Max Mullen

Instacart's founder bought one of everything at Trader Joe's to launch

Sam recounts Max Mullen telling him how Instacart launched: Trader Joe's wouldn't share inventory, so Mullen spent $25,000 buying one of everything in the store, hauled it to an apartment, and photographed each item. He repeated it for Whole Foods and five other stores.

“our first store was Trader Joe's and they wouldn't let us go in there and they wouldn't give us all their inventory. He goes, I took it. He goes, it cost $25 grand. I bought everything in the store. We brought it to apartment, took a photo of it, took pictures of every single thing.”