Chewy sold at negative working capital
Chewy operated with negative working capital, allowing it to reach billions in revenue while consuming very little external capital.
Snapshot · All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen's $56B Plan to Take Over eBay
Explore episode
Jun 23, 2026
Where this was said
Building and selling Chewy for $3.35B
At 3:55 · chapter starts 1:56
Cohen explains how a neighborhood pet store visit sparked the Chewy idea, outlines the recurring-revenue logic, Amazon competition dynamics, and the supply-chain discipline required to survive on razor-thin margins. [1] — Ryan Cohen "Cohen was about to launch an online jewelry store when a trip to his neighborhood pet store changed everything. He saw a fragmented, recurr…" 02:05
Chewy's Origin Story: From Jewelry to Pet Food
Cohen was about to launch an online jewelry store when a trip to his neighborhood pet store changed everything. He saw a fragmented, recurring-revenue market Amazon hadn't truly conquered — and built Chewy to fill it.
$3.35B Chewy sale price
Ryan Cohen built Chewy from scratch and sold it in 2017 for $3.35 billion, after which it went public at a significantly higher valuation.
The Counterintuitive Negotiation Rule That Built Chewy
Cohen's rule: supplier gifts signal you're losing, supplier hostility signals you're winning. His relentless, adversarial negotiation style was core to Chewy's ability to survive on razor-thin pet food margins against Amazon.
Will Over Skill: Cohen's Hiring Philosophy
Cohen hired a woman from a nursing home who applied multiple times despite lacking conventional qualifications. She became one of Chewy's best operators. Cohen's framework: hire diehards willing to go all-in, not résumé stars.
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