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Jennifer Rubio is an American businesswoman. She is the co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of Away, a luggage manufacturer and retailer.[1] Rubio was head of social media at Warby Parker[2][3] and global director of innovation at fashion company AllSaints.[4]
Early life
editRubio was born in the Philippines, and moved to New Jersey when she was seven years old.[5] She grew up traveling, and lived in seven cities on three continents.[4][6] When she was young, Rubio bought a lemonade stand from another child who lived on her street for $20 which she borrowed from her father. She has called it her first merger and acquisition.[1] Rubio later went on to attend college at Penn State University, where she pursued a supply-chain management major. She was placed at Johnson & Johnson as part of Penn State's co-op program.[7] After discovering her desire to be a businesswoman, Rubio dropped out of Penn State just a few credits shy of graduating, in order to pursue a full-time role at Neutrogena, a company with whom she did another co-op.
Career
editIn 2011, Rubio joined Warby Parker, leading the company's early content and partnership work as its head of social media.[8] She met Away co-founder Stephanie Korey during her time at Warby Parker.[9] In 2013, she left Warby Parker and went to London,[10][11] where she was global director of innovation for clothing brand AllSaints.[3][12][13] She spent much of a year traveling for the position.[14]
Before Warby Parker, Rubio held different marketing and social media roles, working for brands on the agency side and in-house.[15] She also taught social media as an adjunct professor at Miami Ad School.[16] She has been a guest lecturer at Hyper Island, New York University, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Harvard University.[17]
Rubio co-founded Away Luggage, a direct-to-consumer travel and luggage company, with Stephanie Korey, who also worked at Warby Parker.[13] By 2017, Rubio and Korey had raised $31 million, making it one of the largest seed financed female-backed startups.[18]
Personal life
editIn May 2019, Rubio got engaged to her boyfriend, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.[19] They married in 2020 and share two children.[20]
References
edit- ^ a b Garcia, Ahiza. "The founders of Away changed the luggage industry after a travel mishap". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ "Inside Away's Instagram strategy - Digiday". Digiday. 2017-08-14. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ a b "Save Your Money, Skip The MBA, And Go To Startup Grad School Instead". Fast Company. 2016-08-31. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ a b Dunn, Laura Emily (2016-09-01). "Women in Business Q&A: Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, Founders, Away". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ "Portrait of a Girlboss: Away Co-Founders Steph Korey & Jen Rubio". Girlboss. 2016-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ "Away Travel". thestyleline.com. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ Raz, Guy. "How I Built This Podcast". NPR. National Public Radio. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "Away: the Glossier of the travel world". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ Magazine, Wallpaper* (2016-01-12). "On a roll: Away is the new start-up putting a design spin on luggage". Wallpaper*. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ BAOMOI.COM (2017-11-28). "Khởi nghiệp từ chiếc vali". BAOMOI.COM (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ VietnamBiz (2017-11-28). "Cô gái nảy ra ý tưởng 'triệu đô' khi vali hành lý vỡ tan | VietnamBiz". VietnamBiz (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ "2016 Fellows - NYC Venture Fellows". nycventurefellows.org. Retrieved 2018-10-21.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b "Former Warby Parker execs take it away with direct". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ Avins, Jenni (21 May 2016). "Two Warby Parker alums created an affordable, phone-charging carry-on and it's great". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ Beauchamp, Megan. ""My Career Path Hasn't Been Linear by Any 'Traditional' Standards"". MyDomaine. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ "Jen Rubio - Digital Strategist at Carrot Creative, Co-founder at GourmetLend - We Are NY Tech". wearenytech.com. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "Jessica Toonkel". SXSW 2019 Schedule. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "This CEO Is Leading a New Wave of Female Entrepreneurs". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
- ^ Perino, Marissa (30 January 2019). "Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield is newly engaged to a woman who runs a $1.4 billion startup. Inside the relationship of Silicon Valley's newest 'it' power couple". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
- ^ Clarke, Katherine (February 9, 2023). "Silicon Valley's Newest 'It' Couple Is Going Big on Real Estate. Here's How They've Spent $140 Million". The Wall Street Journal.