Max Johnson

CEO and Co-Founder Awe Inspired

In 2017, Minneapolis-native Max Johnson launched the socially-conscious jewelry brand, Awe Inspired, alongside his mother Jill Johnson. At the time, Jill was recovering from her third battle with breast cancer, sparking inspiration among the duo to create the Livestrong equivalent of fine jewelry. Max first took interest in digital marketing and public service while studying at Stanford. From there, Max went on to become the youngest member elected on the Stanford Pride Alumni Board and joined the Digital Team at Hilary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign headquarters. On the campaign, Max perfected the digital marketing skill sets that ultimately led to the launch of Awe Inspired. While simultaneously balancing a position on the Product team at telehealth company Ro, Max developed Awe’s notable Goddess collection, accompanied by an MBTI-based personality quiz, designed to match customers’ Meyers-Briggs personality type to their inner Goddess and corresponding products. After assisting to drive $60M in recurring annual revenue and close a $250M Series C funding, Max left Ro in 2020 to fully focus on scaling Awe Inspired. Since then, Max has relocated Awe’s headquarters to Los Angeles and scaled the bootstrapped brand to 8-figure revenues. He has established philanthropic partnerships with the American Nurses Foundation at the height of COVID, NAACP of Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd, EMILY’s List honoring Kamala Harris’ Vice-Presidential bid, and the Marsha P Johnson Institute as part of a 2021 Pride campaign staring Indya Moore. To date, the brand has donated over $700K to their charity partners as they continue to double down on their give-back efforts and activism-catching the eye of celebrities including Demi Lovato, Gabrielle Union, Halsey, Laverne Cox, Madonna, Camila Cabello, Maluma, Miley Cyrus, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Selena Gomez.