After Hedge Funds, a Career Rejuvenation

After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1999, Julie Macklowe got a job as an analyst at J.P. Morgan Partners. She went on to Metropolitan Capital Advisors and SAC Capital Advisors, Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund, before running her own $250 million fund, Macklowe Asset Management, for Israel Englander. But she soon grew frustrated with a post-recession market. “After 2008, the timeline compressed so much,” she says, “it became hard to make long-term bets.”

In 2009 she was flying to her friend’s wedding in Deauville, France, when her toiletries were confiscated by security. The expensive European replacements she bought gave her a severe allergic reaction. On her flight home, she sketched out on a napkin a luxury, travel-friendly toiletry kit that could get past the Transportation Security Administration. She would call it the It Kit.