Louis is the founder of HDS and was a founder of Borders Books & Music, Synergy Software, and Webvan. Louis revolutionized the retail book industry with the founding of Borders, the first book and music superstore chain. Borders successfully leveraged technology to improve the delivery of physical media to consumers. Louis sold his interest in Borders in 1993; at its peak, the company had annual revenues of $3.5 billion. In 1998, he founded Webvan, an online home delivery retailer, and served as its CEO until its successful IPO; the company achieved a peak market value of $7 billion. Louis holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, and completed graduate coursework in mathematics at MIT.