David Schlessinger
Co-founder 2002Background
Retail entrepreneur and co-founder of Five Below.
Role at Five Below, Inc.
Five Below possesses a pragmatic, experienced founding story, rooted in the realization that the traditional, heavily saturated discount retail market had abandoned a lucrative demographic. The company was founded in 2002 by David Schlessinger and Tom Vellios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both founders possessed foundational experience in extreme-value retail. Schlessinger had previously founded Encore Books and the Zany Brainy educational toy chain (which was successful before eventually failing during a retail consolidation). Vellios was a brilliant retail executive who had served as the CEO of Zany Brainy. Following the collapse of Zany Brainy, the two founders recognized a glaring hole in the retail landscape. discount stores like Dollar General and Dollar Tree were focused on impoverished adults buying basic necessities. mall retailers were focused on expensive, high-end teen fashion. no one was creating an engaging, extreme-value store specifically designed for the 'tween' market (kids aged 8 to 14). Their foundational vision was to create a vibrant, loud, and fun store environment that felt like a treasure hunt. They heavily focused on trendy, impulsive categories (like cheap tech accessories, candy, and bedroom decor). Their disciplined execution of the $5 price point provided incredible clarity for both the supply chain and the consumer. They opened their very first store in Wayne, Pennsylvania in 2002. By heavily utilizing their past experience in retail logistics and avoiding the expensive leases of traditional enclosed malls (preferring cheaper, strip centers), Schlessinger and Vellios built a profitable, hyper-growth retail phenomenon out of cheap, trendy merchandise.