Notes

Introduction

1 Diana Ransom, “How Dollar Shave Club Rode a Viral Video to Sales Success,” Inc., July/August 2015, https://www.inc.com/magazine/201507/diana-ransom/how-youtube-crashed-our-website.html.

2 John Patrick Pullen, “How a Dollar Shave Club’s Ad Went Viral,” Entrepreneur, October 13, 2012, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224282.

3 “Dollar Shave Club Video: The Script,” Think Tall Films, March 21, 2013, https://thinktallfilms.tumblr.com/post/45910213723/dollar-shave-club-video-the-script.

4 Kris Frieswick, “The Serious Guy Behind Dollar Shave Club’s Crazy Viral Videos,” Inc., April 2016, https://www.inc.com/magazine/201604/kris-frieswick/dollar-shave-club-michael-dubin.html.

5 Kiel Porter and Alex Barinka, “TPG-Backed Makeup Startup Ipsy is Considering a Sale or IPO,” Bloomberg, August 31, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/tpg-backed-makeup-startup-ipsy-is-said-to-consider-sale-ipo.

6 Molly Fleming, “Dollar Shave Club Shifts Business Model as Subscription Growth Slows,” Marketing Week, October 18, 2018, https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/10/18/dollar-shave-club-changes-business-model-as-subscriber-growth-slows/.

7 Stephen Shankland, “Adobe Kills Creative Suite, Goes Subscription-Only,” CNET Magazine, May 6, 2013, https://www.cnet.com/news/adobe-kills-creative-suite-goes-subscription-only/; Rob Walker, “How Adobe Got Its Customers Hooked on Subscriptions,” Bloomberg, June 8, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/how-adobe-got-its-customers-hooked-on-subscriptions.

8 Craig Hanson, “Why We’re (Still) Underestimating the Impact of the Subscription Movement,” Next World Insights (blog), Next World Capital, July 16, 2018, https://insights.nextworldcap.com/why-were-still-underestimating-the-impact-of-the-subscription-movement-286a63665021.

9 Tony Chen, Ken Fenyo, Sylvia Yang, and Jessica Zhang, “Thinking Inside the Subscription Box: New Research on E-commerce Consumers,” McKinsey & Company, February 2018, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/thinking-inside-the-subscription-box-new-research-on-ecommerce-consumers.

10 Erika Malzberg, “The Subscription Economy Index Update: Fall 2018,” Zuora, September 19, 2018, https://www.zuora.com/2018/09/19/the-subscription-economy-index-update-fall-2018/.

11 “Push My Buttons: Experiments in Automated Consumption,” The Economist, Oct. 22, 2016, https://www.economist.com/business/2016/10/22/push-my-buttons.

1. Why Subscription Works

1 Kevin Kelly, “1,000 True Fans,” The Technium (blog), last modified December 6, 2016, https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/.

2 Kelly, “1,000 True Fans.”

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Kevin Kelly, “The Reality of Depending on True Fans,” The Technium (blog), April 21, 2008, https://kk.org/thetechnium/the-reality-of/.

6 Thomas Barrabi, “Retail Apocalypse: These Big Retailers Closing Stores, Filing for Bankruptcy,” Fox Business, January 4, 2018, https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/retail-apocalypse-22-big-retailers-closing-stores.

7 Lauren Debter, “Toys ‘R’ Us Files for Bankruptcy, But Will Keep Stores Open,” Forbes, September 19, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/09/19/toys-r-us-bankruptcy/.

8 R. “Ray” Wang, “Research Summary: Sneak Peeks from Constellation’s Futurist Framework and 2014 Outlook on Digital Disruption,” Constellation Research (blog), February 18, 2014, https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news/research-summary-sneak-peeks-constellations-futurist-framework-and-2014-outlook-digital.

9 Bo Burlingham, “Subscription Services: The Perfect Business Model?,” Inc., May 22, 2014, https://www.inc.com/bo-burlingham/why-john-warrillow-is-all-about-subscription-services.html.

10 Erin Bury, “Need Recurring Revenue? Think Subscription Boxes,” February 3, 2014, https://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/fp-startups/need-recurring-revenue-think-subscription-boxes.

11 Patrick Sisson, “9 Facts about Amazon’s Unprecedented Warehouse Empire,” Curbed, November 19, 2018, https://www.curbed.com/2017/11/21/16686150/black-friday-2018-amazon-warehouse-fulfillment.

2. The Origins of Subscription

1 Molly St. Louis, “9 Companies that Nailed the Whole ‘Surprise and Delight’ Thing,” Inc., August 28, 2017, https://www.inc.com/molly-reynolds/9-companies-that-nailed-the-whole-surprise-and-del.html.

2 Janey Thornton, “Profile: Harry Scherman & the ‘Book of the Month’ Club,” BookBarn (blog), January 26, 2018, https://bookbarnbbi.wordpress.com/2018/01/26/profile-harry-scherman-the-book-of-the-month-club/.

