I started Owner at 17 years old, after dropping out of high school halfway through 10th grade. I didn’t think I’d be able to raise money as a high school dropout that knew nobody in tech.
The first version of Owner wasn’t built for venture capital. It was built for my mom. She’s a small business owner who needed a shot at success in the digital world. V1 of the product transformed her life.
Then, I saw that there are millions of other mom-and-pop business owners, much like her. A large number of them are in the restaurant business. All of them are being crushed by huge corporations that are using tech against them.
We’re using this cash to arm them to fight back.
✋ So, what is Owner?
You can think of it as Shopify for restaurant owners, and, eventually, all local business owners.
Owner gives them everything they need to succeed in the online future against big corporations.
▶️ I recommend watching the video attached for more details on our product and company.
💰 Round details:
This round was co-led by 2 perfect partners for us:
Alex Kurland from Meritech, who led DoorDash’s Series B, and
Shalini Rao from Headline, who led Toast’s Series C.
They were also joined by an inspiring group of new investors: Fidji Simo (CEO Instacart), Jonathan Neman (CEO Sweetgreen), Matt Maloney (Founder & CEO GrubHub).
& still more inspiring new investors...
Dharmesh Shah (Founder CTO HubSpot), Josh Reeves (CEO Gusto), Shaan Puri, Sahil Bloom, Matteo (CEO Eight Sleep), Christina Cacioppo (CEO Vanta), Brett Schulman (CEO Cava).
… just to name a few 🤗
❤️ Shoutout to the great team at Owner.com –
You deserve the credit for getting us here.
I thank God every morning that I get to build Owner with each of you. We wouldn’t be here without you. It is a highlight of my life to build with you.
🤗 And shoutout to the best cofounder and CTO I could ever ask for Dean Bloembergen. His work ethic and genius are as impressive as his character. I view partnering with Dean as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
🙌 I’m proud of Owner today.
But I also feel scared that people will see our unicorn valuation and think “we’ve made it.”
So let me be brutally clear. We HAVE NOT made it.
And if we start to believe we have, we never will.
When investors value us at $1B, it’s because they see potential. Our investors see the POTENTIAL for us to build a company worth tens of billions.
We have to prove them right.
And we must also prove right the thousands of restaurant owners who’ve bet their futures on us.
✊ We’re still underdogs. We still have a long way to go.
We didn’t come this far just to come this far.
It’s time to move faster, build better, and fight harder.
Thousands of small business owners are counting on us!
▶️ If you want to keep learning about Owner, I recommend watching the video on this post.
This post was originally shared by on Linkedin.