Hi. My name is Zach Ware. I was raised on a farm in the South and now split my time between Las Vegas and Los Angeles and wherever American Airlines flies me (I travel about 40%). My travel calendar lives here.
This is what I’m working on /now.
My current bio:
- Managing partner of VTF Capital where we focus on investing in the commerce industry via two distinct methods: venture investment in retail technologies and long-term large investments in non-venture-backed vertically integrated brands.
- Director at Ministry of Supply.
In 2015 I accidentally started a process that would completely change who I am. Starting with health and later my mind. The changes stuck and my evolution continues.
Some things I’ve done, sort of in reverse order:
- Founder of Shift. A huge transportation company that nearly killed me. I shut it down in 2015. (Washington Post)
- I developed the the 4.5 acre, four building Zappos.com LEED Gold HQ. (BI)
- Co-founded Work In Progress (acquired by Let’s Rally).
- A few friends and I launched Downtown Project where I focused on real estate acquisitions, development, government partnerships and major projects. (NY Times, Fortune, Wired)
- I was Head of Product at Zappos.com where I oversaw product development of all of the company’s web properties (Zappos.com, Couture, 6pm.)
- At The Republic of Tea I led sales and distribution, then supply chain and later the ecommerce and direct to consumer business.
My world view is most heavily influenced by:
- Charlie Munger, specifically The Psychology of Human Misjudgment. I believe this should be required reading (or listening) for all students.
- Fooled by Randomness and the Incerto works of Nassim Taleb.
- A trio (1, 2, 3) of writings by Tim Urban at Wait But Why.
- The principles of value investing best articulated by Ben Graham and later Warren Buffett.
- The lifetime of works by Ryan Holiday, most specifically Ego Is The Enemy and the fact that he introduced me to Stoicism.
- Other influential items are collected in my BestOf collection on Evernote and in my Core Principles.
Media:
Speaking and media bio can be found here.