3 “Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc.,” Company-Histories.com, accessed January 7, 2019, http://www.company-histories.com/BookoftheMonth-Club-Inc-Company-History.html.

4 Meeghan Smolinsky, “A New Reading Experience: Book of the Month Club,” Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Fall 2010, https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/new-reading-experience-book-month-club.

5 Heather A. Haveman, “Antebellum Literary Culture and the Evolution of American Magazines,” Poetics 32, no. 1 (February 2004): 11, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222571293_Antebellum_literary_culture_and_the_evolution_of_American_magazines.

6 “Playboy’s Circulation Worldwide from 1960 to 2015 (in millions),” Statista, accessed January 7, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/485332/playboy-circulation-worldwide/.

7 “Our History,” PlayboyEnterprises.com, accessed January 7, 2019, http://www.playboyenterprises.com/about/history/.

8 Jennifer Gould Keil, “Playboy’s Exclusive New NYC Club All About ‘Millennial Luxury,’” NYPost, June 4, 2018, https://nypost.com/2018/06/04/playboys-exclusive-new-nyc-club-all-about-millennial-luxury/.

9 Will Kenton, “Breakage,” Investopedia, February 7, 2018, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/breakage.asp#ixzz5MwZ6GTOE.

10 Rebecca Lake, “23 Gym Membership Statistics That Will Astound You,” CreditDonkey, December 29, 2014, https://www.creditdonkey.com/gym-membership-statistics.html.

11 Ana Swanson, “What Your New Gym Doesn’t Want You to Know,” Washington Post, January 5, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/05/what-your-new-gym-doesnt-want-you-to-know/.

12 “Our Houses,” Soho House, accessed January 8, 2019, https://www.sohohouse.com/houses.

13 Chris Kirkham and Erich Schwartzel, “Exclusive Soho House Wants More Members—Lots of Them,” the Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/exclusive-soho-house-wants-more-memberslots-of-them-1526130743.

14 Kirkham and Schwartzel, “Exclusive Soho House Wants More Members.”

15 Robert Palmer, “The 50s: A Decade of Music that Changed the World,” Rolling Stone, April 19, 1990, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-50s-a-decade-of-music-that-changed-the-world-229924/.

16 “Columbia House Company History,” Funding Universe, accessed January 9, 2019, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/columbia-house-company-history/.

17 “CRC Music Factory—Columbia Record Club,” Voices of East Anglia, accessed January 9, 2019, http://www.voicesofeastanglia.com/2013/02/crc-music-factory-columbia-record-club.html

18 “Columbia House Company History,” Funding Universe.

19 Tom Corrigan, “Fat Lady Sings for Columbia House,” the Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2015, https://www.wsj.com/articles/columbia-house-owner-files-for-bankruptcy-1439233090.

20 Laura Wagner, “‘8 CDs for a Penny’ Company Files for Bankruptcy,” The Two-Way, NPR, August 11, 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/11/431547925/8-cds-for-a-penny-company-files-for-bankruptcy.

21 Stacy Weckesser, “Negative Option Billing is the Shady Marketing Practice You’re Probably Already Falling for,” Bluewater Credit, accessed January 9, 2019, http://bluewatercredit.com/negative-option-billing-shady-marketing-practice-youre-probably-already-falling/.

22 “Government Regulation,” AdAge Encyclopedia, AdAge, Sept. 15, 2003, https://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/government-regulation/98679/.

23 Ethan Trex, “It’s a Steal! How Columbia House Made Money Giving Away Music,” Mental Floss, June 21, 2011, http://mentalfloss.com/article/28036/its-steal-how-columbia-house-made-money-giving-away-music.

24 D’Arcy Jenish and Warren Caragata, “Rogers Cable Apologizes,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, March 11, 2014, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rogers-cable-apologizes.

25 Trex, “It’s a Steal!”

26 Daniel Kreps, “Columbia House Files for Bankruptcy, Blames Streaming,” Rolling Stone, August 11, 2015, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/columbia-house-files-for-bankruptcy-blames-streaming-62345/.

3. Amazon Pioneers Customer Centricity

1 David Streitfeld, “Amazon Hits $1,000,000,000,000 in Value, Following Apple,” the New York Times, September 4, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/technology/amazon-stock-price-1-trillion-value.html; Ryan Vlastelica, “Amazon Becomes Most Valuable Company, Inching Past Microsoft,” Bloomberg, January 7, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-07/amazon-becomes-most-valuable-company-inching-past-microsoft.

2 Quora, “I Worked with Jeff Bezos, and These are the Traits that Helped Make Him the World’s Richest Man,” Inc., November 27, 2017, https://www.inc.com/quora/i-worked-with-jeff-bezos-these-are-traits-that-helped-make-him-worlds-richest-man.html.

