Today, end-to-end commerce returns solution Happy Returns announced their acquisition by PayPal (PYPL). It is a monumental achievement for any startup to have a successful event or exit, but I confess I am particularly thrilled for this team, my team, especially founders David Sobie (Happy Returns CEO) and Mark Geller (COO).

It is not only a professional advantage but also a personal pleasure when we get to work with colleagues for a long time over multiple jobs, and I have known David for over 15 years since our time together at eBay, and then we worked together at HauteLook where we met Mark as well. They leveraged their insights enabling in-person returns for Nordstrom Rack after HauteLook was acquired by Nordstrom, as the springboard to creating Happy Returns, which now powers in-person return solutions for online-first retailers like REVOLVE, Everlane and Rothy's. When they were first seeking investors for their seed round in 2015 (David won't let me tell you what the price of that round was), I didn't have to worry about their ambition, intelligence or work ethic as founders - I already knew. We were thrilled to lead that round and the round after, and be supporters ever since.

While the Happy Returns team can and should rightfully celebrate an incredible outcome today, any founder will tell you that an exit is the result of many, many years of hard work during which success was certainly not guaranteed. In the nearly seven years since they started the business, venture and tech deal dynamics have gone through an incredible evolution, and return logistics software was not a slam-dunk sale in the early years. It's a true testament to David and Mark's skill and resilience that they continued to build Happy Returns feature by feature, logo by logo, always keeping an eye toward operational and cash efficiency without sacrificing customer experience. They made returns a thing. And that thing is really just getting started! PayPal sees that as well.

By the way, all that's not even counting a year of a pandemic. You know, when you didn't actually shop in a store for a long period of time! It's no small thing when your business is built on driving in-person returns and "in-person" retail is shut down overnight, but David and the Happy Returns team soldiered on, spun up and expanded their FedEx returns partnership, and kept the business growing. That's just one example in a long history of dedicated work that has led them to this day.

PayPal has been a strategic investor since early 2019 (deal led by Jay Ganatra) and will be an ideal partner for this business, which will continue to operate in the PayPal portfolio. There will be more to come on Happy Returns in the coming weeks in month, but for now, please join me in congratulating David, Mark, and the entire Happy Returns team on an incredible culmination of their time as an independent business, and to wish them all the success in the next stage to come.