Podcast appearances and mentions of neil blumenthal

Founded 15 years ago as a digitally native, direct-to-consumer eyewear retailer, Warby Parker set out to disrupt the $150 billion global optical industry with $95 prescription glasses (and at-home try-ons through the mail). Clearly, they were on to something, as five years later, Fast Company named it the “Most Innovative Company in the World.” Warby Parker went public in 2021 and now has a $2.5 billion dollar market valuation plus a robust omnichannel strategy. It will open its 300th store later this summer and has plans for stop-in shops in Target. It's also a socially conscious business, and as of June 2025, Warby Parker surpassed 20 million pairs of glasses distributed to those in need through its "buy a pair, give a pair" program.  In this podcast episode for Retail Rx, Lauren Parker, director of Fairchild Studio, chats with Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker about their rapid rise and evolution, social responsibility commitment, and those upcoming smart glasses with Google. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joining us for a fascinating interview is Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, one of the most successful and innovative "disruptor brands" to emerge in the past two decades. Neil shares the brand's origin story, what makes Warby Parker remarkable, why they've aggressively invested in brick-and-mortar locations, the critical interplay between digital and physical, and a whole lot more.As usual for our encore episodes, we open with Steve giving us an update on the progress Warby Parker is making on their business. About NeilNeil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the world.Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. He serves on the board of RxArt and on the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council. A native of New York City, Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Neil lives in Greenwich Village with his wife, Rachel, the founder and CEO of Rockets of Awesome, and their two children. Here is a 10% off code for the CommerceNext Growth Show exclusive to Remarkable Retail listeners: REMARKABLE. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

In this episode, Dave and Chris start off with some musings about artichokes and theorize about the potential untold Chinese influence on Italian cuisine. They then have an informative conversation with Warby Parker cofounder and co-CEO Neil Blumenthal about the current U.S. tariffs. Dave and Chris finish with an MOIF concerning the tariffs' potential effects on food in America, Parmesan Reggiano, and more. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Neil Blumenthal Video/Audio Producer: Felipe Guilhermino Majordomo Media Producers: Kelsey Rearden and David Meyer Editor: Stefano Sanchez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this special episode of Hello Monday, recorded live onstage at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit in New York City, Jessi sits down with Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker. As a pioneer of purpose-driven businesses, Neil shares invaluable insights on building a company that doesn't just stand out in the marketplace but also stands for something meaningful. From Warby Parker's innovative buy-a-pair-give-a-pair model to cultivating a strong company culture that attracts top talent, Neil reveals the steps to creating a brand with social impact at its core. Jessi and Neil dive into the early days of Warby Parker, recounting how a group of business school students identified a problem and built a solution that disrupted the eyewear industry. Neil also offers advice for founders on how to integrate purpose into their business strategy, be prepared to stand by their values during tough times, and stand out in today's startup landscape. Continue the conversation with us at Hello Monday Office Hours! RSVP here to join us on the LinkedIn News page this Wednesday at 3 PM EST.

Welcome to The Business of Giving. I'm your host, Denver Frederick. Did you know that over one billion people worldwide lack access to affordable eyewear? Warby Parker set out to change that. In an industry dominated by high prices, Warby Parker has revolutionized eyewear, offering stylish, affordable options while making a profound social impact. Today, we're joined by Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, to explore how this mission-driven company is reshaping the retail landscape. As Neil shares, “We thought that if we could charge a fraction of the cost, that would be good. But we also asked ourselves, ‘What type of business would we want to work at?'” In this episode, we'll dive into Warby Parker's innovative approach to balancing profit and purpose, their cutting-edge use of technology, and the company culture that fuels their growth. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a social impact enthusiast, or just curious about the future of retail, you won't want to miss this insightful conversation with one of the visionaries leading the charge. Stay with us for an inspiring journey behind the brand that's changing the way we see the world.

Joining us for a fascinating interview is Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, one of the most successful and innovative "disruptor brands" to emerge in the past two decades. Neil shares the brand's origin story, what makes Warby Parker remarkable, why they've aggressively invested in brick-and-mortar locations, the critical interplay between digital and physical, and a whole lot more.As usual we open by dissecting the most important news of the week including a big change of leadership at Nike and fears over the impact of the dock strike. Then it's on to Amazon and Walmart joining in on the early holiday promotional fun, solid earnings from Costco, while H&M and Five Below suffer, and word that Amazon Fresh has reached 50 locations (yawn) while K-mart (finally) says "buh-bye." We wrap up celebrating Primark's 50th anniversary.Our interview with Primark US President Kevin Tulip. About NeilNeil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the world.Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries.  He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. He serves on the board of RxArt and on the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council. A native of New York City, Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Neil lives in Greenwich Village with his wife, Rachel, the founder and CEO of Rockets of Awesome, and their two children. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

On this episode, Dave offers up six things you would need when starting a new business. Then, they chat with friend Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, all about his journey to starting his company, the glasses market for Asian men with wide faces, the future of AI in retail, and more. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Neil Blumenthal Video Producer: Victoria Valencia Audio: Victoria Valencia Majordomo Media Production: Noelle Cornelio and Kelsey Rearden Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we take all the great wisdom from the last three months and highlight the most impactful takeaways for you. The Best Of Q2 features leadership insights from these incredible leaders: Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, co-CEOs of Warby Parker Jon Rahm, Professional golfer Kevin Hochman, CEO of Brinker International (Chili's and Maggiano's) Hal Rosenbluth, Chairman & CEO of New Ocean Health Solutions Bill Mudd, President & COO at Churchill Downs Val Ackerman, Commissioner of the Big East Conference Rory McIlroy, Professional golfer Steve Squeri, Chairman and CEO of AMEX David Novak, Cofounder and former CEO of Yum! Brands Steve Duncker, Former Chairman of NYRA Irina Novoselsky, CEO of Hootsuite and former CEO of CareerBuilder Eric Church, CMA Entertainer of the Year and a 10-time GRAMMY nominee ——— FEATURED RESOURCE The How Leaders Lead mobile app Download the app and scale up your leadership skills in under 2 minutes a day

Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa started Warby Parker as a business school project in 2010. The premise was simple: shake up the old-line optical business by selling frames online, and at a lower price than traditional retail. Today, Warby Parker is one of the biggest players in optical, a robust online business leveraging e-commerce but with a growing retail footprint of some 250 stores as well. On this episode of Leadership Next, Michal talks to Neil and Dave about Warby Parker's founding story, changing consumer behavior, and how to remain innovative as a company matures beyond startup mode. Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte. 

On this episode of 3 More Questions, you'll hear David Novak's answers to: How can leaders eliminate silos and bureaucracy so that the right information gets to each department in the company? What advice can you give leaders about how to price their products competitively? Where should leaders look when they're trying to innovate while also staying true to their core brand and product? ——— GO DEEPER Scale up your leadership skills in 2 minutes a day with the How Leaders Lead app — Download today in the App Store Get coaching from David by signing up to receive his Weekly Leadership Plan. It builds on each podcast episode by offering actionable steps you can take each week to incorporate the learnings from the episode into your leadership style. It only takes about 5 minutes and is a great way to start off your week! Subscribe to the How Leaders Lead podcast to ensure you never miss an episode!

When information doesn't get to the right people at the right time, it's a recipe for disaster.  People can't make smart decisions. It creates unnecessary conflict. And teams end up siloed and not aligned.  If you want to make sure information is moving fast in your organization, listen to this conversation with Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, the co-CEOs of the incredibly successful eyeglass company Warby Parker. You'll also learn: One habit that every strong partnership needs Why a clearly defined brand identity is key for creativity What to do when disagreements arise How to be successful in retail today ——— FEATURED RESOURCE The How Leaders Lead mobile app Download the app and scale up your leadership skills in under 2 minutes a day

Starting with a vision to disrupt traditional eyewear retail, Neil co-founded Warby Parker, turning it into a household name. Beyond stylish frames, he's known for championing socially conscious business practices. From innovative marketing strategies to a relentless focus on customer experience and social impact, Neil's story is a masterclass in turning vision into reality, a pioneering force in revolutionizing the eyewear industry.Neither the information, nor any opinion contained in this podcast, constitutes an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities or other financial instruments or to participate in any advisory services or trading strategy. Nothing contained in this document constitutes investment, legal or tax advice or is an endorsement of any of the investments/companies mentioned herein.

Warby Parker co-CEOs Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa broke their scrappy startup into the eyewear industry in 2010—putting legacy manufacturers on notice by offering stylish glasses at much lower prices. But having since gone public and facing pressure from digital landlords and changing technology, Warby Parker now faces a new set of challenges and unknowns...This week on How I Built This Lab, Neil and Dave share insights on leading a public for-profit company with a social mission. Plus, why brick and mortar is essential to the business, despite starting as a direct-to-consumer brand, and how artificial intelligence will change eyecare as we know it.Also, check out Warby Parker's founding story told by Neil and Dave in December 2016.This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei.It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Kerry Thompson. Our audio engineer was Patrick Murray.You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Over the past 13 years, Warby Parker has become synonymous with offering stylish eyewear at revolutionary prices. The company was born back at Wharton in 2010, when a group of classmates—including co-CEO Neil Blumenthal, came together around an idea they couldn't get out of their heads. Since then, Warby Parker has grown to over 200 brick and mortar locations and went public in 2021. They've also hit a giant milestone: distributing 15 million pairs of glasses globally through their Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, helping people get the glasses they need to learn, work, and achieve better economic outcomes. Neil shares how it took them six months and over 2,000 names to settle on Warby Parker, why getting pricing right was key to their early success, and why empathy is key to business-building. 

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, many Americans are trying to return to the U.S. Jessica Nagar Zindani, a mother of three who lives in Israel, joins "CBS Mornings" from her bomb shelter to share her experience seeking U.S. help as she tries to safely leave Israel with her three children.Sen. Cory Booker told "CBS Mornings" on Friday that $6 billion in Iranian oil assets that were freed up as part of last month's U.S.-Iran prisoner swap are "frozen." Booker serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and was in Jerusalem when Hamas launched its large-scale attack on Israel.Earpods are so great, yet so tiny and easy to misplace. This is a story of how persistence and tenacity pays off for a CBS News producer, and sparks a new friendship with a puppy and a winemaker.Since Warby Parker was founded in 2010, the company has distributed over 15 million pairs of glasses through its "Buy a Pair, Give a Pair" program. Company co-founders Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa join "CBS Mornings" to talk the new milestone and their vision for the company's future.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

During the recent 2023 Retail Influencer CEO Forum, Retail Refined's Melissa Gonzalez sat down with Neil Blumenthal, co-CEO and co-Founder of Warby Parker, to discuss the brand's journey and its innovative approach to leadership in the eyewear industry. Blumenthal highlighted Warby Parker's commitment to providing affordable eyewear while also making a positive impact with their “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” initiative. He also touched on the brand's technological advancements, such as virtual try-ons and vision tests, and the importance of transparency in building trust with consumers, especially Gen Z.

