Cotopaxi, multi-million dollar toilets and centralized power

Venture Capital backed, Utah headquartered Cotopaxi looks to shut down their SF location after millions of dollars of theft losses. San Francisco plans to pay way too much to build a toilet.

In the news this week is the founder of Cotopaxi, an outdoorsy retail brand took to LinkedIn to announce they are shutting down their San Francisco store due to rampant, coordinated looting campaigns. The founder did an interview with The Atlantic that’s really quite shocking. The store was looted dozens of times, multiple times a week and it went on for over a year. Each time looters would pour in and steal as many hundred, $200, $300 dollar backpacks and jackets that they could carry. The whole episode reflects really poorly on the San Francisco Police Department and city government. I hope that the crime stops and these criminals face justice for their property crimes, but in the shower the story got me thinking.

Cotopaxi is a Series C company headquartered out of Salt Lake City. It was founded in 2014 and has raised over $77 million from Venture Capital firms like Greycroft and institutional investors like Bain Capital out of Boston. Cotopaxi markets themselves as a brand to help alleviate poverty…