Steve Madden (Steven Madden, Ltd.) is a New York-based, publicly traded fashion company that designs, markets and sells trend-driven footwear, handbags and accessories at accessible price points. Founded in 1990 by designer Steve Madden with roughly $1,100, the company built its reputation on translating runway trends into affordable, fast-moving styles for young women. Today it operates a portfolio of owned and licensed brands - including Steve Madden, Dolce Vita, Betsey Johnson, Madden Girl and, following its 2025 acquisition, Kurt Geiger - across wholesale, retail and direct-to-consumer channels, generating over $2.5 billion in annual net sales.
HOOKED is a mobile entertainment company that pioneered "chat fiction" - bite-sized stories told as text-message conversations between characters, designed to be read in about five minutes. Built by husband-and-wife founders Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia under the company Telepathic Inc., the app turned suspense and horror into thumb-tapping cliffhangers and reached tens of millions of mostly teen and young-adult readers, repeatedly topping the App Store charts in dozens of countries.