At Neil Blumenthal's little league baseball game, there was a shootout where a man was shot three times. His mother was the first to run over to provide assistance and help save his life. Neil pitched in to help stop the bleeding until the ambulance arrived.From this point on, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Serve others and have a positive impact on the world. And he did just that when he partnered with David Gilboa in 2010 to found Warby Parker. Warby Parker is a retailer of prescription eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contacts that offers high-quality products at an affordable price. For every pair of glasses or sunglasses sold, a pair of glasses is distributed to someone in need. So far, that's 13 million pairs and counting.If you found this interview valuable, share it with a friend.Follow the host (Shamus Madan): @mbitpodcastFollow the guest (Neil Blumenthal): @NeilBlumenthalLearn more about Warby Parker here: https://www.warbyparker.com/

#33: Neil Blumenthal is one of the co-founders of Warby Parker, an eyewear retailer founded with a mission: to inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style. Neil wanted to change the world, and he did. Today, Warby Parker brings in over $600 million in sales while providing a free pair of glasses to those in need for every pair purchased. Neil is the prime example of building a successful multi-million dollar company, disrupting a whole industry, and still positively impacting the world. Learn to stand out and develop an idea into a business while remaining true to your values. Learn more about Warby Parker. To apply for the Senior Podcast Producer position at Erika Taught Me: https://erikakullberg.com/producer-application Special thanks to our partners: Webull (free stocks) - erikataughtme.com/invest Aura - erikataughtme.com/aura Bilt Rewards - erikataughtme.com/bilt Thanks for tuning in and come back every Tuesday for a brand-new episode! Make sure you hit the follow button to get notified.  Prefer video or want closed captions?⁠ Watch this episode on YouTube. Did you enjoy the episode?⁠⁠ Please leave us a review here⁠⁠: https://erikakullberg.com/review (just scroll to the bottom and tap on “leave a review”) It really helps the podcast especially since we're just getting started. Even just a sentence is perfect! Follow the podcast @erikataughtme across platforms.  ⁠Connect with me on Instagram.⁠ For more information, go to⁠ https://www.erikataughtme.com/⁠. Get on my personal finance & investing course priority waitlist here. https://erikakullberg.com/3DMoney Get my Mastering YouTube course, to learn how to grow a YouTube following and monetize it. https://erikakullberg.com/MasteringYT  ⁠Get more of my free resources.⁠

Imagine these four MBAs sitting in class when their phones start blowing up with orders for eyeglasses after they lost the business idea competition at the Warton School of Business for the same idea. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [No Bull RV Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here, along with Stephen Semple, and we're talking about businesses and innovation and ideas that take a business from tiny to empire. There's usually something that they turn on, something that they come across, they figure out. And it makes all the difference. Today we're talking about, boy, this is another one of those that bridges the brick and mortar and online world and a bit of a disruptor, if I'm not mistaken. You said we're doing Warby Parker today, and I know that they're an online eyeglass company and I don't know much else. Stephen Semple: Well, they are an online glass company and they now have, gosh, I forgot to look up how many stores they have, but they now have a few hundred stores. So, they've started to open brick and mortar. But the part of the story we want to talk about is what they did when they were just strictly an online business because they went to the brick and mortar later. So again, the idea of these stories is to talk about the early days, what turned them into an empire. And that was when they were online. So we're going to focus today on the online part, but they were founded in 2010 is when they started by Neil Blumenthal, David Gilboa, Andy Hunt, and Jeff Raider. And in September 2021, they went public with an evaluation of almost $7 billion. But when they went public, yes, 7 billion. Dave Young: 7 billion. Stephen Semple: That's a little bit of a payoff, eh? Dave Young: Yeah, no kidding. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So founded in 2010, 11 years later, $7 billion. So, the idea started in 2008. And basically what happened is the guys were together and they were sharing their frustration with losing glasses and the cost to replace them. And these guys all met at the Wharton School of Business. They were students there and they all had this common frustration of buying glasses and they kept losing them. And the example that got them started was Dave talking about leaving glasses on an airplane. He left his glasses on the airplane and they cost $800. And at the same time, now think about this, it's different today when we look at the price of an iPhone. But in 2010 you could buy an iPhone for $200 and he's standing there going, "This iPhone is 200 bucks and these plastic glasses are 800." This makes no sense to him. And Andy who liked buying things online was frustrated that he couldn't easily buy glasses online. And they felt like the technology of how glasses were made and sold, felt so antiquated. And when they got talking about it turns out, talk about this weird connection. They get talking about it. It turns out Neil had experience in the glasses space. He had spent a number of years working for an eyewear nonprofit. So, he had been going to factories and buying glasses as cheaply as possible to be giving away in these third world countries. And this started a conversation and Neil would even be involved in the designing of this stuff and taking it to the factory. So he knew the business. And it turns out what he shared with them, is that the business was dominated by a handful of players. Companies like Luxottica. Luxottica is a $30 billion business. They make Oakley's, they make Ray-Ban,

Some aspects of your brand will be defined by what customers tell you; others, by what you tell them. In their stories of how they scaled Warby Parker from scrappy e-commerce site to comprehensive eyewear and eye care juggernaut, co-founder and co-CEOs Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa give a master class in how to articulate crystal-clear brand values while also building and iterating based on fast customer feedback. Their lesson? Branding isn't static. It's a conversation.Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.comSubscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dlirtXSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Warby Parker founder/ceo Neil Blumenthal on how to overcome rejection, build a team, and create something magical.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Warby Parker founder/ceo Neil Blumenthal on how to overcome rejection, build a team, and create something magical.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neil Blumenthal is the co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a multibillion-dollar business that disrupted the world of eyewear. A model in social entrepreneurship, Warby Parker is a leader in the direct-to-consumer space. Neil joins Adam to discuss his entrepreneurial journey and best lessons learned along the way. Neil and Adam discuss a wide range of topics: entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, teamwork, leadership, marketing, branding, retailing, hiring, and much more.

Is your team on a mission or simply going through the motions? Neil Blumenthal is the co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a mission-driven brand that has revolutionized the eyewear industry while focusing on social impact. Named “the most innovative company in the world” by Fast Company, Warby Parker provides high quality prescription eyewear at a fraction of the price. For every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need through the Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program. Neil was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum and one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company. In our conversation today, we talk about how a business can scale, be profitable, and do good in the world.

This podcast is brought to you by Lattice. Learn more about how Lattice can help your business stay people focused at https://lattice.com/

If you’re a mom, chances are you are part of the cult following that the children’s apparel brand, Rockets of Awesome, has garnered over the years. And if you don’t know, now you know. Today I’m joined by its Founder/CEO Rachel Blumenthal, who’s a serial entrepreneur, fervent risk taker, and mother of two alongside her husband Neil Blumenthal, CEO of transformative and socially conscious lifestyle brand of eyewear, Warby Parker. Together, they have an equal vested partnership in raising their two wonderful children, Griffin and Gemma. Rachel began her career at Yves Saint Laurent, before launching her first entrepreneurial venture as designer and founder of the fashion jewelry brand Rachel Leigh. The brand was licensed to GlamHouse in 2011. Rachel then lent her hand to Warby Parker, which was cofounded by her husband Neil, before founding and acting as CEO of Cricket’s Circle, the trusted resource and editorial destination for everything baby and toddler. It was the insights and learnings from the Cricket’s Circle community, in addition to her own experience as a mother that inspired the idea for Rockets of Awesome. The company’s credo is to simplify the lives of parents and celebrate real life with kids (meltdowns included). ROA prides itself on pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a modern kids clothing brand, giving you the ability to shop whenever and however you want—whether you want to stock up when it’s convenient for you, or Subscribe + Save big. They’ll always put the win-win (a.k.a., you AND your kids loving the clothes and experience) first in everything they do. And made up of a team of moms, dadsd, aunts, and uncles, they understand the preferences and pain points to a T. Graphic T. I’m excited to dive into this colorful conversation. Meet My Guest: WEBSITE: RocketsofAwesome.com FACEBOOK: /Rocketsofawesome LINKEDIN: Rockets of Awesome Press TUFTS NOW: How Serial Entrepreneurs Neil and Rachel Blumenthal Keep Their Edge GOOD MORNING AMERICA: Rockets of Awesome CEO and founder Rachel Blumenthal on the worst advice she never took Mom Haul: THEREALREAL: Prada Tessuto Wrist Bag

The first company that I ever encountered that talked about their values in a way that left a lasting impression on me was Warby Parker. They defined them as a start-up and two years later, when they had grown faster than anyone predicted, they had the entire company re-evaluate them to see if their values were still guiding people’s behavior and decision making. They discovered that of their eight original values, seven were still relevant and the eighth needed to be adjusted slightly. Warby Parker is a twenty first century business. A case study in what purpose driven, values based, agile, innovative and disruptive looks like. At the beginning of 2010, the company didn’t exist. Mid-way through 2020, it was valued at $3 billion dollars. They have given away more than 8 million pairs of eyeglasses, offering the gift of sight and changing the lives of people around the world. Today’s guest is Dave Gilboa, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker. Books have been written about the strategic steps they have taken to grow this business. But I wanted to understand the personal journey that led to him starting this company and how he, his co-founder Neil Blumenthal and their senior leadership team are adapting to the challenges of our new world. What guides them today?

15 minute edited highlight of our full conversation. The first company that I ever encountered that talked about their values in a way that left a lasting impression on me was Warby Parker. They defined them as a start-up and two years later, when they had grown faster than anyone predicted, they had the entire company re-evaluate them to see if their values were still guiding people’s behavior and decision making. They discovered that of their eight original values, seven were still relevant and the eighth needed to be adjusted slightly. Warby Parker is a twenty first century business. A case study in what purpose driven, values based, agile, innovative and disruptive looks like. At the beginning of 2010, the company didn’t exist. Mid-way through 2020, it was valued at $3 billion dollars. They have given away more than 8 million pairs of eyeglasses, offering the gift of sight and changing the lives of people around the world. Today’s guest is Dave Gilboa, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker. Books have been written about the strategic steps they have taken to grow this business. But I wanted to understand the personal journey that led to him starting this company and how he, his co-founder Neil Blumenthal and their senior leadership team are adapting to the challenges of our new world. What guides them today?

Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and coCEO of Warby Parker, joins April & Gary this week on Power Hour. Find out what ODs can learn from Warby Parker, especially the company's COVID-19 response. Plus, how would Neil compete with Warby Parker if he were an OD.

Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal, former Xerox CEO Ursula burns and Wharton dean Erika James join The Post to discuss how businesses are making their employees’ well-being a priority.

