Michael G. Rubin, renowned Internet entrepreneur, recently founded Kynetic, a private company singularly-focused on building consumer Internet businesses. Kynetic includes three brands at the forefront of innovation in the online commerce space: Fanatics, the world’s leading online retailer of licensed sports merchandise, Rue La La, a leading online private sale destination in the U.S., and ShopRunner, an innovative members-only service which aggregates shopping benefits from the top retailers and brands. Kynetic expects more than $1 billion in revenue in 2012, immediately making it one of the largest private tech companies in the world.
Prior to Kynetic, Rubin was Founder and CEO of GSI Commerce, which was acquired by eBay for $2.4 billion in 2011. Over the past 12 years, Rubin built GSI into a formidable global network of e-commerce, multi-channel and digital marketing businesses servicing 150 of the top 500 Internet retailers and, in totality, over 2,000 customers, including Toys”R”Us, Dell, Polo Ralph Lauren, Estée Lauder, Aéropostale, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bath & Body Works and PetSmart. Rubin pioneered an innovative pay-for-performance business model that fueled GSI’s organic sales growth, which he then complemented in recent years with 11 strategic acquisitions. GSI became one of the largest publicly-traded Internet companies, facilitating billions of dollars of merchandise sales for its customers, with 2010 revenues of $1.4 billion and 5,000+ employees. As part of the transaction, eBay divested certain assets to Kynetic, specifically all of GSI’s online licensed sports merchandise business (Fanatics) and 70% ownership in Rue La La and ShopRunner.
Rubin began his entrepreneurial career in 1985, when he opened a ski-tuning shop in his parents’ basement at the age of 12. He earned $25,000, which was sufficient to rent space in a strip mall for “Mike’s Ski Shop.” By the time he was 14, he had racked up sales of $125,000. Within a year of graduating high school, Rubin had opened several retail ski stores in Pennsylvania and New York. He went on to found KPR Sports, a leading distributor of off-price sporting goods and footwear. In 1997, he merged KPR Sports with publicly-traded Ryka, a branded athletic footwear company he controlled, to form Global Sports Inc. (GSI). The following year, Global Sports generated sales exceeding $100 million and, at age 25, Rubin became one of the youngest CEOs of a NASDAQ-listed company in the exchange’s history. The success of GSI Commerce and Rubin’s outstanding achievements landed him a spot on the inaugural season of CBS’ hit show “Undercover Boss,” as well as recognition in numerous media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The New York Times, BusinessWeek and People. Forbes named him one of 2010’s “15 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under.” In 2011, Rubin was part of the ownership group that purchased the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
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