Four years into his 12-year career chapter at Amazon, Hetu Patel was appointed Finance Director for Prime—a role he credits with opening his eyes to strategic finance. In the days ahead Patel would be handed a milestone assignment, where he worked on a groundbreaking framework attributing the total value of Prime membership to each bundled benefit: video, music, books, and fast shipping. Collaborating with economics and business teams, he quantified how each offering affected purchase behavior and membership renewals, “Patel tells us.” This data-driven approach ultimately informed billions in investment decisions, illustrating how finance could reshape strategy, boost decision-making speed, and deliver transformative impact.
Read MorePatel’s nearly 12-year tenure at Amazon exposed him to operations, retail category development, and even a general manager role, sharpening his analytical skills and broadening his perspective on enterprise-wide connectivity. “Improving the quality and speed of decision-making is the most important role of finance,” Patel tells us. This belief guided him into his subsequent position as CFO at Imperfect Foods, where he further honed board relations, fundraising, and M&A capabilities.
Today, Patel channels these cross-functional experiences into his role as CFO of Thrive Market, combining rigorous long-term planning with a mission-driven focus on healthy, sustainable living. Drawing on lessons from Amazon’s culture of data-centricity, Patel emphasizes strategic foresight and clear performance metrics to guide decision-making.
“Expand your role beyond planning and reporting by cultivating a deep, holistic understanding of the business model. Focus on identifying critical challenges where you can drive meaningful solutions, and prioritize developing a strong, capable team.” —Hetu Patel, CFO, Thrive Market
Made Possible By
Patel’s Strategy Playbook
- Emphasize Long-Range Planning: Patel prioritizes multi-year horizons to guide major investments and reduce short-term distractions.
- Data-Driven Focus: He dives deep into metrics and anecdotes to discover actionable insights that elevate decision-making.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Patel believes finance becomes most impactful when it aligns seamlessly with operational, marketing, and product teams.
- Purpose-Driven Profitability: A commitment to mission doesn’t preclude profit; Patel champions structured initiatives that scale both impact and financial returns.
CFOTL: Tell us about this company—what’s it about, and what are its offerings today?”
Hetu Patel: I (mentioned it briefly, but) Thrive Market is (a) truly mission-driven company. It’s a membership-based online retailer with (a) mission (focused on) making healthy and sustainable living easy and affordable for everyone… We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary last month—we call it our ‘thriversary’—and our mission has really remained the same since day one. I think that’s (particularly) unique and very important to our success (at Thrive).
Read MoreThe core problem Thrive Market is addressing is that millions of Americans want to live healthy and consciously, but it’s really hard. It can be confusing—you have to look at (all) the ingredients in the products you buy and really understand what each one means. (Another) big problem is (accessibility)—many people aren’t within driving distance of a health-food retailer. It’s a challenge that’s probably getting worse, especially with contradictory information about what’s ‘good’ or ‘not.’ And then there’s sustainability—like the packaging and shipping impact of getting products to your doorstep. All those factors make healthy living (really) tough, and Thrive Market looks to address them.
We’re very purpose-built to (help) solve (these) problems. For a $60 annual membership, our members get access to a curated assortment of about 7,000 products, including more than 700 Thrive Market–owned brand products, all at member-only pricing. That’s (our) core value proposition. The second component is that we’re very tech-forward—one of our founders, Sasha (who’s also our CTO), leads our largest team in engineering and data science, which is (our) fastest-growing area. We collect a lot of data about a member’s health journey, starting with (an) initial quiz when they join, (so we can) form a 360-degree view of their needs, track what they browse or search for, and then create personalized product recommendations. That tech and data-centricity has been hugely beneficial in making healthy grocery shopping really easy for our members. And finally, we focus on making our operations (as) sustainable (as possible), which is a key part of our offering… so that’s the (essential) value proposition of Thrive Market.
Thrive Market www. thrivemarket.com Los Angeles, CA