Who

Fedele is the man behind all those FreshDirect delivery trucks idling on New York streets. He co-founded the online grocery store in 1999 before resigning in 2004.

Backstory

Fedele got his start in the grocery business as a food trader, supplying big box stores like Costco before going out on his own and opening By Choice, a vast supermarket located in Harlem on 133rd Street and the West Side Highway. In 1994, Fairway—then a single store on the Upper West Side—bought out By Choice, renaming it Fairway Uptown. Fedele became a partner in the merged company, but the marriage didn't last very long. After a series of clashes with Fairway chief Howie Glickberg, Fedele left the company in 1998. A year later, armed with $100 million in start-up capital, he launched FreshDirect and the company began deliveries in 2002.

Of note

A veteran of the grocery store industry, Fedele was intent on disintermediating the food chain with FreshDirect, and he partnered with Jason Ackerman, a former investment banker, to found get the company off the ground. (It was Jason's uncle, financier Peter Ackerman, who provided much of the initial financing; Peter once served as junk bond king Michael Milken's No. 2.) Two years after beginning deliveries in the New York area, however, Fedele and Ackerman had a falling out over the company's expansion strategy and Fedele resigned in 2004. Ackerman continues to run the company; Fedele now says he's working on a "revolutionary new food venture."

Drama

Fedele's falling out with Fairway's Glickberg was one of the nastiest food-related feuds of the '90s. When he started FreshDirect, Fedele advertised that the company was "brought to you by one of the founders of Fairway Uptown." Fairway's management—who said they'd always considered him a manager, not a founder—soon posted signs explaining that Fairway had nothing to do with FreshDirect. Fedele then dispatched people dressed as fruits and vegetables to hand out flyers in front of Fairway on the Upper West Side; Glickberg allegedly retaliated by threatening to blacklist suppliers if they sold their foodstuffs to both companies. (It never came to pass.) And Glickberg also told New York that he planned to piss on Fedele's grave when he dies.

Personal

Fedele and his wife, Rhonda, live on Long Island.