Marc Lore

Marc Eric Lore (pronounced LorEE, born May 16, 1971) is an American entrepreneur,[1] businessman, and investor.[2] From 2016 to 2021, he was the President and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce.[3] He was appointed in September 2016 to lead Walmart's e-commerce division when his company Jet.com, an e-commerce website launched in 2014, was acquired by Walmart, Inc. Walmart purchased Jet for $3.3 billion.[4] Prior to Jet, Lore was the CEO and co-founder of Quidsi, the parent company of a family of websites including Diapers.com. Quidsi was sold in 2011 to Amazon (company) for $545 million.[5] Lore was named regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2011,[6] one of the “smartest people in technology” by Fortune,[7] and was recently dubbed the LeBron James of e-commerce by Matt Higgins (businessman).[8]

Marc Lore
Born
Marc Eric Lore

(1971-05-16) May 16, 1971
New York City
EducationBucknell University (Bachelor of Arts)
OccupationSerial entrepreneur
Known forFounding Diapers.com and Jet.com
Net worthUS $1B+
Spouse(s)Carolyn Lore (divorced)
Children2
Parent(s)Peter Lore, Chiara Lore
Websitewww.linkedin.com/in/marclore

Early life

Lore was born in Staten Island, New York on May 16, 1971, the son of Peter and Chiara Lore. He is the oldest of three children (Chad Lore, 4 years younger and Brooke Lore, 10 years younger) and spent most of his childhood in Staten Island. When he was ten years old his family moved to the small town of Lincroft, New Jersey.[9]

Growing up his mom was a body builder and personal trainer. During the late 1980s she trained model and actress Julianne Phillips who was Bruce Springsteen’s wife at the time.[10] Lore’s father started a computer consulting company, Chadmarc Systems, named after his two sons. Lore has talked about “having to do something pretty spectacular” to get his father's attention. As a result, when talking about his successes, he's discussed the mentality of “having to do big things to be loved” as one of his driving forces.[11]

Growing up Lore did every entrepreneurial business a kid could do – mowing lawns, picking weeds, selling newspapers, and washing cars.[9] When he was four years old he told people he wanted to be a farmer when he grew up because they grow stuff from nothing.[12] In seventh grade, Lore got into stocks and began reading books on derivatives and stock options – eventually leading him to start his career in finance.[11] In high school he started a baseball card company called The Mint with his grade school friend, Lax Chandra.[9]

In 1996 Lore qualified for the U.S. National Bobsled Team but chose to go stay with his banking job instead of train, therefore losing his seat on the national team for the 1998 Winter Olympics.[8]

Education

From fifth until twelfth grade, Lore attended Ranney School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. In 1989, during his senior year of high school, Lore became the New Jersey State Champ for the 55-meter dash.[13]

Lore's classmates called him the human calculator as a young savant with numbers. While sophisticated with math, Lore claims he didn't apply himself and was seen more as a class clown. In high school he and his close friend, and later business partner, Vinit Bharara used to sneak down to Atlantic City and card count at the casinos.[9] Lore has stated that he “didn’t apply himself at all” when it came to school. He's said that he was a sophomore in high school when he first realized you have to actually apply to college – “I always thought you could just pick the school you wanted to go to.”[14]

After graduating high school in 1989, Lore attended Bucknell University. He was on Bucknell's Track and Field team specializing in the 100-meter, 200-meter, long jump, and javelin events. In 1993 he received a Bachelor of Arts in business management and economics, graduating cum laude and became the first college graduate in his family.[15]

After starting his banking career, Lore enrolled in Columbia University but dropped out one year short of his master of statistics degree. During this time he did complete the Chartered Financial Analyst three-year program.

