Josh Tetrick (born Joshua Stephen Tetrick, March 23, 1980) is an American social entrepreneur, speaker, and writer. He is currently the CEO of JUST, Inc., formerly called Hampton Creek, a food startup company based in Northern California.
Prior to founding JUST, Inc., Tetrick spent three years in Sub-Saharan Africa working on various social campaigns, including a United Nations initiative in Kenya and teaching street children in multiple African countries as a Fulbright Scholar.
Video Joshua Tetrick
Early life
Joshua Stephen Tetrick was born in Birmingham, Alabama where he lived until the age of 13, at which point his family relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a football player in high school and upon graduation, went to play for West Virginia University, where he shared the scout team player of the year award with Adam King. While he was in law school, Tetrick was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that he says makes him more appreciative of "life's fragility." The diagnosis meant that the former college football player could no longer lift weights or play basketball or football -- even recreationally.
Education
In 2004 Tetrick received a BA in Africana Studies from Cornell University, where he graduated at the top of his class, and received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. As a Fulbright Scholar Tetrick taught street children in Nigeria and South Africa.
Maps Joshua Tetrick
Philanthropy
Work in Africa
Upon graduating law school, Tetrick was hired by the Liberian government to work on the reform of Liberia's investment laws for its president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a job that he has joked in interviews he was not qualified for at the time, but learned a tremendous amount in doing. He also worked on other social campaigns, including teaching street children and working to encourage child prostitutes from lives on the streets and into schools. This worked help with the idea for the basis of the non-profit organization, "More Than Me." It was in Africa that Tetrick also first noticed serious issues with the global food system.
33needs
After returning from Africa, Tetrick worked for Toms Shoes. In January 2011, he launched a short-lived crowd-funding website for social startups called 33needs.
Business career
Tetrick developed the idea for Hampton Creek with his friend, Josh Balk, in June 2011. The idea stemmed from issues both of them noticed in the global food system. Tetrick began initial business plans and meetings with Khosla Ventures, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm later that summer. Hampton Creek received its first round of funding in December 2011 and a second round (after a relocation to San Francisco) in June 2012.
Tetrick has been interviewed for his work with Hampton Creek in a variety of publications and media outlets including: CBS This Morning, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Inc., CNBC, CNN, Popular Science, Bloomberg Businessweek, NPR, The New York Times, and others. In March 2013, Tetrick and Hampton Creek became one of only three companies to be featured in Bill Gates' documentary, The Future of Food. In June 2013 Tetrick presented at a TED conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with a presentation on the future of food.
In June 2014, Inc. named Tetrick to its annual "35 Under 35 list." That same month, CNBC named Hampton Creek to its annual "Disruptor 50" list and invited Tetrick to appear live on air with Jim Cramer. In 2014, he keynoted TechWeek Chicago and is scheduled to keynote the World Food Prize's Borlaug DialogueInc.'s 5000 conference, the Pioneer's Festival in Vienna, and The Summit in Dublin later in the year.
Fundraising
Tetrick invested $37,000 of his own money into Hampton Creek in 2011, shortly before Khosla Ventures provided $500,000 in seed funding to the company. He is responsible for attracting notable investors such as Li Ka-Shing, Peter Thiel, and Vinod Khosla to Hampton Creek, and his efforts have resulted in a total of $120 million in fundraising for the company.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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