Shawn Dougherty and her co-founder built Mophie into the No. 1-selling battery case manufacturer in North America, a status it sustained from 2008-2016.
They did this from the company's HQ in Orange County. When Mophie was acquired by Zagg for $100 million in 2016, there were more than 100 employees working out of a 48,000-square-foot building in Santa Ana.
Now, Dougherty is adding more jobs in OC. Society Brands, an Amazon aggregator she co-founded, announced the acquisition of Power Theory in late August.
Power Theory created a line of screen protection tools. To support this acquisition, Dougherty is hiring a core group of original Mophie team members to work in OC.
And, OC is the location of Society Brands' West Coast product innovation center. It's located in Newport Beach, where Dougherty lives. There's a small office space there for team members across the product and operations departments. The company is looking to expand into a larger location in the future.
Amazon Aggregator Paradigm
Society Brands is an Amazon aggregator. These kinds of entities acquire brands that originate online, and that mainly sell on Amazon and their own DTC sites.
Earlier this year, Society Brands raised $204 million in debt and equity financing during its first institutional capital raise.
The acquisition of Power Theory is part of Society Brand’s “aggressive” expansion into the consumer electronics space, which Dougherty is spearheading.
Taking Mophie to new heights
Mophie created what’s known as a “juice-pack” battery case — a case that also acts as a charger — for the first-gen iPhone in North America. It also built an exclusive partnership with Apple. Dougherty served as COO of the company.
She raised millions of dollars in multiple rounds of equity and debt financing. While she was COO, the company grew from three employees in a barn in Kalamazoo, MI, where Dougherty is from, to a multi-million-dollar business, with 300-plus employees around the world.
Foundation of Society Brands
Dougherty created Society Brands in 2020 with co-founder brothers Michael and Justin Sirpilla, who are based in Ohio. The Sirpilla family has been creating jobs in northeast Ohio, where Society Brands is headquartered, for several generations — in the finance and retail industries.
The three Society Brand co-founders decided to channel their experience and expertise into the aggregator market after collectively selling more than $2 billion through e-commerce endeavors, as well as being involved in multiple billion-dollar acquisitions across various industries.
In addition to Ohio and Newport Beach, Society Brands also has offices in Michigan and Arkansas. Society Brands was recently honored by Cleveland Inno with a 2022 Blazer Award in the "Investors and Supporters" category. The awards were based on factors including new initiatives, funding rounds, community impact and company growth.
Adding jobs in OC
Based on the acquisition of Power Theory, Dougherty hired back 12 original Mophie core team members.
One of the notable hires is Charlie Quong, who's leading strategic product development efforts as chief product officer. He has 20 years of experience creating and managing consumer and commercial products, along with mobile software tools, across a broad range of categories.
He’s launched thousands of products, representing more than $3 billion in total revenue.
At Mophie, he was VP of product development. He led its effort to make that company the first Apple MFi-certified accessory developer in the smart battery case and power categories.
The other former Mophie employees are working for Society Brands in OC in several departments, including operations, product development/design and supply chain. The entire group of returnees has worked in the tech industry, and with each other, for more than 20 years.
Acquiring an OC brand
In addition to creating jobs in OC, Society Brands also recently acquired a brand based there.
Barnesmith, based in Aliso Viejo, creates collegiate apparel. It sells to approximately 150 schools currently. The brand features officially-licensed designs from America's top colleges.
Eric Barnes is the founder, and he opted to stay on with Society Brands and serve as brand president.
In 1986, he was a freshman at Princeton University, where he began selling t-shirts from dorm-to-dorm to help pay for tuition.
Throughout his development of the company, he worked with his wife, Stacey Barnes. A graduate of Penn State University, Stacey Barnes spent her early career working as a manager of non-apparel licensing for the NBA.
Shortly after Eric Barnes got his MBA at NYU's Stern School of Business, the couple moved to OC and decided to expand beyond the original eight Ivy League schools. They combined their last names to create Barnesmith. Previously, it was known as Ivysport.
With the acquisition by Society Brands, Barnesmith is planning to expand to more than 300 colleges and offer more clothing lines, including branded hats and pants.
