David Wright’s idea for his e-commerce accelerator Pattern came from an unexpected source: his cousin’s online headband business.
Ten years ago, Wright learned that it was making $2 million a year, and decided to take a closer look at the numbers. “As I dove into what they were doing, I was like, ‘Wait, this is just a formula,’” Wright says. “It’s just revenue equals traffic times conversion times price.”
With a background in data science, Wright began to obsess over an idea: Could he take something like a headband business and help the brand optimize its sales on different online marketplaces?
He went to lunch with his business partner and now spouse, Melanie Alder, and pitched her on the idea that would become Pattern. “That weekend, we set up the business entity, and we both put money in, and we decided to go for it,” Wright says. “We didn’t ever think it would be anything major, but we thought it could maybe help pay our mortgages.”
Needless to say, it did become something pretty major. Valued at more than $2 billion, Pattern helps brands optimize sales on marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, and Google.
What was your “aha moment” for founding Pattern?
I remember sitting with the team at Panasonic and asking them, “How many people do you have that do e-commerce?” And they said three. I was like, “Wait, are we at Panasonic?” We started realizing that even the big brands—like Panasonic—are not solving this problem.
So we understood that as long as we’re inexpensive and we offer an amazing service, it would work.
What is your biggest challenge?
We’ll do almost $1.5 billion in revenue this year, so we know we have something that works. Now our biggest challenge is just hiring. We’re crazy about hiring. I still approve every single hire, and we have 1,500 people. It’s the only weird red-tape thing I do. We’re convinced that if we can do that one thing right, you sort of become unbeatable.
What is one fun fact about you that people may not know?
I’ve put in more than 4,000 hours on the video game Civilization VI [a strategy game in which the player develops a civilization from an early settlement].
The Fortune Founders Forum is a community of entrepreneurs chosen by Fortune’s editorial team to participate at the annual Brainstorm Tech conference, which took place in Deer Valley, Utah, in July. Our inaugural cohort was selected based on a variety of factors, including the potential impact of their companies, and reflected a diversity of geographies, sectors, and demographics.
