Mr. Galloway grew up in Los Angeles to immigrant dad and mom. His father, an enthralling gross sales government raised in Melancholy-era Scotland, had a “horrible relationship with cash,” he stated. His dad and mom divorced when he was 9, and he lived along with his mom, who labored as a secretary.
“It was an unlimited supply of stress that we didn’t have cash,” he stated. “It was additionally very emasculating.” Mr. Galloway turned obsessive about cash, and purchased his first inventory (Columbia Photos) as an eighth grader. He wasn’t widespread. “I regarded like Ichabod Crane with dangerous pores and skin,” he stated. In highschool, he ran for sophistication president three years in a row, and misplaced every time. He additionally developed physique dysmorphia, he stated.
He went to school at U.C.L.A. and described his time there, in a not-entirely-convincing tone of remorse, as a “missed alternative to be accountable.” He joined a fraternity, rowed crew and gained 20 kilos of muscle. “Fairly frankly, my life modified,” he stated. “Hastily ladies have been very involved in me.”
Throughout enterprise faculty on the College of California, Berkeley, he and a classmate began a agency referred to as Prophet Model Technique, advising firms on how one can construct their manufacturers. This being the early Nineteen Nineties, their recommendation usually amounted to: Use the web. They attracted large purchasers, together with Williams-Sonoma, Levi Strauss and Apple. Within the dot-com growth, they began a collection of firms, together with an e-commerce web site referred to as RedEnvelope, the place individuals might purchase and ship last-minute presents.
RedEnvelope received an inflow of money from enterprise capital corporations, together with Sequoia Capital, however Mr. Galloway thought the brand new financiers have been steering the corporate in a horrible path. His battle to interchange the board failed, however did appeal to the eye of hedge funds. “They stated, ‘We just like the minimize of your loopy jib,’” he stated.
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