Warby Parker co-founder and co-CEO Neil Blumenthal and VisionSpring CEO Ella Gudwin discuss the “buy a pair, give a pair” partnership that transformed the glasses industry and the widespread impact the organizations have had around the world. Diving into how the organizations work together, the duo pull back the curtain on how Warby’s glasses sales support VisionSpring’s efforts to bring glasses and vision education to emerging regions. Coming up with the idea for Warby Parker with some friends while at Wharton, Neil discusses how social impact is baked into the fabric of the company and why being a digital-native company allowed for a seamless pivot following the onset of COVID-19. Coming from a public health background, Ella offers her perspective on fighting misconceptions about glasses around the world and shares insight on how VisionSpring pivoted to providing PPE during the pandemic, thanks to the consistent support of partners like Warby. Listen in to hear their thoughts on leading during times of crisis, and learn more at warbyparker.com and visionspring.org.  Note: Due to technical difficulties, this episode was recorded in multiple parts in November and December 2020. Production Credits: Aaron Kwittken, Jeff Maldonado, Dara Cothran, Lindsay Hand, Julie Strickland, Nina Valdes, and Mathew Passy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neil Blumenthal along with his 3 friends started a business, while he was in college. Everyone he talked to said, they would fail, Yet, they started Warby Parker and turned it into a multi-billion dollar company. Let us see how they did it.

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, about mitigating risk, preparing for business after COVID-19 and a food dehydrator informercial that sparked Neil's entrepreneurial spirit as a child. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks to Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, about mitigating risk, preparing for business after COVID-19 and a food dehydrator informercial that sparked Neil's entrepreneurial spirit as a child.

Robert Tuchman talks with Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries.

Robert Tuchman talks with Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries.

"It's like getting hit in the face over and over and over,” says Warby Parker co-CEO Neil Blumenthal. But “crisis brings out clarity.” At Warby, planning for the future has meant leaning into the present — from physical changes in their factory and stores that ensure social distancing to optimizing online vision tests. Blumenthal shares the complex factors they consider in deciding which stores to re-open and when, and relates the human challenge of inspiring their on-the-ground factory employees — at times of increased risk. For Blumenthal, it's all about recognizing new priorities (safety) and fitting them into ongoing strategy.

"It's like getting hit in the face over and over and over,” says Warby Parker co-CEO Neil Blumenthal. But “crisis brings out clarity.” At Warby, planning for the future has meant leaning into the present — from physical changes in their factory and stores that ensure social distancing to optimizing online vision tests. Blumenthal shares the complex factors they consider in deciding which stores to re-open and when, and relates the human challenge of inspiring their on-the-ground factory employees — at times of increased risk. For Blumenthal, it's all about recognizing new priorities (safety) and fitting them into ongoing strategy.

