Joshua Tetrick

Early life

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.

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 and in January 2011, he launched 33needs, a crowd-funding website for social startups. The website does not exist anymore.

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, 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. His credibility in business has also led him to be a coveted speaker at business conferences. 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.