Ken Gaebler: always the entrepreneur
Alumni Newsletter, Winter 2001, Vol. 2, No. 7
By Judy Tolliver
BeautyJungle, a company co-founded by Ken Gaebler, BS 85, rose and fell spectacularly during the dot-com craze. But Gaebler himself managed to land on his feet, and like a phoenix, he's on the way up again as CEO of no less than three startups.
Fresh from enjoying the computer classes he took in high school in Oak Park, Illinois, Gaebler enrolled in computer science at U of I. He was a serious student but took time for extra-curricular activities as well, playing for the university soccer club, selling advertising for the Daily Illini, participating in the student senate, and chairing the student IEEE chapter. Although he enjoyed being at the university, he was eager to get out, and he graduated in only three years.
Gaebler's first job was in Chicago with Arthur Andersen's information consulting division, the predecessor to Andersen Consulting. Four years later he joined the Information Consulting Group, a new systems integration company co-founded by ex-Andersen employee Alan Bernstein, BS 74. To complement his expertise in IT strategy, Gaebler returned to school, earning an MBA from Yale University in 1993. In June of that year, he started his own company in Chicago, VREAM.
VREAM, meaning “virtual reality dream,“ produced real-time, 3D graphics software for PCs. The company was tremendously successful, receiving critical acclaim, including a PC Magazine Editor's Choice Award, for its VR software. When VREAM was sold to Platinum Technology in 1996, Gaebler stayed on and ran their visual computing group (the VREAM part) until it was phased out in 1998. That's when he and two others started BeautyJungle, a cosmetics and beauty supply e-retailer.
“We looked at tons of ideas,“ Gaebler said, “and stumbled onto the idea of selling beauty products online. It was a great market, the products were lightweight and high margin--ideal for e-commerce.“ Few companies were in that space and certainly none was dominant. Gaebler was COO and director of the company. After securing seed money from individual investors, BeautyJungle was infused with $18M from Divine Interventures, the Internet holding firm of Platinum founder Andrew “Flip“ Filipowski.
BeautyJungle was high-profile and enjoyed meteoric growth. Of the 50 leading companies evaluated by Resource Marketing in September 2000, BeautyJungle held the third spot, right behind Amazon, as a leading online shopping site. But the dot-com bubble burst shortly thereafter, and although it was universally recognized as a premiere online retailer of cosmetic and beauty supplies, with operations in three cities, BeautyJungle closed its doors in November 2000 and sold its assets to Fashionmall.
Never one to sit still, Gaebler is hard at work focusing on the September 2000 launch of three new technology-based companies in Chicago. They are Astute Diligence (due diligence for private-equity firms), Grand Roads Executive Search (headhunter / executive recruiting firm), and Walker Sands Communications (marketing and public relations). Gaebler is CEO, for now, of all of them.
Gaebler lives in River Forest, Illinois, with his wife Ellen, who formerly ran the Oak Park children's museum, their two young children, and a new dog. He continues to play soccer and participates in a book club (started in 1985) and a wine-tasting group.