“Clarence was the exact right person to get Upsie to where it is today, and Will is the perfect fit to take it from here.”
— Brett Brohl
(St. Paul, MN) — March 30, 2022 — Clarence Bethea announced in Twin Cities Business Magazine in March 2022 that he is stepping down as CEO. “It’s time,” Bethea told TCB Mag. “I’m the guy who gets the startup from zero to one. That’s where I get my joy, my energy. Upsie has grown to the point where it needs the next CEO to come in, so I approached our board.”
Over the last seven years, Bethea has taken Upsie from an idea to a successful company of twenty two employees. In 2017, Upsie went through the Techstars Retail Accelerator in Minneapolis, MN. They then went on to raise $27 million over three rounds of funding.
Investors include True Ventures, Concrete Rose VC, Avanta Ventures (CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA insurer), Kapor Capital, Samsung Next, Bread & Butter Ventures, Backstage Capital, Concrete Rose and more, as well as multiple angel investors.
Board members and investors alike agree that Will Anderson is the right person to lead Upsie through the next phase of growth. Brett Brohl, a managing partner for Bread & Butter Ventures says, “CEO transitions happen all the time. It’s not a negative. Clarence was the exact right person to get Upsie to where it is today, and Will is the perfect fit to take it from here.”
“I couldn’t be more honored to step in to lead Upsie in our next explosive growth phases,” Anderson said. “I’m so thankful to Clarence for busting through so many brick walls to get Upsie to this point and the singular focus he had on building a company focused on grace with our customers and each other. What he’s done has been amazing.”
From Upsie’s inception to today, one thing has remained consistent: a dedication to serving their customers, and that will never change.
“I’m lucky that I get to keep working with him [Bethea] in his role as advisor and friend and as our executive chairman,” Anderson said. “We’ll keep growing with grace and continue working our tails off scaling to help more and more Americans protect their most critical devices.”
About Upsie
Upsie was created in 2015 when founder Clarence Bethea discovered the inefficiencies in the warranty industry. The Upsie mission is to make warranties affordable, simple and easy-to-use. From smartphones, to appliances, to gaming consoles, Upsie protects thousands of devices. Anyone can purchase product warranties on the Upsie website or mobile app, where warranty information is stored and can be easily accessed. For more information on Upsie, please visit upsie.com.
