How it started
History
Tina Sharkey and Ido Leffler met while living in Mill Valley, California. Sharkey, the founder of iVillage and the former CEO of BabyCenter, had a background in online communities, and Leffler, the founder of several companies, including Yes To, Inc. and Yoobi, had experience in consumer products.
In mid-2016, Sharkey resigned from her position as CEO of Sherpa Foundry to become CEO of Brandless, with Leffler serving as its chairman. The company raised $16 million in funding led by Redpoint Ventures in November 2016, and at launch had received a total of $50 million in venture capital from New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures, and others.
In 2018, the company launched a pop-up store in Los Angeles in May. Brandless launched a second, larger pop-up store in New York in October 2018.
In May 2019, Brandless raised $240 million as a part of its series C funding round. Soon after, Tina Sharkey stepped down as CEO after friction between her and lead investor SoftBank Vision Fund.
In February 2020, Brandless announced that it would cease operations, citing fierce competition and business model inviability in the direct-to-consumer market. The business laid off 70 staff members (about 90% of the operation at the time) with the remaining employees managing open orders.
From Wikipedia’s article on Brandless, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3