Lore also enrolled in The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.[16] He dropped out after one year in the MBA program to pursue Diapers.com. It was at Wharton where he met Scott Hilton during a study group – Hilton would later become employee #1 at Diapers.com.[17]

Career

Early career

After graduating college in 1993, Lore began his career at Bankers Trust in New York City. He held various investment banking positions, including vice president of emerging markets risk management at Credit Suisse First Boston and executive vice president of Sanwa International Bank in London, where he was head of the bank's Risk Management Division.[18]

In 1997, while at Credit Suisse First Boston, Lore and his colleague, Lev Borondovsky, started the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) and founded the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) – a certification for financial risk managers. Today an estimated 50,000 people have earned the certification while the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) has over 150,000 members from 195 countries.[19] Lore and Borondovsky also wrote The Professional's Handbook of Financial Risk Management.[20]

The Pit

In 1999, Lore co-founded The Pit, Inc., an Internet market-making collectible company constructed as an alternative to eBay.[21] Lore served as CEO and The Pit was sold to the sports collectibles company, The Topps Company, Inc. for $5.7 million in 2001.[22] Following the acquisition, Lore joined Topps as chief operating officer of gaming subsidiary WizKids.[23]

Quidsi (Diapers.com)

In 2005, Lore and Vinit Bharara founded 1800DIAPERS, later rebranded as Diapers.com.[24] Lore served as CEO .[25] The company was sold to Amazon (company) in 2011 for $545 million,[26] and Lore then worked for Amazon for over two years.[18]

Jet.com

In 2014, Lore founded eCommerce company, Jet with Nate Faust and Mike Hanrahan.[27] Lore served as CEO and in November 2014, Jet launched a campaign offering stock options to users generating word-of-mouth for the company in advance of launch.[28] In January 2015, Jet was featured in a cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek, in which it was revealed that Jet would be a shopping club in which members will pay an annual fee of $49.99 to access the lowest prices on millions of items,[29] although the membership fee was eliminated in October 2015.[30]

In February 2015 Jet raised $140 million in pre-launch funding from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Accel Partners, Alibaba Group, New Enterprise Associates, and others.[31]

Beta testers in May 2015 reported cheaper prices than Amazon but longer delivery times.[32] On July 21, 2015, Jet.com opened to the public.[33]

On August 8, 2016, Walmart announced it had agreed to acquire Jet.com for $3.3 billion. Following the acquisition, Lore was appointed president and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart U.S. eCommerce.[34]

On May 19, 2020, Walmart announced that it was shutting down Jet, directing visitors to use Walmart.com instead.[35]

Walmart

Since Walmart’s acquisition of Jet and Lore’s team, Walmart's U.S. eCommerce sales have taken off. Prior to the acquisition and Lore joining, Walmart had seen its global eCommerce growth steadily decelerate despite the online channel's growing importance. After its first full year with Lore at the helm, Walmart’s U.S. eCommerce sales grew 44%.[36]

According to Fool.com, “In the three full fiscal years since the Jet acquisition Walmart's eCommerce sales have nearly tripled, jumping 176%. The company has rapidly expanded grocery pickup and delivery and now has about 3,300 stores with grocery pickup and more than 1,850 stores offering grocery delivery, up from just a handful at the time of the Jet acquisition. Under the guidance of Lore, the company rolled out free two-day delivery for orders over $35 without a membership fee to compete with Amazon Prime, and that was accelerated to free one-day delivery last year, shortly after Amazon made the same move in Prime. In the most recent quarter, Walmart expanded ship-from-store capabilities to 2,500 stores, leveraging the power of its store base, and it launched Express Delivery, promising delivery in two hours.”[37]

In 2017, Walmart and Lore announced the launch of Store No. 8, a technology incubator based in the Silicon Valley.[38] The initiative was named after an early Walmart store that founder, Sam Walton, used to try out new retail strategies.[39] At the 2017 Shoptalk conference in Las Vegas, Lore said Store No. 8 will work with startups that specialize in areas that include robotics, virtual reality and augmented reality, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.[40] Lore has also helped Walmart expand its online selection and made a number of acquisitions of digitally native brands like Bonobos.[41]

Investor

Lore recently invested in Archer, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company focused on advancing the benefits of sustainable air mobility.[42]

Public image
Sofia Vergara and Marc Lore at Walmart's Shareholders Meeting 2019

In 2019, actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow called Lore a mentor and business coach stating, “He’s an eCommerce wizard and so he is probably the person I reach out to most for specific questions.”[43]

Lore is active on LinkedIn sharing entrepreneurial and business advice almost daily. He hosts a show called Startup Standup that focuses on mentoring female founders.[18]

