What is Travis VanderZanden’s net worth?
Travis VanderZanden is an American businessman who has a net worth of $70 million. Travis VanderZanden is best known for being the founder and CEO of the scooter sharing service Bird. Travis founded Bird in 2017 and over the next several years raised over $400 million in venture capital funding. From those funding rounds, Bird’s private valuation peaked at $2.8 billion. Bird went public via SPAC in November 2021 at a valuation of $2.5 billion. One year later the company’s value had plunged 96% to a market cap of less than $90 million. Travis stepped down as CEO in September 2022.
Before Bird
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Travis VanderZanden landed a job as a product manager at Qualcomm in 2002. VanderZanden then received his MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.
In 2009 he became the Chief Revenue Officer for enterprise chat service Yammer. He remained at Yammer until 2011 when he left to co-found an on-demand car wash service called Cherry. He served as the CEO of Cherry through 2013, at which point the company was acquired by Lyft.
Upon joining Lyft, Travis became the company’s Chief Operating Officer. He left Lyft a year later after being hired away by rival Uber where he became the VP of International Growth. Lyft subsequently sued Travis, alleging he broke a confidentiality agreement. The lawsuit was settled on undisclosed terms and Travis ended up leaving Uber in 2016.
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Bird
Travis VanderZanden founded Bird in 2017. In September 2017 the scooters began appearing around Santa Monica, California and other parts of Los Angeles.
As the scooters became prevalent and popular they created enormous controversy. Bird did not seek permission or permits before expanding into a new city. The scooters were also a major safety hazard. Even though riders were instructed not to ride on sidewalks, they almost exclusively road on sidewalks, periodically crashing into pedestrians. And when the riders did ride in the street, they often did not obey traffic laws, stop signs or other basis safety measures, leading to many accidents.
By 2019 the company had expanded into 120 cities around the globe. Along the way Bird also attracted a number of competitors.
Bird Valuations and Funding Rounds
In February 2018 Bird raised $15 million in Series A financing. A month later the company raised $100 million in a Series B round. In May 2018 Bird raised $150 million in a Series C, primarily from Sequoia Capital. At this round, the company reached a $1 billion valuation for the first time. Bird is the fastest company in history so far, to reach “unicorn” status. In June 2018 Bird raised $300 million at a $2 billion valuation. After several additional funding rounds, Bird eventually reached a private valuation of $2.8 billion. In total the company raised well over $400 million in venture capital.
During the later rounds it was assumed that Travis’ personal equity stake in Bird had been reduced to 20%. Assuming Travis VanderZanden managed to maintain ownership of 20% of his company, his paper net worth before taxes at the $2 billion mark was $415 million. Travis reportedly personally cashed out $44 million in Bird’s mid-2018 funding rounds.
SPAC IPO
By the time Bird struck a deal to go public via SPAC in spring 2021, Travis’ equity stake had been reduced to 13%. When Bird when public via SPAC in November 2021, it debuted at a price per share of around $8 and a market cap of $2.5 billion. At that level his 13% stake was worth $325 million.
One year after going public, Bird’s stock price had dropped from a 52-week high of $11.25 to $0.34 per share. The company’s market cap fell from $2.5 billion to $85 million. At that new low, Travis’ 13% stake was worth around $11 million.
Real Estate
In November 2018, Travis spent $8 million in cash to acquire a large, newly-constructed house in Santa Monica, California. He sold this home in July 2021 for $9 million.
In January 2021 Travis bought Trevor Noah’s Bel Air mansion for $21.7 million. Just six months later Travis decided he no longer wanted the place so he listed it for a little under $25 million. Here’s a video tour:
In November 2021 Travis paid $21.8 million for a waterfront mansion in Coral Gables, Florida.