I found a $170 billion industry where one company owns 80% of the market. But in 2010, four grad students launch a…

I found a $170 billion industry where one company owns 80% of the market. But in 2010, four grad students launch a startup and build a $2 billion brand. Here's the story and 3 principles for industry disruption 🧵

It's the Fall of 2008 and four students are in their first semester at Wharton. On a backpacking trip, one guy loses his glasses. He then spends the semester squinting since it costs too much to replace them. So over a few beers, the crew has an idea: Disrupt eyeglasses

And Warby Parker is born. But they have a problem. 80% of the $170 billion eyeglass industry is controlled by an italian conglomerate called Luxottica. Luxottica owns... • Ray-Ban • Oakley • Oakley • Persol • Oliver Peoples Average price for prescription glasses? $351

But if you're a broke college kid or 1 of 2.4 billion people who can't afford eyeglasses, You're out of luck. So...

Warby Parker is built on 3 core principles. 1) Make glasses affordable ($95 to be exact) 2) Reinvent the buying experience 3) Make it fashionable How did this magic formula disrupt the industry?

1) Make Glasses Affordable Warby went vertical: • Design • Produce • Sell directly But the 2010s were an inflection point. You could cheaply acquire customers via Facebook + Instagram ads which made direct-to-consumer profitable.

So they didn't need to rely on big retail stores for distribution. The result? A pricepoint of $95 compared to $351 3x less.

2) Reinvent the Buying Experience Warby launches "Home Try-On" program which ships 5 pairs of glasses to your home for free so you can give them a whirl. Or use their "Oh so Cool" app to virtually try on your glasses. Who thought buying glasses could be innovative?

Warby Parker doesn't reinvent glasses. They reinvent the purchasing experience. They reduce friction, cut costs, and delight customers.

3) Make it Fashionable These are not your grandma's specs. The customer sweet spot? Trendy hipsters and fashionable yuppies. And the power of capturing cool? 50% of Warby Parker customers come from word of mouth.

That's all we got! If you enjoyed this, retweet the 1st tweet for a friend: And I'm pumped to partner with @tegusHQ - they arm investors and corpdev teams with 30K+ expert transcripts to supercharge their investment decisions

Chris Hladczuk@chrishlad · Dec 11, 2022

I found a $170 billion industry where one company owns 80% of the market. But in 2010, four grad students launch a startup and build a $2 billion brand. Here's the story and 3 principles for industry disruption 🧵

Follow me @chrishlad for more startup stories and principles for industry disruption. Interested in knowing how the name Warby Parker was conceived? I got a fun little story there... Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter for the scoop👇 getrevue.co/profile/chrish…