TJ Parker: Building PillPack, The First E-Commerce Pharmacy, to Amazon's $1B Acquisition | E1022

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

June 5, 2023

Duration

1h 13m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

TJ Parker is the co-founder and former CEO of PillPack. TJ Raised over $100M in financing, grew the company to more than 1k employees, and successfully sold the business to Amazon for $1B in 2018. As of last week, TJ was announced as the newest Partner @ Matrix Partners where he will initially focus on health opportunities from concept to series A. ------------------------------------ Timestamps: 0:00 TJ Parker’s Founding Story of PillPack 5:36 Running From the FBI 9:28 Get Comfortable With Uncertainty 13:20 How to Hire the Best 19:00 Why Speed of Execution Is Everything 24:31 The Best Decision PillPack Ever Made 29:50 Building Your Exec Team 34:00 Startup vs Enterprise Leadership 38:31 Cash vs Equity in Hiring 40:33 Overcoming Early Problems at PillPack 47:00 Epic Battles With Pharmacy Incumbents 57:50 Details on $1B Amazon Acquisition 1:04:46 How TJ Parker’s Life Changed Post Acquisition ------------------------------------ In Today’s Episode with TJ Parker We Discuss: 1.) From Growing Up in Pharmacies to Selling to Amazon for $1BN: How did TJ seeing the pharmacy industry from his parents lead him to believe there was a $BN company to be built in the space? What does TJ know now that he wishes he had known when he started the company? What does TJ believe he is running from? How does that impact his own style of parenting? 2.) The Truth About Entrepreneurship: Why do the best founders have to get comfortable in an environment of uncertainty? What have been some of TJ’s biggest lessons in how to do this? Why does TJ believe the role of the CEO is to set the vision and get out of the way? What roles can only the CEO do? How does TJ approach delegation? What have been some of his core lessons? Does TJ believe being naive is a superpower when starting a company? What do founders need to know vs what do they not need to know when starting a business? 3.) Speed of Execution and Decision-Making: How important does TJ believe speed of execution is for startups today? What can founders do to create a culture of rapid decision-making? What works? What does not? What does TJ believe are 1-2 of the single best and worst decisions he made with PillPack? What are some of the biggest mistakes TJ sees founders make both in speed of execution and then also in decision-making processes? 4.) The Crucible Moments: Lawsuits & Acquisitions: How did an incumbent come days away from shutting down PillPack? How did they save the company? How does TJ deal with those moments of intense stress? How did the Amazon acquisition come to be? Why and how did the prior acquisition fall through? Does TJ regret the sale to Amazon? How was life at Amazon post-acquisition? ------------------------------------ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow TJ Parker on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tjparker Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ------------------------------------ #TJParker #PillPack #HarryStebbings

🎤 SPEAKERS

• TJ Parker

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring TJ Parker and Harry Stebbings, TJ Parker: Building PillPack, The First E-Commerce Pharmacy, to Amazon's $1B Acquisition | E1022 explores from Small-Town Pharmacy Kid To Amazon’s Billion-Dollar PillPack Exit TJ Parker recounts how growing up in his family’s New Hampshire pharmacy, plus a love of design and startups, led to founding PillPack, one of the first true e‑commerce pharmacies.

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