Hi. My name is Dave Schappell (my wife took the above photo, and it is one of the very few that looks good, so I use it a lot 🙂 ).
My Amazon story started in May 1998, when I joined as an MBA Summer Intern after the first year of my Wharton MBA. After a few weeks working on the Amazon Music launch, I told my hiring manager (future Amazon CEO Andy Jassy) that if they were going to give me a full-time offer at summer’s end, that I’d take it ‘now’ and join immediately as a Product Manager (and not return to complete my MBA). With that big move behind me, I feel like I was whisked away on a journey that, in retrospect, is hard to believe. I participated in the launches of many successful (and not successful) products and services, made lifelong friends, and truly made history.
I left Amazon in 2004 and after working with two smaller companies (Unitus and JibJab), I founded a VC-backed local education marketplace called TeachStreet. While TeachStreet didn’t achieve the success we aimed for, we were fortunate to be acquired by Amazon in 2012. During my second “boomerang” stint at Amazon, I helped build the Amazon Web Services Startup Business Development team, which helps high-potential startups and investors accelerate their adoption of AWS. Along the way, I became an active angel investor/startup advisor and was fortunate to be involved with General Assembly, Twilio, Downstream, JibJab, Skilljar, Gamesight, Tomorrow, Sweatcoin, Stackin’, Floreo, MyPerfectColor, Pantastic, AdPractitioners (parent to Consumers Advocate and Money.com), HiHo and many more.
Now, I coach founder CEOs and high-performing individuals and am based in New England (splitting time between Wolfeboro, NH and Lexington, MA). The Invent Like An Owner podcast/website was an effort to stay engaged and create something that I think will be interesting and useful to others. Let me know what you think 🙂
Onward,
Dave
About Dave Schappell (in bullet form)
Life
- Grew up in Leesport, PA (born in 1968)
- Lived in Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, and London
- Currently lives in Wolfeboro, NH and Lexington, MA
School
- Penn State University – B.S. Accounting – 1990
- University of Pennsylvania – attended the Wharton School MBA program from ’97-’98
Work (LinkedIn)
- Executive Coach (working with founder CEOs and high-performers at all levels) – CURRENT
- Consultant and Advisory Board Member – CURRENT
- Creator of the Invent Like An Owner Podcast (interviews with early Amazon.com employees) – ’21
- MyPerfectColor ’18-’19 –> (Custom Color Spray Paint such as Pantone PMS 7710 C Spray Paint)
- Amazon Web Services – ’12 – ’16
- TeachStreet – ’07-’12
- JibJab – ’06-’07
- Unitus – ’05-’06
- Amazon.com – ’98-’04
- Commonwealth Bancorp – ’93-’97
- Arthur Andersen – ’90-’93
Bio
Dave Schappell is an executive coach and strategic consultant to founder CEOs and leaders experiencing hypergrowth in their businesses. He created the Invent Like An Owner podcast, where he interviewed Amazonians who helped build Amazon.com into one of the world’s most valuable companies. He’s managed marketing and site development for MyPerfectColor and Breslow Home Design (and remains an investor and advisor to both), and was formerly the Director of Business Development at Amazon Web Services, focused on the early-stage startup community. Prior to that role, he was the Founder and CEO of TeachStreet.com, led marketing and product development at JibJab and Unitus, and also worked with Amazon.com from 1998 to 2004, when he led Amazon Marketplace product development, managed the Associates program, and more. He has a B.S. in Accounting from the Pennsylvania State University and attended the MBA program at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
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