EP207 - "Billion Dollar Brand Club" author Lawrence Ingrassia h Lawrence Ingrassia (ingrassia.larry@gmail.com) is the author of "Billion Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy". (Amazon Affiliate Link) In this interview with Larry, we discuss many of the brands covered in the book including Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, eSalon, Mohawk, Anker and Tuft & Needle, as well as many of the ecosystem companies that developed to enable the DTC movement including Facebook, Quiet Logistics and Locus Robotics. We discuss the trends of DTC companies turning to brick and mortar.  New ways to leverage data to identify product niche (what Larry called the "money-balling of DTC), and what the future may hold for DTC. We also cover events that happened after the book was published, including the FTC's blocking the Harry's acquisition, Caspers IPO, management challenges at Away. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 207 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, February 11th, 2020. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Google Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 207 being recorded on Tuesday February 11th 20/20 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners Jason as you all know one of our favorite topics here on the show is the big move where brands are going direct to consumer and of course we spend a lot of time talking about digitally native vertical brands also known as DMV bees today on the show we are really excited to welcome Lawrence and Gracia. Larry has been a business journalist at top Publications including Wall Street Journal New York Times and LA Times Larry is the author of the book billion dollar brand Club how Dollar Shave Club Warby Parker and other disruptors are remaking what we buy the book was just published in January and we are really excited to have Larry on the show Welcome Larry. Larry: [1:20] Thank you guys. Jason: [1:22] Very we are excited to have you in the topic of your book is super relevant and pertinent to our audience so before we jump into it can you share with our audience a little bit about your background and how, you know you sort of came up to the point where you wanted to write a book. Larry: [1:41] Yeah you know I worked at newspapers for many years I was the senior editor really loved it retired a few years ago and when I retired and I wanted to delve deeply into something that I thought was interesting and I've been fascinated by the world of, entrepreneurs and startups and. I actually had a kernel of an idea when I retired so and it goes back to 2011 and that was before most people actually at even, I thought of the idea of direct to Consumer Brands and back then I heard about a company. Dollar Shave Club it was actually before it had the name Dollar Shave Club it was an idea of a friend of my daughters. Now I had been business journalists as as you guys noted for long time and eating had covered Gillette at one point. It is one of the most powerful Brands not just in the US but the world has great products as great advertising, and it's maintained a 70 percent market share for decades I think that's worth repeating because that's just unheard of in any consumer product 70%, market share in the US for decades and so I didn't tell Michael Dubin who was the founder of Dollar Shave Club but I thought to myself, this is the dumbest business idea I have ever heard. [3:03] You're going to compete with Gillette by selling razors and Blades online like really. So then you know kind of fast forward to 2016 I'm driving to work at 7:00 a.m. I'm listening to NPR, and there's a story about Unilever buying Dollar Shave Club for 1 billion dollars. [3:24] And after grabbing the steering wheel tightly to keep from swerving into the lane next to me I said to myself out loud he did it Michael, expletive deleted did it and I had two thoughts quickly first, oh my gosh was I wrong not just me but lots of so-called smart people who scoffed at the idea you know Venture Capital investors who turned him down competitors including Gillette that had ignored and dismissed him. And second in this is where really the idea kind of grew was how did this happen how did The Impossible or what most of us thought impossible become possible, because nobody thought that the razor business could be disruptive in fact after my book was published I got a I got an email from an executive at a big consulting firm who does Consumer products and he said if somebody had told me that. Ten years ago that the razor business is going to be disrupted told them that they were crazy so it was the same reaction that I had. And you know what it was disrupted gillette's market share fell too low 50% range within about four or five years just unbelievable. [4:33] And so as I started reporting I quickly realized that the Dollar Shave Club story well while amazing was really part of a much bigger story it was a story about, Revolution that has changed what we're buying and how we buy things and it's not just razors its eyeglasses mattresses bras contact lenses sneakers luggage cosmetics. Dog food vitamins hearing aids you know you've named it and you can buy a new brand and often several new brands that have been launched online and so that was kind of where I got going is a let me kind of find out about this world and why this was happening. Scot: [5:09] Rico we're glad you you wrote the book on it so it's been great so so you do spend a lot of time in the book on Dollar Shave Club. What do you think was the magic there you know they had the viral-video the subscription model with what do you think was the lightning in the bottle that they capture. Larry: [5:28] Yeah so let me you know kind of pan up to it like 5,000 feet and then go back to Dollar Shave Club so you know a couple things that these companies. Had in common but I found early on you know first of all the main formula for Success was actually quite simple. These entrepreneurs and their young and trumpeters mostly in their 20s and 30s spotted a problem and figured out a way to fix it. [5:58] But by offering a lower price or better value or improving the customer experience or just eliminating the hassle. You know these problems now may seem blindingly obvious but the big companies had never fix them. [6:12] And the second thing that is really interesting about most of these companies is that the founders knew little or nothing about the products that they were introducing them when they actually started their business. How can that be well actually you know kind of it turned out to be an advantage rather than this advantage and the reason for that is that they. We're thinking outside the box, you know kind of thing they were constrained by oh we can't do this or that or the other thing because you know that's not how the way things are done in our business, conventional wisdom can be a real problem for companies. So Michael Dubin was an out-of-work internet marketing guy was looking for his next thing but he thought razors were ridiculously expensive and frustrating to buy because they're often locked behind a glass case so his solution raises it to half the price shipped right to your home with the monthly. And often it's not one thing it's often several things that lead to the success and you mentioned the video which went viral. Which you know kind of our blades are blanking great. Shot for about $5,000 1 minute and 30 seconds I've had Marketing Executives and marketing professors tell me that they've watched it so many times it's taken basically recited by line. Jason: [7:31] I've quoted a lot of it to him which he finds really annoying. Larry: [7:35] To Michael. Jason: [7:39] Yeah every time I see him my first sentence is I'm good at tennis. Larry: [7:43] That's right and that you know kind of but if you look at this Warby Parker to you know this was the pioneering online eyeglass company that was started as a class project. For students who are getting an MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School. And you know kind of a figured well if it doesn't become a business at least we'll get class credit for it but they wondered as many people, probably have why does a pair of glasses cost, $700 so their solution was classes for his littlest $95 with five frames shipped to you at home so you could try them on before buying them. Again kind of in retrospect a very easy solution in a simple solution to a problem that a lot of people had but it was people outside the business that thought of it. And then you have the founders of all these mattress companies including tough to needle which actually was the first one it was before Casper. [8:43] These guys were software Engineers who got tired of working for software companies and one of them had bought a mattress and you know what as I'm sure, both of you guys would agree at everybody I talked to buying a mattress going into a mattress store is a truly miserable experience your stock by a Salesman, tries to steer you to the most expensive mattress you lie down on it for 30 or 60 Seconds, get it home and realize you don't really like it your back is killing you and so you call the stories they can I return it and they say yeah. 20% restocking fee plus a hundred dollars shipping and at that point you can't go out maybe I'll keep it so you know kind of their idea was a foam bed in a box, reasonable price free shipping and if you don't like it free return after 30 to 60 days if you don't like it so you know kind of, all these startups the most successful ones spotted a problem, so I need and pink the way to fill it and I think that's what was the Real Genius of Dollar Shave Club and then of course they have to figure out a way to Market it to get attention which Michael Dubin did with his video, it helped in his case that you had a giant that was in Gillette that was a bit. [9:57] Complacent even arrogant. Pick one of the tidbits in my book is that early on one of Dollar Shave Club investors called Joel and said hey would you guys be interested maybe in making an investment in Dollar Shave Club and they were dismissed out of here. It was like nope you know didn't even take a meeting. Well that came back to kind of be kind of what they ruled that day because for five years later to let did. With a hood nobody can remember it having done it lowered its prices because it was losing so much market share and again it's because, Michael Dubin saw that they were vulnerable and then attacked it on his terms rather than competing on gillette's terms. Scot: [10:40] Cool the haven't seen a lot of people talk about the exit and detail were you able to get any details of you know why they sold win and was there a bidding war or anything around. Larry: [10:51] He had taught he had talked to a few people but I think that Unilever came up with you know kind of this outrageous number and it was kind of like yeah right I'll take it, you know kind of I wondered if they overpaid I think they were buying you know a growing business, I think they were buying on an entrepreneur who might help them think about how, e-commerce is changing the way that products are being sold so there is a combination of those things. Scot: [11:22] Yeah it's interesting because you know something like six to twelve months later P&G had an activist in their really disrupting things because they didn't buy Dollar Shave Club so it kind of made me feel like maybe they'd either totally missed the boat or they had kind of low-balled it ended up not winning. Larry: [11:38] Probably at that you know at that point probably PNG couldn't have bought Dollar Shave Club for any trust purposes it might have been able to invest in them you know kind of the first year to because it was so small but you know kind of by the time Dollar Shave Club had you know ten percent market share in volume you know kind of or maybe even a little bit more it might have been very hard for that to pass muster with antitrust regulators. Jason: [12:04] Yeah and we may get an opportunity to talk a little deeper into the antitrust issue because there's there's been some recent developments there but one of the things I really enjoyed about the booklet is I sort of feel like, it would have been sufficient. To just have like some great biographies of these d2c companies that have caught our attention and we're all talking about and and you certainly do have, some nice biographies of the you know the origin stories for some of these these Brands and in you know. Most I would is I was already familiar with but for almost every one of them you you know you uncovered some interesting tidbits or had some, some good background that was news to me so it was it was fun to read those biographies and I particularly like you you sort of introduced a framework for these companies I you highlighted the fact that, you know some of them really entered the market by trying to have a better experience than their predecessor so you know Dollar Shave Club being an easier way to get razors then, go to the store. Larry: [13:09] Not just priced yes. Jason: [13:10] Yeah defeat product jail like some of these like we're about price you know and you know Finding finding Windows of opportunity, somewhere about like dramatically improving a the product from what was previously available and then someone about using data to uncover sort of an unmet need. Larry: [13:33] Yeah that's that's a really good point so when I started looking at the book I didn't want the book to be like one chapter after that kind of telling the story of this company that company other company I wanted to to matically, slow and and you know getting back to that moment when I was sitting in the car and said to myself oh maybe there's something here, and then kind of why is this happening you know kind of and why now and the answer I quickly Learned was technology. [14:03] Technology had leveled the playing field and made possible what had not been possible you know 10 or 15 years ago so if you go back to I mean all these, problems that these entrepreneurs all had long existed I mean mattress stores have been kind of ridiculous places for a long time Gillette has long you know added you know kind of little features and so that they can justify increasing the price, but it was very the barriers to entry were much much higher, 10 or 15 years ago especially if you wanted to create a brand that was a national brand so you know kind of 2005 even up to about 2010 you want to introduce a new brand you know kind of you have to go to a retail store you have to say mr. Walmart or Ms Walgreen, you know can will you carry my product and they like why I don't need to carry your product first of all have limited shelf space and save all have all these other brands that are doing quite well you know kinda is a pretty cozy relationship so, dinner that comes along and that means that you know can e-commerce allows companies to introduce products introduced new brands in ways that would have been really difficult before, the internet has unlimited shelf space you know kind of your website is yourself space. [15:20] And then second okay so you've got that she'll straight how do you get anybody to notice you again go back to you know kind of 10 or 15 years ago and you would need a multimillion-dollar, advertising campaign really you know kind of tens of millions of dollars advertising campaign on TV you know kind of radio newspapers if you wanted to get any attention, Gillette spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year but all of a sudden you know kind of Technology first with Google but then most importantly with social media, like Facebook allows a company to spend your thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to Target those customers who. Are most likely to buy your products. And because you have this relationship online and you're kind of selling all your products on lied you're learning a lot about your customers Behavior, and you can keep fine-tuning the product the message whatever. Again so and the final technology that really you know that Leap Forward that really made all this possible was in logistics so. [16:25] It's hard to remember but in the early days of e-commerce you ordered something and you know you were happy to get it in a week or two right and thanks because thanks to Amazon, push the envelope and forced everybody else it got to the point where you could order something it's something within it two days or even one