Most recently, Katie Finnegan was the founder and principal of Store No 8, Walmart’s incubation arm, where she launched 4 portfolio companies in under 3 years—including Jetblack, Walmart InHome Delivery, Walmart’s Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL), and Spatial&. Katie brings a passion for retail and entrepreneurship to incubation. From sitting in on conference calls starting at age 8 with her retail executive dad, to early days in merchandising with J.Crew, to co-founding an innovative retail tech startup, Katie has always had a passion for retail and building.
Katie came to Walmart as a ‘key man’ in Walmart’s $3.3B acquisition of Jet.com, where she was head of corp development, strategy, and investor relations (raised $800M in venture financing in 18 months) reporting directly to CEO Marc Lore. Katie joined Jet in 2014 with the acquisition of Hukkster, the retail tech start-up she co-founded in 2012.
A recent transplant to Santa Monica from NYC, you’ll find Katie cruising around town in her powder blue 1980 International Scout with her sidekick, Gormley (a puppy Cavalier). Katie holds an MBA in corporate strategy and finance from Duke University. A proud Colgate alum, Katie is a founding chair of the Colgate Entrepreneurship Network, recipient of the Ann Yao ’80 Alumni award, 2015 recipient of the Maroon Citation, and most recently named Colgate University’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business.