Third Wave Fashion

Tech Crush Thursday: Garrett Camp

It’s one thing to start a great company that people around the world use on a daily basis, but it is an entirely different thing to start THREE successful internet companies.

This week we are crushing on the man that did just that, Mr. Garrett Camp. Born in Canada, Garrett co-founded StumbleUpon in 2001, later moving the company to San Francisco in 2006. Just a year later, Camp and his co-founder, Geoff Smith, sold the company to eBay for $75 million. He continued to act as the company’s CEO until May 2012 after he stepped down (he remains Stumbleupon’s chairman) to focus on his another one of his ventures, Uber.

Launched in 2010, Uber is a mobile application that connects passengers with drivers of luxury vehicles for hire. The SF based company has raised over $50 million in funding and is solving transportation problems for busy city residents in San Francisco, NYC, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Vancouver, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Philadelphia, Dallas, London, Melbourne, and many more.

Don’t worry, Garrett didn’t stop there. He also started Blackjet, the company that helps consumers book seats on private jets faster than ever. If you struggle to find a last minute seat on a private jet traveling from New York to LA or South Florida, Blackjet is here to help. In 10 seconds, Blackjet will book your seat and guarantee seat availability. All you need is an invite code and you’re good to go.

This 2007 recipient of MIT Technology Review’s TR35 award, has one of the most impressive track records we’ve ever seen. What will he think of next? Only time will tell. 

Image via WSJ.

Tech Crush Thursday: Kevin Systrom

With over 100 million users (as announced Tuesday), Instagram has grown from two young guys renting desks, to a record breaking acquisition with Facebook. Although Instagram was launched a little over two years ago, we can’t help but be impressed by the company’s growth and success (not to mention we are more than slightly addicted to the app). 

Welcome, Kevin Systrom, CEO and Co-founder of Instagram, to the TWF Tech Crush Thursday hall of fame! After graduating from Stanford University, Kevin got his first taste of the startup tech world as an intern at Odeo, which later became Twitter. He also worked at Google where he worked on a number of product as well as their corporate development.

In 2012, Systrom and his Co-founder, Mike Krieger, sold the company to Facebook for an announced $1Billion. Although the sale went through, Kevin made sure that Instagram would continue to operate outside of Facebook. He also retained quite a bit of control over the photo-sharing company, allowing him to continue to make important decisions. For example, Kevin decided to remove Instagram photos from Twitter’s news feed, not at the request of Facebook, but to bring users to Instagram’s new website.

Yes, there have been some controversies surrounding the app and recent changes, but with 100 million users in just 28 months, it looks like the man behind Instagram knows what he’s doing.

Tech Crush Thursday: Manish Chandra

Having just returned from our West Coast Tour, we cannot stop thinking about all of the fabulous fashion tech startups in the golden state! That’s why this week, we cannot help but crush on Manish Chandra, Founder and CEO of Poshmark!

Manish is definitely not a new entrant to the startup scene. Since recieving his MBA from Haas Business School, Manish has spent his years in the Silicon Valley, starting and growing companies in the internet and technology space. Prior to Poshmark, he was the Founder & CEO of Kaboodle, a pioneer in social shopping (which was acquired by Hearst Corporation in 2007).

Poshmark, Manish’s current project, is a leader in the mobile fashion marketplace place. Poshmark launched in December 2011 and aims to simplify how fashion is bought and sold. Sellers simply take a photo of items they wish to sell using the photo app, select a price, and post it for sale. The app handles the payments and shipping labels, releasing the payment to the seller contingent on the buyer’s approval of the received item. It truly is an addicting and fun mobile app!

We were lucky to partner with Manish and the Poshmark team at our meetup this week in San Francisco. We absolutely love their platform, and cannot wait to see what Manish and the rest of the lovely Poshmark team comes up with next!

Tech Crush Thursday: Caryn Marooney

Our latest tech crush is Caryn Marooney, Facebook’s Director of Technology Communications.

She is in charge of reaching out to the technical community—engaging developers, engineers, technology influencers, and bloggers. She also covers the platform, product, and any technology recruiting.

Caryn only joined Facebook in 2011, prior to which she was a co-founder of OutCast Agency, one of Silicon Valley’s top tech communications firms. During her time at OutCast Agency, she handled the communication strategies of companies such as Amazon and Netflix; Facebook was even one of her clients before she made the switch. Facebook actually created the position of Technology Communications for Caryn in the hope of building its PR.

Watch this video of Caryn Marooney talking about Leveraging Facebook at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference.