Mr. Galloway grew up in Los Angeles to immigrant oldsters. His father, an enthralling gross sales government raised in Despair-era Scotland, had a “horrible dating with cash,” he mentioned. His oldsters divorced when he was once 9, and he lived together with his mom, who labored as a secretary.
“It was once a huge supply of pressure that we didn’t have cash,” he mentioned. “It was once additionally very emasculating.” Mr. Galloway become obsessive about cash, and acquired his first inventory (Columbia Photos) as an 8th grader. He wasn’t common. “I gave the impression of Ichabod Crane with dangerous pores and skin,” he mentioned. In highschool, he ran for sophistication president 3 years in a row, and misplaced every time. He additionally advanced frame dysmorphia, he mentioned.
He went to school at U.C.L.A. and described his time there, in a not-entirely-convincing tone of remorseful about, as a “neglected alternative to be accountable.” He joined a fraternity, rowed group and won 20 kilos of muscle. “Reasonably frankly, my existence modified,” he mentioned. “Hastily ladies have been very keen on me.”
All through trade college on the College of California, Berkeley, he and a classmate began a company referred to as Prophet Logo Technique, advising firms on tips on how to construct their manufacturers. This being the early Nineteen Nineties, their recommendation incessantly amounted to: Use the web. They attracted large shoppers, together with Williams-Sonoma, Levi Strauss and Apple. Within the dot-com growth, they began a sequence of businesses, together with an e-commerce web site referred to as RedEnvelope, the place folks may just purchase and ship last-minute items.
RedEnvelope were given an inflow of money from challenge capital corporations, together with Sequoia Capital, however Mr. Galloway idea the brand new financiers have been guidance the corporate in a horrible route. His struggle to exchange the board failed, however did draw in the eye of hedge finances. “They mentioned, ‘We love the reduce of your loopy jib,’” he mentioned.