day. And again the convenience factor of getting something going on and getting something made possible, this revolution is taken in front in front of our eyes so you had kind of Technology changes and it's going to continue changing, is made you know these. Companies these startups possible and enabled them to challenge much bigger much more deep-pocketed companies in ways that would have been unimaginable. Scot: [17:12] Yeah I agree what you think about so there's been a lot written I've written a couple books and I realized that a lot has happened since you probably put the book to bed but. Larry: [17:24] Yeah when you're when you're writing something when it's live and it's actually kind of evolving you know kind of it's really you know interesting interesting challenge. Scot: [17:33] Yeah so a lot has been written and I think Andy done at bonobos to set a lot around you can get these businesses up to 100 maybe 200 million and then the conventional wisdom has kind of fallen over that you need to open stores so so we've seen away as open stores sometimes they're called guide shops but they're essentially stores to go experience. Larry: [17:53] Warby Parker. Scot: [17:54] Warby has it cetera. Larry: [17:56] Third love is dabbled in it tough to needle and Casper both have as well yeah and so when I started seriously working on the book two years ago I think you know basically there was Warby Parker, with stores and you know kind of, one or two others it was kind of really small and as I got into the reporting and more open it up I said you know what I have to write have to have a chapter on retail and where does retail fit in this I mean it was something that you know that that clearly was becoming, a trend among some of these startups and for just the reasons that you say so a couple things were happening, one social media marketing was so successful. Everybody started doing it so it became a bit more expensive now it's still one of the most effective ways to acquire customers. [18:56] But it's more expensive than it was in the past so the cost of that is going out second you have you know kind of the type of people who are most likely to buy online and to respond to a social media ad you're getting to saturation point now that may be a little bit of an exaggeration but a lot of the people are most likely to do it I've done it. And finally then you get to like that eighty to ninety percent of retail in this country is still done in physical stores. [19:24] And some categories is even higher, Neil Blumenthal one of the cofounders of Warby Parker told me it's like 95% in eyeglasses so there's no surprise that they were one of the first, startups actually go to physical retail so the new thing that you hear a lot of is multi-channel, that yes you can build you know kind of a brand it might be depending on the product that might be 20 million it might be 50 million it might be a hundred million sales but to scale it up you're probably going to have to be, multichannel I think most of these Brands still have more than fifty percent of their sales online and over time I think you know the percentage overall of retail that online is going to continue to increase but that's why these brands have moved their oh and the final thing is that you had a lot of traditional retailers having problems and going out of business so guess what retail space became a lot cheaper. So you know a company could kind of test retail in a way that was it going to cost them an arm or a leg they can see how it worked without really kind of going all in. Jason: [20:31] Yeah and you know it's interesting you mentioned the the evolution of Facebook and that that you know emerged as a new tool that allowed more efficient marketing, there was one of the in a blurs for a lot of these companies but you also covered a lot of other aspects of this sort of, product development through you know go-to-market ecosystem that that sort of evolved to create this this opportunity so you covered some of the. Larry: [21:02] The infrastructure as it were right. Jason: [21:03] Yeah yeah exactly so I. Larry: [21:05] The things that people don't see very often I you know as a business journalist I got really fascinated by that stuff. You know kind of the company that you know kind of figured out that you know face could, Facebook could really be a way to reach Target audiences and of ampush, based in San Francisco found by kind of three College friends roommates who went to Wall Street and got bored I'm doing Wall Street and said hey let's start a company and they figure that out you know kind of done very well. And then there's you know the logistics companies which I found extraordinary fastening go into a modern warehouse and it's not like what you would have seen. Five or 10 years ago certainly not 10 years ago, where are you know kind of a lot of forklifts and people carrying things around and racing around you know a lot of their automated to a large extent they're a lot of robots there people there and they tend to tend to do the things that robots aren't yet good at. But the amount of innovation that's going on there to make that. Product that you quick on and then get it within 24 to 48 hours is amazing it's kind of cool it's actually kind of cool. Jason: [22:16] For sure and so you you had some interesting stories in there so like one of the companies you profiled in that ecosystem quiet Logistics I was familiar with them but I didn't really know the back story, they were early adopter of these first robots for automating warehouses in the robot they adopted was this Kiva systems robot. And then you tell the story of how they were subsequently he though. Larry: [22:41] So keep your hat size yes so this is is I love that story coming Kiba was acquired by Amazon, in Amazon you know kind of not long after acquiring Kiba said to the people that keep it been selling to is like basically we're not going to support we're not going to you know after a few years we're going to stop, you know kind of servicing the robots that you have and these guys at quiet Logistics who had built the nice business who had spotted the e-commerce, Revolution coming and built a business totally on having an automated Warehouse they've been in the warehouse business for years and it sold a another warehouse company they had built up a decade earlier but they say hey this is a new opportunity they're like. What you're not going to surface the robots anymore what are we gonna do you know kind of that's our own business model and so they had the idea, why don't we build our own robots and so they went about kind of hiring, engineers and higher robotics experts so they built their own robots and lo and behold that business is so successful that they spun it off and it's now sewing robots, two other Warehouse companies and two ups and all over the world. Jason: [23:57] Yeah that that was funny and I'm trying to remember Scott were you an early investor in Kiba. Scot: [24:03] Thanks Big thanks for watching that. Had the opportunity and at that point it was just random pitched it was described as ant algorithms in a warehouse full of robots and it didn't make sense to me but I was wrong. Jason: [24:19] Dab to teasing you you at least four on the list of people they called. So that was a great story Larry another one that I think is in some ways one of the most important Trends in the whole book is you described a number of entrepreneurs that, really leverage data that previously probably didn't exist. To help Define the products that they offer so I'm thinking like E Salon or Mohawk or or anchor could you talk a little bit about one of those. Larry: [24:50] Yeah so I think this is one of the things when you have a disadvantage when you're competing against a bigger rival. You need to have some other Advantage you need to play by different rules and actually you know kind of you guys remember the the book and in the movie Moneyball by Micheal Lewis. So Moneyball basically was about how. A small-market baseball team the Oakland Athletics. Couldn't compete with big Market teams like the Yankees who are rich in could you know kind of pay for more Talent so they had to figure out how we going to compete and they came up with the idea of data analytics to find players who were undervalued. And within a few years after embracing data analytics they became highly competitive. And and you know kind of vague were you know going toe-to-toe with the Yankees in many ways so. To me what is happening in retail in the creation of Brands is kind of the Moneyball. [26:04] These companies in addition to seeing a problem in looking for a way to fix it also recognized that you could use data. Technology barley but also data to spot opportunities to improve your products to connect with your customers so a lot of people call it this is direct to Consumer businesses also say it's connect to Consumer businesses, so early on before they get big enough that they decide they need to offer you know kind of have retail stores as well. These companies are doing all their business with people online. [26:39] People are coming to the website they know everything where did you come from how much time did you spend on the website what are you looking at. What are you ordering how many times you come back before you order they can just gather a lot of data to learn about their customers and to improve their products. [26:58] In some cases one of the things that some of these brands of do he's having more customized products and that's where he's Lon as come on E Salon offers customized are coloring. That is you know just about as good as Salon but what more expensive but better than the off the shelf. Hair coloring that you would get from one of the big name brands and how does it do this its Gathering data all the time from its users has a questionnaire. It's using AI to analyze that data when we mix this for these for the woman who answers the question are this way. This is what she like sometimes we will tweak it and give her a slightly different than what she thinks that she wants because our experience has shown over hundreds of thousands millions of people answering the questions and of this is what is going to work best. And so their product is like 20 or 25 bucks depending on what kind of subscription you have and you know it's a lot less than you might spend at a hair salon and it's and it's a very good product again that would not be possible. [28:08] Without being able to collect the data and you know kind of fine tune. It's a product but also it's the marketing it's the pitch kind of to see somebody comes to your website you know kind of how long you're going to stay there. Every you know kind of incremental Improvement in each step along the way. [28:28] Means that you're going to have more customers and more customers stay with you so initially they started I think they told me like you know fifty percent of their customers were coming back because they were still trying to figure out the formulation and now 70%. Come back after the first purchase they get people past their third purchase they know they're going to have until 8:00 purchases if they get past their 8 purchases they're going to have them like just about forever again and they know this because they're measuring every bit of data. Jason: [28:56] Yeah I mean one of the examples in the book that really struck me was when a woman ask for the lightest possible blond they know that she actually doesn't want the light as possible blond and that she maybe want something with a slight bit of blue tint in it. Larry: [29:11] Yes because because I know from people who've gotten the lightest possible Dom who fit the profile that she fits that they have a lower kind of Second Coming Back conversion rate than they do when they kind of tweaked it a little bit, it's you know kind of it really is a type of rocket science put it into a computer for retail purposes. Jason: [29:32] But I like that metaphor so you could almost think of them sort of anchor money bald Belkin right like the the you know the traditional accessory providers. Larry: [29:44] Yeah well one of the challenges I think for some of the startups is that you know, what happens when the Yankees starting you could start using data analytics right they got money and data analytics. So now you know having said that I think the Oakland A's are year in year out Fielding better teams. Did they ever did before data analytics going to watch. So so even though it may be harder now that everybody is using the same tactics and I think a lot of the big companies are starting to learn some of them are buying some of these companies, some of them are buying expertise, so so that's going to make it a bit more challenging for companies but still you know I think that there's a lot of potential because you have the technology out there that makes it easy to introduce a. Jason: [30:39] Yeah and you know what you know finding that metal part maybe just one step further that's a great point you make that when the Oakland A's are the only ones using the Moneyball system they were they were suddenly identifying valuable players that other teams didn't want because they didn't know they were valuable, so they had this competitive Advantage but once the whole world adopted this this Quantum metric, system suddenly everyone knew those value and so it was it was harder to gain an advantage from that and then in some ways it feels like. DDOS is playing out very similar when you were the only ones leveraging this like targeted audiences on Facebook. You had this great competitive Advantage but now that everyone's using it they you know bit up the prices and it's it's less of an advantage than it was for that first mover. Larry: [31:29] Right right there's no doubt about that there's no doubt about that. Scot: [31:33] Cool one one thing I wanted to talk about is so a way has been interesting and this probably happened, post publication of the book so they've had one thing that's interesting is so so Amazon is kind of cloned their model so there's an Amazon basic suitcase Target just announced Their Own Line of suitcases that look very away ish and then they had their own kind of implosion with the CEO, sending some unsavory slack messages internally kind of kicking yourself upstairs and then re kicking yourself back downstairs what do you make of the tumultuous times there. Larry: [32:10] Yeah so I think implosion is probably to stronger word clearly embarrassing for the CEO to be berating her, employees the way that she did in a very demeaning way and I think that she has said she's embarrassed but you know one thing I would point out. These are startups most of these people have not run companies, and often you have you know entrepreneurs who aren't great managers you know witness Steve Jobs at Apple, right or Elon Musk at Tesla I mean both of these executives. Were incredibly incredibly difficult to work with and the second thing I would say is that you know, especially when you're in the mode that away is in you know competing first of all with other startups which it ended up as the leading, new luggage company and now competing against other existing players trying to get into its pace and copy what it's doing, you know it's a life-or-death situation for a company and so you know sometimes emotions boil over I think the big question there is. [33:30] Will that bad publicity affect ways image overall and you know you go on social media and you see people saying oh I'm never going to buy it anymore and oh I wish I hadn't bought it and. You know what week later those same people are outraged by something else. So I'm not sure I mean I think time will tell how much it's going to affect them but, you know they have a good product at a at a good price it's a value price right it's not the most expensive and it's not the best product but it is you know a good product at a good price, and I think it could end up being one of the winners only time will tell but I think it could be. Jason: [34:07] Yeah yeah another one you know I feel like demonstrating how liquid all this is like obviously you you you know the you mentioned our shave club was sort of one of your your first interest in this space and their well covered in the book and you alluded earlier to gillette's prodigious market share so like the the interesting news from last week and this week as last week the FTC filed the complaint and said that they were actually going