How I Didn't Get That MBA (And Still Started A Billion-Dollar Company)

In May, the suitcase company Away, which Jen Rubio co-founded with fellow Warby Parker alum Steph Korey in 2015, raised $100 million, at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The company has sold a million suitcases and estimates 2019 revenue will hit $300 million. But Rubio’s path wasn’t always easy wheeling—especially when a controversy threatened to sink her company. As told to Christine Lagorio-chafkin

- Christine Lagorio-Chafkin

When I was 7, my family moved from the Philippines to New Jersey. In the Philippines, I’d had the best schools and the best teachers. In New Jersey, I was the girl with an accent who ate different foods. Who was put into lower classes, because I was an ESL student. All of these things, I wanted to hide.

I asked my mom to get me a speech coach, to get rid of my accent. I read a lot and watched a ton of TV. By high school, I was in all honors classes. The only downside is that I can no longer speak Tagalog.

My career has been so weird and nonlinear. So many times, I was so uncertain. I wish my younger self could have known that that’s OK.

One of my first jobs was at Johnson & Johnson, during college, where I first encountered how real marketing is done. When I told my manager I wanted to go into marketing, she said, “You’d need an MBA to join our team.”

But I didn’t get an MBA. When I was 20, I left school. I juggled jobs. I became a social media consultant before that title existed. (I tweeted for a café.) That led to my becoming head of social media at Warby Parker in 2011.