Ryan Cohen
Co-founder 2011Background
Ryan Cohen was born in Montreal, Canada, and grew up in South Florida where his father ran a glassware importing business. He dropped out of college to pursue entrepreneurship, building websites at age 13 and moving into affiliate marketing as a teenager. In 2011, at age 25, he co-founded MrChewy.com with Michael Day, whom he had met in an internet chat room at age 13. Cohen's defining decision was pivoting from jewelry to pet supplies weeks before launch because he was so much more passionate about this category, a passion that manifested in obsessive customer service, including handwritten condolence cards and 24/7 human support. He served as CEO from 2011 through March 2018, led the company through the $3.35 billion PetSmart acquisition in 2017, and stepped down before the 2019 IPO. He later became known as the meme stock king through his investments in GameStop and Bed Bath & Beyond and was named CEO of GameStop in 2023.
Role at Chewy, Inc.
Chewy was founded in 2011 by Ryan Cohen and Michael Day, two ambitious young entrepreneurs who recognized a vulnerability in the seemingly impenetrable armor of Amazon. The founding of the company occurred in Dania Beach, Florida, and represents one of the most successful David-vs-Goliath retail stories in modern corporate history. Cohen, a college dropout, and Day, an effective software developer, initially attempted to launch an online jewelry business. They quickly abandoned the idea, realizing the market was saturated and lacked emotional resonance. Cohen, the owner of a teacup poodle named Tylee, recognized that 'pet parents' shopped entirely differently than normal consumers. When buying pet food, they didn't just want speed and low prices (Amazon's advantage); they wanted expertise, empathy, and trust. They launched MrChewy.com (later shortened to Chewy) with a foundational philosophy of 'delighting' the customer. While Amazon was entirely transactional and automated, Cohen mandated that Chewy provide personalized, 24/7 customer service. The company famously sent handwritten holiday cards to customers and commissioned custom oil paintings of their pets. When a customer called to cancel a subscription because a pet died, Chewy sent a bouquet of sympathy flowers. This emotional investment created a level of brand loyalty that was entirely in e-commerce. Despite skepticism from Silicon Valley venture capitalists who believed they would be annihilated by Amazon, Cohen raised capital to build fulfillment centers. In 2017, in the largest e-commerce acquisition in history up to that point, PetSmart acquired Chewy for $3.35 billion, vindicating Cohen's conviction that emotional resonance could financially defeat algorithmic efficiency. Ryan Cohen was born in 1985.