to oppose, Harry's acquisition by Edge well because they felt like number to March it. Larry: [34:45] Which own chick. Jason: [34:47] Yeah exactly so Schick number to acquiring Harry's which some people think is number four behind our Shave Club I actually have some data that looks like Harry's may have a bigger market share today than Dollar Shave Club. So calm three or four number two by his number three or four and the FTC was concerned that that would dramatically a road, price competition so they they block the merger and and then this week Edge well announced that they weren't going to fight it so there are. Larry: [35:17] To the consternation of Harry's well you know like I'm not sure what the most recent data is the data that I got from an independent source, that tracks sales said that Dollar Shave Club sales and market share was quite a bit bigger than Harry's but separate from that, I think it was an interesting decision I'm not a little bit of a puzzling decision you know kind of the FTC is letting Sprint, and T-Mobile merge. And put not Harry's and sik or Edge well merge the barriers to entry in Mobile. [35:54] Communication is much higher than the barriers to entry in razors and actually one of the things I think you know getting back to the whole point about how easy it is to introduce a new brand we let's say that Harry's, you know starts raising its prices and starts doing business more like chicken Gillette had long done it that cozy relationship, to me that would prevent a you know kind of two things would happen because of the way that the world has changed one dollar she would help Dollar Shave Club being in there as you know kind of offering this alternative view of the world. And second, it's quite possible that another brand would come in and say Hey you know kind of these guys you know kind of are leaving their customers behind they're not being true to what they were and obviously there is a market for what they were doing. [36:42] And I think that's one of the kind of long-term getting back to the Money Ball issue kind of one of the long-term benefits of what's happened is that we as consumers have more choice and likely will have more choice in most consumer products going forward because it is so easy to introduce a new brand there's been a democratization which leads how did the fragmentation I don't think we'll ever see a prey on that you know kind of like Gillette has 70% market share in the future but that's good you know that's not bad, you know I kind of finally I think part of the reason that that edge well sik backed out was it paid I thought the price that it offered was quite a rich price it was like 1.3 billion was even more than Unilever paid for Dollar Shave Club, so although there was an awfully Rich price maybe they kind of at the end got cold feet and said oh maybe we're paying too much for it you know kind of let's let's let that. Jason: [37:36] The I think the investors must have agreed with you because I feel like Edge well stock is up since the merger was called off. Larry: [37:43] Right right, but long-term long-term sik Edge well is going to have to figure out how to better service its customers right because it was distant distant distant you know kind of number two to Gillette forever and it had, combined combined Harry's and Dollar Shave Club I think had more market share than Schick so that says something about the way they were doing business before the way they need to think about doing business going ahead. Jason: [38:10] Oh for sure and like I mean two things, hey like it's going to be interesting to watch it because you know in many respects when they announced this merger they said and we're going to put the Harry's guys in tired of our strategic plan going forward so they sort of announced to the world, that we don't have any good ideas and we're trusting them to take the brand forward and so now what do you do when you don't have those guys. Larry: [38:34] Right I mean you know you maybe you try to hire that talent but sometimes that entrepreneurial talent and that just kind of feel for what the customer wants is not so easy to duplicate in focus groups and such. Jason: [38:44] No but so I'll admit very personally selfishly I'm disappointed that they're not going to litigate with the FTC because per your point, in the ftc's complaint they made a lot of interesting claims and one of the claims was that, Harry's was able to capture significant market share and become a relevant player but they sucked up all the opportunity to do that and that it would be much more difficult for anyone to follow in Harry's, footsteps and therefore it was important not to allow this merger and like well as we discussed already in some ways it probably is harder to be the third or fourth mover, in other ways, like the the friction is considerably less like and it's hard to imagine that Amazon couldn't be a significant player or Target couldn't invent a razor. You can play or so. Larry: [39:44] Well Amazon as you noted earlier I think you mentioned it with. Jason: [39:48] Yeah they're already in the space. Larry: [39:49] In the space but they have there are at least 200 new brands at Amazon has introduced, over the last few years and I mentioned this in my book that are there have amazonbasics Brands but this is separate from that these are brands that you don't know her necessary Amazon Brands unless you really drill down, they actually have a shoe brand called I think it's called Collective 206 kind of crazy name for a shoe brand but anyway they introduced a knockoff of all birds, wool Runner Shoes recently and all birds took a shot of them and say oh your stuff is not sustainable materials and but in some ways Walmart is I mean she's me Amazon is validating. What all birds is doing and it's somebody's it's giving a threat so you're going to have, all sorts I mean the opportunity to introduce new products new brands is you know kind of higher than ever before and then getting back to my point if Harry's changed the way it did business. So that it charged higher prices and and you know kind of acted more like chick that would create an opportunity for somebody else in the marketplace I truly believe that. Scot: [41:04] Yes can be interesting to see you know if more of this gets blocked and what's going to happen one one other topic I wanted to just touch on quickly that happened kind of post the book is the Casper IPO so you know I think Casper raised money as a private company at around one to 1.2 billion and then they really struggled price in the IPO the kind of, we're talking about a 15 to 17 range and a pricing it at 12 its trading off of that it's interesting because I've seen a lot of people argue that these brands should get kind of one times revenue and then other folks have argued that a lot of these brands because they're more efficient they should get two three four times so this one ended up kind of going right in I think they're trailing 12 months Revenue are about 400 million and now their market cap is right around 400 million so they. Larry: [41:55] Or 500 or something like that but pretty close to it. Scot: [41:58] Get a pretty quickly zeroed in on that one X do you think that's going to throw kind of a wet blanket on things or do you think that that I. Larry: [42:04] So yes but with a caveat so let's look at the mattress space overall and how disrupted that has been. So if you go back five years I met mattress business retail mattress business in the u.s. is about 15 or 16 billion dollars a year. If you go back five years about 50 million dollars was done direct-to-consumer the bed in the Box friends. [42:30] Last year it was two billion dollars and if the. Barriers to entry fell in a lot of categories the barriers to entry in the mattress. Category collapsed because it's so easy to make a mattress and sell a mattress you get somebody to sell you foam you know you get somebody just to so the bits together the top together and then you kind of get a machine that crams it down and puts it in a box and send it you had dozens does is I've actually heard hundreds but you know dozens of doesn't serious serious players and I think that they're probably going to be, you know kind of maybe a half-dozen that emerge so in this in this you know kind of, fiercely competitive free-for-all bare Knuckles free for all the way I described in the book Casper raises a lot of money and, besides that it has to spend a lot of money to try to knock the others out of the box and become the leading and and I think that. They made a strategic mistake I think they spent so much that it validated the whole category, right so when you went and searched for mattresses online you found Casper but you also found tough to needle and purple and others, and the second thing I think that they thought maybe that you know is like a network effect you know we spend moral kind of get others you know kind of have to drop out it hasn't you know kind of those others have thrive, so if you guys heard much about purple innovation. [44:00] Okay so purple is a public company it stock is traded. It came it actually didn't start selling mattresses until like 2016. Its stock has doubled in the past year it's market cap is now 700 800 million I think it's sales are 4,500 roughly the same as as Casper and tough to needle, which was sold about a year and a half to go to Sur to Simmons for four to five hundred million dollars we started as I mentioned by these kind of too. Software Engineers who just decided they wanted to make a product they raised virtually no money they had no Venture Capital Mike they had to be profitable from the start. And they were and they sold the company they each together they had 90% of the company so you know kind of both of them did very very well so I think that Casper you know kind of rather than being a poster child for all DTC companies is more of a poster child for, kind of format a poorly managed DCTC. You know I mean we're going to see time will tell but when you have profitable companies in that space and their unprofitable then you know kind of it says that somebody doing something right compared with them. Jason: [45:20] Yeah it's it's a funny so a number of these guys have been on the podcast so Joe Mega bow who's the CEO of purple has been on in JT Marino has been on and one of the cool stories JT told us was, um that yeah you know that you know he mentioned that he hadn't raised any money that you know some of these these Venture funds that we're starting this emerge specializing in data see all wanted to invest and they didn't take the money and that his his version of the story was Casper was specifically created as a, alternative to tough to needle that could be Venture funding. Larry: [46:01] Right right yeah though I I talked to him too as you know in the book and he told me that same thing but he was you know can it again they were high they had to be very disciplined. Right because of the way they spent. Jason: [46:14] Yeah no I really admire that. Larry: [46:16] And I think that that Casper was undisciplined now that you know the final thing I would say about it is that you got you ever heard of a company called Tesla. So a year ago. Jason: [46:27] Single-handedly is keeping them afloat. Larry: [46:29] So year ago. Tesla was like almost given up for dead right oh we can't get the production right you know kind of they have they can't get you know kind of mass production of cars right it's you know kind of he's running out of cash you know he's got so much debt and now it's stock is at all-time high. And they're making money and why because they fix their fundamental problem which was you know they had a great brand name and a great product but they were kind of Highly inefficient the way they made it but they appear to have gotten that under control Casper's has still has a great branding I don't know if they can pull off a Tesla. But you know sometimes the the rigor and the discipline imposed On You by public markets can focus the mind and make you be a lot more efficient than you were and we'll see but I wouldn't count them out quite yet. Jason: [47:18] No I think that's that's certainly fair so, you had this front row seat to all of these interesting Evolutions obviously so you know most of them are still sort of playing out like if, if you had to put your prognostication hat on like how is all this going to play out like is are these got companies a blip on the radar and Joe Ed and p and g are going to keep on tickin for for another hundred years or you know like are we seeing the start of a. Change. Larry: [47:48] Great question so I think that there will be billion dollar brands. That have you know market cap or kind of they go public and there will be a billion dollar brand so they Corby Parker probably wants to go public you know kind of I don't know that they're making money but I think they're a lot closer to it than for example Casper, there will be other brands that will be you know kind of modestly successful. And then there will be other brands that will be Niche brands that will be successful and niches have you guys ever heard of a company called lens simple. This is one of my favorite one so so if you have a pair of eyeglass frames. [48:29] That you really like maybe what a couple pair of designer frames a couple years ago and you need a new prescription and you kind of go back to the, optician and you say hey can you know can I got a new prescription just put new lenses in my frames they look at you like you're crazy I don't know we want to sell you another pair of frames, this company you send them the frames and they put in your new prescription they send it back to you. So I think that they're going to be a lot of Niche players like this and then they're going to be companies that fail in the in the luggage space you know kind of away emerged as the leader among the startups and there were a couple of companies rate in and blue smart that ended up going out of business. So you're going to have you know kind of a whole array of this but I think the the ability to you know getting back to it bent or bury the ability to introduce Brands means that you know kind of. Things have changed forever just like Moneyball started with baseball and now data analytics is used in every sport. So you know can a big companies will fight back none of those companies are going to disappear but if unless they figure out a way to connect to Consumer better, they're going to have lower market shares and you know again I don't think that's a bad thing actually maybe as an investor in those companies that's a bad thing but for consumers. That's a good thing because in the end more choice is better it keeps the big companies honest it makes them he's like Gillette lowering its. [49:58] Prices by an average of 12 to 15. A couple years ago I mean unheard of that never would have happened without Dollar Shave Club at Harry's coming along City. So we kind of we're in the early stages of this Revolution and I think the revolution like all revolutions you're not exactly sure where it's going to end up but you are pretty sure that it's not it's going to look quite a bit different than where we started. Jason: [50:26] Yeah no I would totally agree with that and I feel like we're lucky to be sort of in the in the front row at a time when we are going through this revolution because it's it's not the status quo. Larry: [50:38] Yeah very fun to very fun to watch. Jason: [50:41] Yeah for sure and so until you write the sequel that's going to be a great place for us to leave it tonight because we've once again used up all our a lot of time but in the event that listeners have questions or want to continue the dialogue we always encourage you to jump on Twitter and send us a note or leave us a message on our Facebook page I'll be sure to put a link to Larry's book in the show notes so that listeners can find that without doing anything dangerous while driving. Larry: [51:08] And and you can send me an email to my email address is on my wedge page web page which is www Larry ingrassia.com so. Jason: [51:18] I will I will put that in the show notes Larry thanks very much for being on the show tonight we really enjoyed our conversation. Larry: [51:25] Guys Jason Scott very fun thank you so much for having me. Scot: [51:29] Thanks I appreciate you taking time to fill us in on your book and hope everyone orders a copy ASAP. Jason: [51:35] And until next time happy commercing.

Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: to offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. We’re lucky enough to have two of the founders with us in-studio as Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa join us on the latest show.  By circumventing traditional channels, designing glasses in-house, and engaging with customers directly, Warby Parker is able to provide higher-quality, better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price. The team believes that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket. They also believe that everyone has the right to see. Almost one billion people worldwide lack access to glasses, which means that 15% of the world’s population cannot effectively learn or work.  To help address this problem, Warby Parker partners with nonprofits like VisionSpring to ensure that for every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need. Have a money question? Email me here. Please leave us a rating or review in Apple Podcasts. "Jill on Money" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com.

Blumenthal, A02, talks about how he bakes social activism into his eyeglass business—and listens to his customers.

Why are glasses so expensive? Dave Gilboa could not stop asking himself that question. After leaving his $700 pair of eyeglasses on an airplane while returning from Southeast Asia, he could not wrap his head around why a technology that was so archaic could cost him more than his iPhone. Within his first weeks as an MBA student at the Wharton School of Business, he repeatedly brought this question up among some of his new peers. Gilboa, along with fellow students Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, and Jeff Raider, had all shared in the pain of losing or breaking glasses and had all agreed: the high markup made no sense. Inspired by Gilboa’s pricey misfortune, the four of them founded Warby Parker. Now led by co-CEOs Gilboa and Blumenthal, the billion-dollar empire with 2,000 employees is revolutionizing the prescription glasses industry by selling stylish eyewear online at affordable prices. The New York City-based company is also on a mission to combat the global problem of impaired vision through its charitable Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program. Since the company’s start, the program has distributed over 5 million pairs of glasses to those in need by donating a pair of glasses for every one sold. But long before they could build an ecommerce giant, the team would first have to learn how to even build a website. A Moment of Clarity Prior to going to Wharton, all four co-founders had already spent some considerable time in the workforce. This allowed for each of them to gain valuable real-world experience, and it helped guide them to understanding if they had an actual problem to solve and a business to move forward with. However, it was Blumenthal’s experience while running the nonprofit VisionSpring that would become crucial to the early concept of Warby Parker. During his time with the company, they trained low-income women in the developing world to start their own businesses. Participants were to take their new skillsets back to their rural communities and administer vision screenings and sell glasses. But it was something else Blumenthal had witnessed that would have a lasting impression on him. “I had been to the factories,” Blumenthal says. “Here I was producing glasses for people who were making less than four dollars a day, but 10 feet away were factories that were producing…the $700 pair of glasses Dave had. So we knew something was awry.” A light bulb went off and the classmates soon pulled together $120,000 and went to work on developing Warby Parker in 2008. The problem they wanted to solve: How can we make glasses we want, but at a low cost? Eager to launch, but more focused on preparation and planning, the founders began sketching out all the main aspects of the company. With limited funding, they knew they’d have to really refine and plan each facet of their business before revealing it to the public. Their first steps were to design glasses that they’d want to wear and then find a manufacturer who could produce them for less, starting with Blumenthal’s connections. The next step would be trying to figure out how to sell their glasses directly to the consumer. The answer was simple. “This magical thing called the internet,” Blumenthal says. The founders all knew that ecommerce was an innovation they wanted to take advantage of for their direct-to-consumer brand. Had they come up with this idea 10 years prior, the company may not have gone any further than an idea. With a brick-and-mortar store requiring a lease, utilities, and other costs, they knew it would be hard to make their new dream a reality with limited capital. “If we did , we would have one location that we might be able to attract some local customers, but with the power of the internet, we were able to all of a sudden, launch a store to the entire US,” Gilboa says. But there was a small problem. None of them knew how to build an online store, nor did they understand the many other details that came with creating an online shopping experience. “We started talking to friends on how you build a website,” Blumenthal says. “And then we started visiting a bunch of websites that we would normally already go to. But now with a critical eye, we were understanding, okay, what’s the shopping flow?” Over the next year and a half, the four of them kept chipping away at all the details of Warby Parker. Nothing got overlooked. They spent countless hours going over the vision and mission of the company, and worked on all the brand architecture of what they wanted their company to be. In addition, the group constantly sought out feedback from friends and professors. Could something like this work? One glaring concern that kept surfacing was whether or not a person would actually buy a pair of glasses online. With fit being so important, it would be hard for a person to gauge on a computer screen if a pair of glasses would fit their face and feel comfortable. This forced them to reconsider their business model, and ever the problem solvers, the home try-on program was born. Breaking new ground, Warby Parker would allow a customer to select five pairs of glasses from the website and then ship them free of charge, allowing five days to test out the frames. This was a major ecommerce innovation that would get them past the biggest challenge facing the business’s core premise. But there was one other challenge that would prove nearly impossible to overcome—agreeing on a name. Thank You, Jack Prior to Warby Parker’s launch, brands had already started to emerge that were selling glasses online. Customers were able to purchase glasses from sites such as 39DollarGlasses.com and FramesDirect.com, but they were sacrificing other elements, such as quality and customer service, for their lower prices. The founders wanted to take a different approach with their company. They wanted to launch a fashion brand that not only offered great quality, prices, and service, but also one that made the world a better place. The company vision was clear and ambitious. But they could not come up with a name. “We wanted kind of a proper name and didn’t think Gilboa-Blumenthal, our last names, really rolled off the tongue,” Gilboa says. They sought out inspiration and ideas from historical authors and artists. People who represented the brand ideals that they were trying to carry out. One author that stood out to them was Jack Kerouac, the novelist and poet who was a pioneer of the beat generation. Coincidentally, the New York Public Library was holding an exhibit one afternoon with some of Kerouac’s private diaries and journals. Seeking inspiration, Gilboa made a visit to the exhibit and stumbled upon some of Kerouac’s unpublished works, finding some interesting character names. Two jumped off the page: Warby Pepper and Zagg Parker. “So I took those back and the four of us were discussing,” Gilboa says. “We all loved those names and were debating, do we pick one of those, and we decided to combine the two and make it our own. And the URL happened to be available for nine bucks.” After six months of debating and with over 2,000 names rejected, Warby Parker came to life. Getting Noticed The challenge for any new brand is figuring out how to gain exposure. With a small marketing budget, the co-founders had to be strategic about finding a cost-effective way to maximize their exposure in such a competitive industry. Realizing glasses are an accessory and that the fashion industry was an insider’s game, the team hired a fashion publicist to help set up meetings with editors and writers at major publications. In February of 2010, WarbyParker.com officially went live. Within days of launching the website, they were featured in GQ, where they were dubbed “the Netflix of eyewear.” Soon after, another profile appeared in Vogue. From there, things went viral. “We ended up hitting our first year’s sales targets in three weeks,” Blumenthal says. “Sold out of our top 15 styles in four weeks and it was just complete mayhem.” Soon, they found themselves sold out of all their inventory with a waitlist of over 20,000 new customers. Warby Parker was an overnight success, a year and a half in the making. Onward & Upward Today, Warby Parker is valued at over $1 billion and has cemented its place among the top glasses retailers in the world. Even after they made it to the big time, however, the team kept innovating. In 2013, Gilboa and Blumenthal began to expand their brand with more storefronts, having now opened close to 100 stores in the US and Canada. And within some of those stores, they’ve begun to employ their own optometrists where states allow it. On the technology side, they’ve found new ways to cater to the customer. Within the Warby Parker app, any customer with an iPhone X can now virtually try on any one of their frames. In addition, they’ve made a move into telemedicine by allowing eligible customers to take eye exams from their phones, allowing a licensed doctor to write them a prescription remotely. But no matter how large the company becomes, the team’s underlying values remain the same: they do whatever it takes to make customers happy. 3 Tips for Standing Out From the Crowd When Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andrew Hunt, and Jeff Raider founded Warby Parker in 2010, they knew it wouldn’t be easy. But with the right planning, execution, and maybe some good luck, they felt they could make the world a little better, one pair of glasses at a time. The founding team knew that in order to get any attention in the noisy fashion industry, they had to be different and they had to stand out. Here are Blumenthal and Gilboa’s tips for helping your new startup gain exposure. Be Novel From the beginning, the founders knew that it would be hard to get any immediate attention in the fashion industry without the help of insiders. They knew their service and product would be different from any other retailer before them, but if no one knew who they were, it wouldn’t matter. So the team hired a fashion publicist to get them meetings with top fashion publications. By being able to tell their story directly to their target audience, and through a medium that their audience trusted, it was a giant step in the right direction. And since Warby Parker was so different from its competitors, once it got on the insider crowd’s radar, it wasn’t hard for them to draw media attention. “There was a bunch of things that we were doing that were novel,” Blumenthal says. “Selling glasses online, in 2010, was pretty novel. Having this home try-on program was really novel. Providing a pair of glasses for every pair we sell, was really novel. Charging $95 instead of $500 was really novel. So they really wanted to write about us.” In today’s startup world, it’s never been more crowded and harder to stand out. Be different with your concept and separate yourself from the fray. Don’t Get Distracted  Although WarbyParker.com went live in February of 2010, the four co-founders spent over a year and a half focusing on their company’s mission, product, and business model. And after they found success, staying focused became an even more important priority. “We got some advice early on that if you’re walking down a path towards a giant pot of gold, you shouldn’t stop to get distracted by any shiny little coin that you see along the way,” Gilboa says. It would have been easy for Warby Parker to launch dozens of different products or to expand into new markets for monetary gain. However, that would’ve brought about great distractions that could have pulled them from their main goal, which is to solve their customers’ problems by offering them quality products and experiences. “We’ve just seen so many businesses that have failed due to lack of focus,” Gilboa says. “But it’s rare that you’ll see a business that fails for being too focused.” Remember the problems your business is trying to solve and stay focused on it. By always learning and iterating, you’re working towards providing the best service possible for your customers. Above All Else, Make the Customer Happy From the very beginning, the Warby Parker team knew they had to keep their customers happy. They understood that they had to not only provide a great product, but also provide superb customer service. In the beginning, all four co-founders were directly in touch with their customers. They each replied to customer emails and even set up an 800 number that would be sent to their personal cell phones until someone picked up. They were willing to do anything to make sure the customer was always satisfied. “Do whatever it takes to make customers happy and make them feel good,” Blumenthal says. “Smile, personal notes, whatever it takes.” Interview by Nathan Chan, feature article reprinted from Foundr Magazine, by Nick Allen Key Takeaways How losing a pair of $700 glasses led Blumenthal and Gilboa, along with fellow MBA students Andrew Hunt and Jeff Raider, to identify a major business problem How Blumenthal’s experience of running a nonprofit informed the early stages of Warby Parker A look into the 1.5 year process of bringing the co-founders’ business idea to life Why the team decided to merge eyewear and ecommerce The process of familiarizing themselves with the world of online shopping and websites How the name Warby Parker came to be, and why it took brainstorming over 2,000 names to get there The team’s cost-effective approach to marketing and launching the website How powerful press placement led to a sold-out inventory and a waitlist of over 20,000 new customers within weeks What’s in store (literally) for the future of Warby Parker The single piece of advice Gilboa and Blumenthal received that helped them be successful, and how other entrepreneurs can apply it to their own business

Husband and wife founders Neil & Rachel Blumenthal talk about the the wild ride of being founders, raising money, and raising a family. They compare the vast differences in their fundraising experiences. Rachel is the founder of Rockets of Awesome, a kids clothing subscription service. Her husband Neil Blumenthal is co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker. Produced by Haley Draznin, CNN.

In this episode, Warby Parker co-Founders and co-CEOs Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa discuss growing the eyewear brand with a focus on social impact and how they've combined technology and in-store interaction to create a distinct customer experience. The interview is moderated by Goldman Sachs' Rob Sweeney. February 26, 2019 This podcast should not be copied, distributed, published or reproduced, in whole or in part, or disclosed by any recipient to any other person. The information contained in this podcast does not constitute a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to the recipient. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or any information contained in this podcast and any liability therefore (including in respect of direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage) is expressly disclaimed. The views expressed in this podcast are not necessarily those of Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs is not providing any financial, economic, legal, accounting or tax advice or recommendations in this podcast. In addition, the receipt of this podcast by any recipient is not to be taken as constituting the giving of investment advice by Goldman Sachs to that recipient, nor to constitute such person a client of any Goldman Sachs entity. Copyright 2019 Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC. All rights reserved.

Technology can enable us to do great things, says Warby Parker co-founder and CEO, Neil Blumenthal, with regards to the brand's meteoric rise in the direct-to-consumer space, on the latest episode of the Innovators podcast by TheCurrent Global. Speaking to Liz Bacelar at this year's NRF Big Show in New York, Blumenthal explains how technology is critical to making customers' lives easier. Warby Parker sees itself sitting at the intersection of three communities – tech, fashion, and social enterprise, he notes. It's both a tech company and a retailer focused on creating products and services that tangibly impact consumers every day. Warby Parker is one of Silicon Valley's first so-called unicorns, a special group of startups that exceed expectations to pioneer within their own category by hitting over $1bn in valuation – including Airbnb, Uber and WeWork. The nine-year-old company has paved the way to creating a great retail experience that transverses seamlessly between online and offline, and as a result, inspired the business model of many single-product focused startups known to consumers today – from suitcases at Away,to footwear at Allbirds. But from its scrappy beginnings hosting a showroom at Blumenthal's New York apartment, to being one of the first DTC brands to launch a brick-and-mortar retail space, the eyewear company has had a razor sharp focus on treating the whole experience of buying glasses as a single product – from trial to wear. From its successful at-home trial program to digital eye tests, Warby Parker works with a team of in-house technologists to constantly iterate its approach to better serving the customer. For example, after receiving feedback that it was inconvenient for customers to take time off work to get an eye exam, it developed a prescription app that pairs an iPhone to a second screen to test the user's vision. Recently, it then deployed Apple's new AR technology to launch a virtual try-on feature. During this conversation, Blumenthal also shares how the brand has been built to resonate with multiple consumer segments, the importance of the social aspect of the company, and why he sees Amazon more as inspiration, rather than threat.

In this discussion about e-commerce strategies and how to build lasting relationships with customers, Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker shares some of his secrets for disruption.

In this episode, BoF's chief correspondent in New York, Lauren Sherman, speaks to Neil Blumenthal and  Dave Gilboa, the co-founders of the disruptive eyewear company Warby Parker, which closed a $75 million Series E funding round in March 2018, valuing the company at $1.75 billion. Market sources report the business now generates north of $250 million in sales annually. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

In this episode, BoF's chief correspondent in New York, Lauren Sherman, speaks to Neil Blumenthal and  Dave Gilboa, the co-founders of the disruptive eyewear company Warby Parker, which closed a $75 million Series E funding round in March 2018, valuing the company at $1.75 billion. Market sources report the business now generates north of $250 million in sales annually. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

In this episode, BoF's chief correspondent in New York, Lauren Sherman, speaks to Neil Blumenthal and  Dave Gilboa, the co-founders of the disruptive eyewear company Warby Parker, which closed a $75 million Series E funding round in March 2018, valuing the company at $1.75 billion. Market sources report the business now generates north of $250 million in sales annually. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

Neil Blumenthal had a vision when he started Warby Parker with three of his business school friends: to give people the gift of sight and disrupt the $100 billion optical industry. With his Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, Blumenthal makes designer eyeglass frames affordable to millions of people around the world, while donating the same amount of glasses to those in need in the developing world. Sponsored by Ally Financial.

