Hardware Podcasts

Warby Parker: Dave Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal (2016)

How I Built This · 19 Feb 2018 · 31m

What this episode covers

Wharton students Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, along with co-founders Andy Hunt and Jeff Rader, launched Warby Parker to disrupt the eyewear industry dominated by Luxotica. They bootstrapped the company with $120,000 of personal savings, leveraging Neil's nonprofit contacts to source frames from factories in China. The founders implemented a novel home try-on program and a $95 price point to overcome consumer skepticism about buying glasses online, resulting in a rapid sell-out of initial inventory and a 20,000-person waitlist within weeks of launch.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Warby Parker, Luxotica, Vision Spring
Products
Rayban, Bellyak
Also
GQ, Vogue

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