling, Mercury, Meter, Faire, and Island - businesses reshaping how companies manage money, people, and infrastructure.
Sara Ittelson
Sara Ittelson is a Partner at Accel, the global venture capital firm, where she invests in early-stage AI, consumer, enterprise, and SMB technology companies. Before joining Accel in 2022, she spent four years at Faire as Head of Strategic Partnerships, helping the wholesale marketplace grow from a $535M to a $12.4B valuation, and four years at Uber spanning ride-share and Uber Eats. A Stanford MBA and GSE alum originally from Chico, California, Sara brings a rare blend of operator grit and investor acuity to founders building category-defining companies.