Neil Blumenthal is co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a low price with a focus on being socially conscious. Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the world. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA here at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Stew and Neil have a wide-ranging talk about his time at Wharton, the importance of honest conversations to build trust, why continual learning by employees is essential to a thriving company, and the ways in which parenthood changes our relationship to time and work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Married entrepreneurs Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker and Rachel Blumenthal of Rockets of Awesome talk leveraging data and building consumer relationships on stage at #BoFVOICES 2017. To sign up to the Daily Digest newsletter click the link here: http://bit.ly/BoFnews  For a limited time only we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 25% discount on an annual BoF Professional Member. To get 25% off your first year of an annual membership click the link here: http://bit.ly/2KoRRBH, select the annual package and then enter the invitation code PODCASTPRO at checkout.  To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com. For all sponsorship enquiries, please e-mail advertising@businessoffashion.com. 

After 12 years and two other companies, Rachel Blumenthal landed on Rockets of Awesome — a kids clothes subscription that moms love too. Rockets of Awesome was a natural culmination of her past experiences and her new role as a mom. The brand simplifies parents’ lives by delivering a convenient, risk-free way to find stylish clothes for their children. Behind Rockets’ space-themed aesthetic and bright blue coloring box is personalization via data. From the initial style quiz to tracking what items are returned or repurchased, they’re using information to customize and improve the experience for parents and kids. On this episode of Well Made, Rachel talks about using data to lean into product choices and mitigate risks as a startup (13:57). She gets granular about where algorithms, keep rates, and clicks drive design and operational decisions (16:57), and how they stay lean while managing inventory (19:30) and reverse logistics (23:08).  Rachel also shares direct-to-customer lessons she learned from working with her husband, Neil Blumenthal, co-founder of Warby Parker (38:31). Lastly, she talks about building a brand that speaks to the current generation of parents and kids (46:38). Links and images from this post are on the Lumi Blog.

What do Warby Parker and STORY have in common? Entrepreneurs with a keen eye for innovation. Warby Parker’s Neil Blumenthal and STORY’s Rachel Shechtman come from different backgrounds, but they both built brands with a fresh take on retail. In this episode, the two friends chat about building a brand around a crazy idea, and how retailers can evolve with the changing retail landscape.

Warby Parker began with a lost pair of glasses and an exasperated question: "Why are glasses so expensive?" In recognizing this common problem, Neil Blumenthal and his three business-school-buddies-turned-co-founders took the first step down a path that would change eyewear forever. Join us as we ask Neil what makes the Warby Parker business model so unique, and how future entrepreneurs can create "the Warby Parker of..." in their industries.   www.kargo.com Instagram Twitter Facebook Linkedin    Produced by At Will Radio

Kargo’s acclaimed podcast Mobilizing Culture is back with all new episodes starting 3/26. This time around, Kargo CMO Ed Romaine chats with the industry’s biggest disruptors – mobile-first businesses that are uprooting old tech and impacting personal economies. Tune in for interviews with Warby Parker CEO/co-founder Neil Blumenthal, Refinery 29 creative director/co-founder Piera Gelardi, Bumble marketing director Chelsea Maclin, Plated co-founder Nick Taranto and more. www.kargo.com Instagram: @kargomobile Twitter: @kargo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kargo/ Linkedin    Produced by At Will Radio

In 2008, it was nearly impossible to buy a fashionable, affordable pair of glasses online. That simple frustration inspired the idea behind Warby Parker – and disrupted the eyewear industry. PLUS for our postscript "How You Built That," an update on Bellyak, a kayak where you lie on your belly and paddle with your hands. (Original broadcast date: December 26, 2016)

Being Proactive in Communicating Problems • Advice from Neil Blumenthal, Warby Parker • DanielFrancavilla.com

Warby Parker is an online eyeglass retailer that sells low cost vintage inspired glasses.  For each pair sold, Warby Parker provides a pair of glasses to low income people in more than 36 countries through non-profit partners like VisionSpring.  VisionSpring trains female entrepreneurs to give eye exams and sell glasses in their communities.  Neil co-founded […]

This week, Inc. editors and writers welcome Warby Parker cofounders Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa into the studio to talk about how the company is growing up, embracing physical retail, and disrupting opthamologists. The group also talks about how Amazon has been making bets on the food delivery space since 1999 and how solar eclipse mania has become a full-blown industry as millions of people plan to travel to 12 states to watch the celestial event on Aug. 21.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Art Of The Hustle, our host, Ryan Leslie has a conversation with Warby Parker Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Neil Blumenthal. Neil shares some misconceptions about entrepreneurs, why helping others is the best thing to do from a networking perspective, the number one reason why people want to work at Warby Parker and how the company was launched with $120,000. This episode of Art Of The Hustle is presented by Emirates Airline. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Warby Parker stormed into the eyewear scene and disrupted the traditional brick-and-mortar business model when it launched as an online-only store. Hear Neil Blumenthal, co-CEO and cofounder, talk about how he scaled the business, his hiring priorities and the ways in which his company conscientiously gives back. Recorded at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit in October 2016.

In this episode of the Tony Robbins Podcast, we are bringing you back to Business Mastery, where Tony recently led a panel discussion with the business leaders behind some of today’s fastest growing companies. And this time, you’re going to hear from one of the founders of a company that changed the eyewear business forever. If you have ever worn eyeglasses, then you know that the traditional process is expensive and inconvenient. On average, a pair of glasses costs nearly $300. And the trips you have to make to the retailer to sift through the pairs, try them on, and order your final choice can really stack up. It’s a real pain point for a lot of people. But that is exactly why four friends at Wharton Business School decided to start a business that did something about it. Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andy Hunt and Jeff Raider launched Warby Parker in 2010. The premise was simple - offer customers high-quality eyewear at affordable prices, and establish a convenient, direct-to-consumer model so that customers could get eyeglasses anytime and anywhere. But what made this company so special was how focused they were on perfecting the customer experience and the massive amounts of research and experimentation they did to find that sweet spot.  In this episode, you are going to hear from Neil Blumenthal on the vision behind Warby Parker, why it was so critical for them to optimize every single dollar they put into the company and the tools and strategies that helped them build Warby Parker into a billion dollar business.

Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal met while getting their MBAs at Wharton. They cofounded a glasses retailer, Warby Parker, and couldn't decide who should become CEO, so they both took the job. The Co-CEOs sat down with Business Insider's US Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell to discuss how they built a billion-dollar brand, and how they scaled the company as first-time founders.

In 2008, it was nearly impossible to buy a fashionable, affordable pair of glasses online. That simple frustration inspired the idea behind Warby Parker – and disrupted the eyewear industry.

Rachel Blumenthal is the founder of Rockets of Awesome, which is this really smart company that I’ve actually engaged with. How it works is if you’re a parent or someone who wants to gift clothing to children, you can go on the website, sign up for a membership. They ask you a series of questions about your child; age, measurements, but also the taste of your kid. What kind of a kid do you have? Is he or she active? They gather all that information, all that intel and send you a personal box to your door with about 12 items for your child. It’s really functional, really affordable, and the clothing is very unique. I have to say, as someone who’s now been buying clothes for little people for the past two, three years. It gets very redundant. When you go on the playground, a lot of the kids are wearing the same things. It’s nice to find a resource, like Rockets of Awesome, that kind of does a lot of the work for you, brings the clothing to your house, catered to your family, and for very affordable price points. Prior to starting this company, she was the CEO of Cricket’s Circle, a trusted resource and editorial engine for everything baby and toddler. Her insights from Cricket’s Circle led her to the birth of Rockets of Awesome. Another fun fact about Rachel; she is the partner of Neil Blumenthal. Of course, if you watched Follow the Leader on CNBC, you remember Neil. He is the co-founder of Warby Parker along with Dave Gilboa. Of course, Warby Parker is, as they say in the tech world, in the entrepreneur world, a unicorn valued at over a billion dollars. They know how to run businesses and so does Rachel. For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

How I Built This: David Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal, Warby Parker by Best Of Tech & Startups

In 2008, it was nearly impossible to buy a fashionable, affordable pair of glasses online. That simple frustration inspired the idea behind Warby Parker – and disrupted the eyewear industry.

Warby Parker co-founders and co-CEOs Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal talk with Re/code's Senior Commerce Editor Jason Del Rey about how they challenged the incumbents of the eyewear business, which is dominated by one company, Luxottica. They explain why they expanded beyond their online sales business into old-fashioned retail stores and why, even in the digital age, a strong brand name is vitally important for fashion. Plus: Where did the name "Warby Parker" come from? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Wurzell and Cole NeSmith talk with singer/songwriter, Jon Foreman, about the message of light and dark in his new EP, The Wonderlands. Then, Tyler Reagin sits down with Warby Parker CEO and co-founder, Neil Blumenthal, as he shares his journey to an awakened moment.

Inc. editor James Ledbetter and Inc. staff member Jon Fine, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin and Will Yakowicz have their first guest on the air -- Warby Parker CEO Neil Blumenthal. The group dives into the finer points of an effective interview, how the TV show Mr. Robot explores the dichotomy of the hacker as a superhero/villain archetype, and how an old wine maker took to crowd funding to back his creation of 10,000 new grapes strands. This week’s episode is sponsored by T-Mobile. Switch your business today at www.TMobile.com/Business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neil Blumenthal and his friends (later turned co-founders) were tired of paying outrageous prices for their glasses, so they did what any crazy and ambitious entrepreneur would: they set out to disrupt the eyewear industry by cutting out the middleman. Warby Parker launched in 2010 and hit their first-year sales goals in three weeks. Fast forward five years and not only have Neil and his co-founders achieved their mission, but they’ve built a socially conscious brand that people love.

We spend a lot of time thinking about the legacy we're building. What is the thing that threads everything you've done together? What is the mark you're leaving on the world, both in the career or work you do and the way you live your life?These are big questions. And they're what we're exploring in this week's episode with Jocelyn Glei.From the time she was a kid, Jocelyn had been drawn to writing, publishing and entrepreneurship. In high school, she launched her first "zine," printed on copiers at her dad's office. Her interest in language deepened through college, and upon graduating she moved through a series of ventures that kept putting her in charge of bigger and bigger editorial teams and budgets. Then, in 2009, Glei hooked with Behance founder, Scott Belsky, to head up now legendary creative mega-site and the annual conference for creative pros, 99U.Along the way, she's also curated a powerful three-book series, the latest of which, Make Your Mark, releases this week, boasting extraordinary essays from creative legends like John Maeda, Warby Parker co-founder and CEO, Neil Blumenthal, SY founder, Keith Yamashita, Sugru inventor, Jane ni Dhulchaointigh and many others.

On this episode of The Unconventionals, host Mike O'Toole chats with Neil Blumenthal, cofounder of online eyewear retailer Warby Parker. Once labeled by GQ as "Netflix for glasses," Warby Parker has set out to change the perception that buying a pair of fashionable eyeglasses doesn't have to be a long-term and costly investment. In addition to a hearty entrepreneurial spirit and a start-up process with stories you'll have to hear to believe, Neil shares the true backbone of Warby Parker: Their dedication to giving back. Not only does Warby Parker aim to make fashionable eyewear affordable for the widest audience possible, they strive to give the gift of sight to those in need. This unconventional yet admirable tactic took the company to new heights of credibility and notoriety, and they're not done yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-D7VPMgjv4