In 2019, Lore showed up onstage at Walmart’s annual Shareholders meeting alongside Sofia Vergara to discuss Walmart’s latest shipping capabilities and Sofia’s jeans line, Sofia Vergara Jeans.[44]

In 2020, it was reported that Lore was working alongside Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez in a bid to buy the New York Mets. The deal did not go through.[45]

He was named regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2011,[46] one of the “smartest people in technology” by Fortune (magazine),[7] and was recently dubbed the LeBron James of eCommerce by Matt Higgins (businessman).[8]

After Jet’s acquisition in 2016, Lore made headlines as the highest paid executive in America.[47]

References
  1. "Jet.com's Founder Marc Lore: 3 Things You Need to Know About the Man Taking on Amazon".
  2. "With Money From Walmart's Marc Lore, Stealth Startup Archer Buys Its Way Into The Electric Air Taxi Race".
  3. "Exec Bio".
  4. "Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash to fight Amazon".
  5. "10 of the Largest Amazon Acquisitions to Date".
  6. "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 New Jersey Award Winners Announce".
  7. "The Smartest People in Tech".
  8. "The Future of eCommerce with Marc Lore".
  9. "Why You Need to Pull Weeds w/ Marc Lore".
  10. "6th Gear of Entrepreneurship with Marc Lore".
  11. "Life or Death of an Entrepreneur with Marc Lore".
  12. "When to Risk it All on Your Big Idea with Marc Lore".
  13. "Cum Laude Society Inducts New Members".
  14. "Marc Lore: Persuade Like A Pro".
  15. "Marc Lore '93 returns to campus for 'Innovate Bucknell'".
  16. "Marc Lore's Secret to Serial Entrepreneurship?".
  17. "Walmart Online Unit Seeks New Executive While Losses Pile Up".
  18. "Marc Lore LinkedIn".
  19. "All about GARP: The Organization Behind the FRM® Certification".
  20. "Professional's Handbook of Financial Risk Management".
  21. "One School. Three Entrepreneurs. $700 Million".
  22. "thePit.com Press Releases".
  23. "Marc Lore: 10 Things You Didn't Know about Jet.com's CEO".
  24. "Meet Jet CEO Marc Lore, E-Commerce's Pitchman".
  25. "The Way I Work: Marc Lore of Diapers.com".
  26. "Amazon to Acquire Diapers.com for $540 Million".
  27. "Would-be Amazon competitor Jet.com raises $80 million".
  28. "What's it take to challenge Amazon? For Jet.com, giving away equity to lure new users".
  29. "Amazon Bought This Man's Company. Now He's Coming for Them".
  30. "Jet.com Overhauls Business Model, Kills $50 Membership Fee to Broaden Appeal".
  31. "Alibaba Secretly Invested In Amazon Challenger Jet.com".
  32. "Two Retail Veterans Take Aim at Amazon's E-Commerce Reign".
  33. "Jet.com Opens Rivalry With Amazon After a Ragged Trial Period".
  34. Sarah Nassauer (August 8, 2016). "Wal-Mart to Acquire Jet.com for $3.3 Billion in Cash, Stock". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  35. "Walmart winds down Jet.com four years after $3.3 billion acquisition of e-commerce company".
  36. "Walmart's $3.3 billion acquisition of Jet.com is still the foundation on which all of its e-commerce dreams are built".
  37. "Jet.com May Be History, but Walmart Got What It Needed".
  38. "Walmart Launches Tech Incubator Dubbed Store No. 8".
  39. "Walmart launches Store No. 8 — but it's not really a store".
  40. "Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore says the company will make more acquisitions".
  41. "Walmart to Buy Bonobos, Men's Wear Company, for $310 Million".
  42. "With Money From Walmart's Marc Lore, Stealth Startup Archer Buys Its Way Into The Electric Air Taxi Race".
  43. "Jeff Bezos hasn't returned Gwyneth Paltrow's email yet — but here's what she would ask him".
  44. "Walmart highlights growth at shareholders meeting; Lady Antebellum, One Republic among performers".
  45. "Jennifer Lopez-Alex Rodriguez trying to improve last-ditch Mets offer".
  46. "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 New Jersey Award Winners Announce".
  47. "Wal-Mart E-Commerce CEO Gets $244 Million in Pay After Jet Deal".
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