Louis Borders

Louis Borders
EducationUniversity of Michigan
MIT
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder of Borders and Webvan

Louis H. Borders is an American entrepreneur. He co-founded the bookstore chain Borders with his brother Tom in 1971 and founded the online grocery delivery service Webvan in 1996.

Education

Borders studied mathematics at the University of Michigan as an undergraduate and later did graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career

Borders

The original Borders bookstore was located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it was founded in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders during their undergraduate and graduate years at the University of Michigan. The Borders brothers' inventory system tailored each store's offerings to its community. Kmart acquired the company for $125 million in 1991. In 2011, the company went bankrupt and closed.

Webvan

In 1996, he founded the online retailer and grocery company, Webvan. Customers could order their groceries online and have them delivered to their door. The company was valued at $8 billion in only three years, however, the company was defunct by 2001. In 2020, Borders tried to start the company back up, with Webvan 2.0 and raised $30 million in funding.

References

  1. 1 2 Fost, Dan (July 30, 2003). "Louis Borders: Older and wiser Webvan founder eases back into the fray with Web content venture - SFGate". Sfgate.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Louis Borders Webvan Founder HDS - Business Insider". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  3. ↑ Fost, Dan (July 30, 2003). "Louis Borders: Older and wiser Webvan founder eases back into the fray with Web content venture". SFGATE. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  4. ↑ "By the Book". Northwestern.edu. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Debter, Lauren. "Founder Of Borders Bookstores, Webvan Returns With Dreams Of Beating Amazon At Food Delivery". Forbes. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  6. ↑ "COMPANY NEWS; KMART TO PURCHASE BORDERS BOOKSTORES CHAIN (Published 1992)". October 3, 1992. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  7. ↑ Osnos, Peter (January 11, 2011). "What Went Wrong at Borders". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  8. ↑ Noguchi, Yuki (July 19, 2011). "Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived". NPR. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  9. 1 2 Bindman, Ariana (October 15, 2024). "The disastrous rise and fall of a $10 billion Bay Area unicorn". SFGate.
  10. ↑ "Webvan's founder is launching another online grocery business | Grocery Dive". www.grocerydive.com. Retrieved December 5, 2025.