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Rohan Shah and the Expensive Little Moment After Checkout
A failed first startup taught Rohan Shah to study the machinery of large companies. Then a fantasy-football joke became Extend, a serious bet on everything retailers used to neglect after the sale.
Andrew Kreitz Is Turning the Spreadsheet Into a Factory
Castelion’s co-founder began by bolting hardware together in the desert. Now he is financing a wager that missiles can be built with the cadence, cost discipline, and iterative habits of modern manufacturing.
Grant LaFontaine Put the Card Shop Inside a Phone
He sold Pokémon cards as a kid, endured a hundred investor rejections, and found Whatnot’s future by going live with a roomful of Funko Pops. The bet was never merely on auctions. It was on making online shopping feel inhabited again.
Daniel Broukhim Put the Gift Bag on a Balance Sheet
FabFitFun began as a newsletter, found its business model in the event gift bag, and grew by treating surprise as an operating system. Daniel Broukhim’s career is a study in pivots, partnership, and the unglamorous math behind a delightful box.