David Sobie
CEO
at Happy Returns
David Sobie is the co-founder and CEO of Happy Returns in Santa Monica, CA.
Happy Returns was founded in 2015 and pioneered box-free returns for e-commerce retailers, speeding customer refunds and reducing return shipping costs. The company was acquired by PayPal in 2021. After a period of exponential growth, UPS acquired the company in 2023. Happy Returns now operates as a subsidiary of UPS, accepting millions of returns each month on behalf of thousands of retailers, at a network of over 8,000 Return Bar locations around the country.
Prior to co-founding Happy Returns, David served as the Chief Marketing Officer of REVOLVE and the SVP of Marketing & Business Development for HauteLook, a Nordstrom company.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Articles by David Sobie
2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions
Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...
How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov
Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...
Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers
Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...
Unblocking Startup Growth: Best Practices for Sales Discovery & Qualification with Richard Harris
Startups are in a constant race against time and resources, navigating complex sales environments with lean teams and limited margins for error. In a recent session from the Mucker Growth...
The LinkedIn Playbook: How Startup Founders Can Stand Out & Scale
This LinkedIn Playbook is based on insights from a recent one-time Mucker Growth Session webinar featuring LinkedIn growth experts Alec Paul (Founder of SalesBrand) and Kyle Williams (Founder of Brickstack)....
DeepSeek vs OpenAI: Comparison Breakdown and What It Means For Your Tech Startup With Dan Cleary
In this recent webinar of our Mucker Growth Series, we discussed the evolving AI landscape with Dan Cleary, founder of PromptHub. He provided an in-depth breakdown of DeepSeek vs. OpenAI,...