Chewy founder → RC Ventures → GameStop Chairman + CEO — the retail-rebellion steward
From Chewy to GameStop via BC Partners asset extraction. Cohen co-founded Chewy 2011 with Michael Day; $15 million Volition Capital Series A 2013; PetSmart / BC Partners acquired Chewy for $3.35 billion in April 2017.
The activist playbook. RC Ventures took positions in Apple, Wells Fargo, Citigroup before targeting GameStop. November 16 2020 activist letter demanded board representation + e-commerce pivot + inventory liquidation. Board seat January 11 2021 — two weeks before the squeeze peak. The timing was the narrative trigger: Cohen's arrival gave the retail substrate the fundamental catalyst required to justify exponential valuation.
The extraction machine. Post-squeeze: aggressive ATM equity offerings ($551 million April 2021 + $1.13 billion June 2021 + subsequent raises) monetized the artificially inflated GME price, building a $4-5 billion cash pile by 2026. Store count reduced ~5,000 leads to ~3,000. GameStop ceased functioning as a retailer and became a liquid cash-box with a captive retail base providing perpetual exit liquidity.
The BBBY extraction event. August 2022: RC Ventures acquired 11.8% of Bed Bath & Beyond. Disclosure triggered retail influx, stock pumped from $5 to nearly $30. Cohen dumped the entire position Aug 16-17 2022 for ~$68 million profit, collapsing the stock. Jake Freeman (20yo trader) made $110 million in the same window. BBBY Chapter 11 April 2023. The event stripped the veneer of retail solidarity — Cohen used the 'ape' base as pure exit liquidity.
The Bitcoin port. March 25 2025 the GameStop board approved Bitcoin as treasury reserve. May 2025: $504.4 million deployed for 4,710 BTC via Coinbase Prime. Covered-call yield strategy reclassified $315 million of holdings. Directly parallels Trump Admin EO 14233 (March 6 2025) Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Cohen's structural function crystallizes: designated steward to extract capital from the 2021 retail liquidity event and port it into the apex institutional digital-asset substrate.