Josh Tetrick

Joshua Stephen Tetrick (born March 23, 1980)[1] is an American social entrepreneur and speaker. He is currently the CEO of JUST, Inc., a food startup company based in Northern California.[2][3]

Josh Tetrick
Born
Joshua Stephen Tetrick

March 23, 1980 (1980-03-23) (age 43)
Birmingham, Alabama
NationalityAmerican
EducationBachelor's degree, Juris Doctor
Alma materWest Virginia University
Cornell University
University of Michigan Law School
Occupation(s)Founder and CEO of JUST, Inc.

Tetrick spent three years in Sub-Saharan Africa working on various social campaigns, including a United Nations initiative in Kenya and teaching street children in multiple African countries as a Fulbright Scholar.[4]

Early life

Joshua Stephen Tetrick was raised in Birmingham, Alabama where he lived until his family relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a football player in high school and went on to play at West Virginia University, where he shared the scout team player of the year award in 2000.[5] While in law school, Tetrick was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that he says makes him more appreciative of "life's fragility."[6] The diagnosis meant he could no longer lift weights, or play basketball or football at full speed.[7]

Education

In 2004, Tetrick received a BA in Africana studies from Cornell University and received a J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School.[8] Tetrick was also a participant in the Fulbright Scholar program, although he didn't complete it,[9] and taught street children in Nigeria and South Africa before beginning his business career.[10] Tetrick has claimed in multiple interviews he spent seven years in Africa, but it was in fact only three years.[9]

Philanthropy

Tetrick was hired by the Liberian government to work on the reform of Liberia's investment laws for its president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a job that he has joked in interviews he was not qualified for at the time, but learned a tremendous amount in doing.[11] He also worked on other social campaigns, including teaching street children and working to encourage child prostitutes from lives on the streets and into schools. This worked help with the idea for the basis of the non-profit organization, "More Than Me."[12][13] It was in Africa that Tetrick also first noticed serious issues with the global food system.[14]

In January 2011, he launched a crowdfunding website for social startups called 33needs.[15] The venture ended 11 months later, in late 2011.[1]

Business career

After returning from Africa, Tetrick worked for Toms Shoes for short period of time before launching 33needs.[16] In June 2011, Tetrick developed the idea for Hampton Creek with his friend, Josh Balk. The idea stemmed from issues both of them noticed in the global food system.[17][3] Tetrick began initial business plans and meetings with Khosla Ventures, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm later that summer. Hampton Creek received its first round of funding in December 2011 and a second round (after a relocation to San Francisco) in June 2012.[17]

Tetrick has been interviewed for his work with Hampton Creek in Bloomberg Businessweek,[18] NPR,[19] and The New York Times.[17] In March 2013, Tetrick and Hampton Creek became one of three companies to be featured in Bill Gates' documentary, The Future of Food.[20] In June 2013 Tetrick spoke at a TED conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on the future of food.[21]

In June 2014, Inc. included Tetrick in its annual "35 Under 35" list.[22] That same month, CNBC named Hampton Creek to its annual "Disruptor 50" list and invited Tetrick to appear live on air with Jim Cramer.[23]

Fundraising

Tetrick invested $37,000 of his own money into Hampton Creek in 2011, shortly before Khosla Ventures provided $500,000 in seed funding to the company.[8] He is responsible for attracting investors including Li Ka-Shing, Peter Thiel, and Vinod Khosla to Hampton Creek,[8][24] and his efforts have resulted in a total of $120 million in fundraising for the company.[25]

References
  1. Bosker, Bianca (2017-10-02). "Mayonnaise, Disrupted". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  2. Watrous, Monica (April 4, 2018). "A new name – and outlook – for Hampton Creek". BakingBusiness.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  3. Rinde, Meir (2017). "Ingredients for Success". Distillations. 3 (2): 26–37.
  4. One Founder's Quest to Eliminate Eggs from Food Supply Chains, Triple Pundit, 22 July 2013, retrieved 12 March 2014
  5. "Record Book Supplement" (PDF). West Virginia Mountaineers. p. 40. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  6. Schatz, Robin D. "Hampton Creek's CEO Josh Tetrick Talks About The Challenges Of Scaling Fast". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  7. "Hampton Creek is taking on Big Food (Wired UK)". Wired UK. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  8. "Bill Gates' Food Fetish: Hampton Creek Foods Looks To Crack The Egg Industry", Forbes Magazine, 16 December 2013, retrieved 12 March 2014
  9. "How Hampton Creek Sold Silicon Valley On A Fake-Mayo Miracle", Bloomberg, 22 September 2016, retrieved 4 May 2022
  10. "Meet Hampton Creek founder Josh Tetrick". The Washington Post. 23 October 2015.
  11. "Cornell E-clips". Cornell University. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  12. Zipkin, Nina. "This Mega-Funded Start-up Wants to Forget The Chicken and Reinvent the Egg". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  13. "Iscol speaker: 'Thrive' by making a difference". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  14. "Former jock hatching new food biz with help from tech". USA Today. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  15. Schonfeld, Erick (January 31, 2011). "33Needs Brings Crowdsourced Funding To Social Startups". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  16. "The Omnivore's Disrupter". Nymag.com. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  17. "Venture Capitalists Are Making Bigger Bets On Food Start-Ups", New York Times, 28 April 2013, retrieved 12 March 2014
  18. "Venture Capital Sees Promise in Lab Created Eco Foods", Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, 24 January 2013, archived from the original on January 24, 2013, retrieved 14 March 2014
  19. "Why Bill Gates is Investing in Chicken-less eggs", NPR.org, National Public Radio, retrieved 12 March 2014
  20. The Future of Food, The Gates Notes, retrieved 12 March 2014
  21. The Future of Food: Josh Tetrick at TEDxEdmonton, TEDx, retrieved 12 March 2014
  22. Fenn, Donna (24 June 2014). "Generation Why Not: Meet the 35 Under 35, Class of 2014". Inc.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  23. staff, CNBC com (17 June 2014). "CNBC Disruptor 50". Cnbc.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  24. "Egg Replacing Startup Hampton Creek Foods Raises $23 Million From Asia's Richest Man And Yahoo Co-founder Jerry Yang", Forbes Magazine, 17 February 2014, retrieved 12 March 2014
  25. Lora Kolodny (17 February 2014), Hampton Creek Raises $23M to Make Eggs Obsolete, The Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch, retrieved 12 March 2014

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