3 Marissa Laliberte, “You’ll Never Guess What Amazon Was Almost Called—and Why They Had to Change the Name,” Reader’s Digest, accessed January 14, 2019, https://www.rd.com/culture/amazons-name-origin/.

4 Avery Hartmans, “15 Fascinating Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Amazon,” Business Insider, Aug. 23, 2018, http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4.

5 Caroline Cakebread, “Amazon Launched 22 Years Ago this Week—Here’s What Shopping on Amazon was Like Back in 1995,” Business Insider, July 20, 2017, http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-opened-22-years-ago-see-the-business-evolve-2017-7#2004-a-full-department-store-and-a-search-engine-of-its-own-4.

6 Alex Wilhelm, “A Look Back in IPO: Amazon’s 1997 Move,” TechCrunch,December 11, 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/28/a-look-back-at-amazons-1997-ipo/.

7 Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (New York: Little, Brown, 2013), 163.

8 Taylor Soper, “Full Text: In Annual Shareholder Letter, Jeff Bezos Explains Why it Will Never be Day 2 at Amazon,” GeekWire, April 12, 2017, https://www.geekwire.com/2017/full-text-annual-letter-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-explains-avoid-becoming-day-2-company/.

9 Jim Edwards, “One of the Kings of the ’90s Dot-com Bubble now Faces 20 Years in Prison,” Business Insider, December 6, 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/where-are-the-kings-of-the-1990s-dot-com-bubble-bust-2016-12.

10 Timothy B. Lee, “The Little-known Deal that Saved Amazon from the Dot-com Crash,” Vox.com, April 5, 2017, https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/4/5/15190650/amazon-jeff-bezos-richest.

11 Todd Spangler, “Amazon Has More Than 100 Million Prime Subscribers, Jeff Bezos Discloses,” Variety, April 18, 2018, https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/amazon-prime-100-million-subscribers-jeff-bezos-1202757832/; Jason Del Rey, “What Amazon Prime’s 100 Million Milestone Doesn’t Show: The Battle to Keep Growing in the U.S.,” April 19, 2018, Recode, https://www.recode.net/2018/4/19/17256410/amazon-prime-100-million-members-us-penetration-low-income-households-jeff-bezos.

12 Eugene Kim, “Bezos to Shareholders: It’s ‘Irresponsible’ Not to be Part of Amazon Prime,” Business Insider, May 17, 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-says-its-irresponsible-not-to-be-part-of-prime-2016-5.

13 Louis Columbus, “10 Charts That Will Change Your Perspective of Amazon Prime’s Growth,” Forbes, May 4, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2018/03/04/10-charts-that-will-change-your-perspective-of-amazon-primes-growth/; Michael R. Levin and Joshua N. Lowitz, “Amazon Prime Members Stay Members,” Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, LLC, June 1, 2016, http://files.ctctcdn.com/150f9af2201/8768026b-925d-4733-b357-375db7411f66.pdf.

14 Columbus, “10 Charts.”

15 Trefis Team, “Netflix And Amazon: Competitors Or Complementary,” Forbes, June 1, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/06/01/netflix-and-amazon-competitors-or-complementary/#2eaeb46a56cc.

16 Columbus, “10 Charts.”

17 Jordan Novet, “Amazon’s Cloud is Big Enough to be the Fifth-largest Business Software Company in the World,” CNBC, February 3, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/03/aws-is-the-fifth-biggest-business-software-company-in-the-world.html.

18 Silicon Review Team, “Vmware Aims to Expand Services to Azure and Google,” The Silicon Review, June 2, 2018,

19 Alison Griswold, “Amazon Web Services Brought in More Money than McDonald’s in 2018,” Quartz, February 1, 2019 https://qz.com/1539546/amazon-web-services-brought-in-more-money-than-mcdonalds-in-2018/.

20 Stephanie Condon, “In 2018, AWS Delivered Most of Amazon’s Operating Income,” ZDNet, January 31, 2019, https://www.zdnet.com/article/in-2018-aws-delivered-most-of-amazons-operating-income/.

21 Jordan Novet, “Amazon says AWS Revenue Jumped 46 Percent in Third Quarter,” CNBC, October 25, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/25/aws-q3-results.html.

22 Alex Hern, “Amazon Web Services: The Secret to the Online Retailer’s Future Success,” The Guardian, February 2, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/02/amazon-web-services-the-secret-to-the-online-retailers-future-success.

23 Ron Miller, “How AWS Came to Be,” TechCrunch, July 2, 2016, https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/02/andy-jassys-brief-history-of-the-genesis-of-aws/.

24 Miller, “How AWS Came to Be.”

25 Hern, “Amazon Web Services.”

26 Ibid.

27 Benjamin Wootton, “Who’s Using Amazon Web Services?,” Contino, January 26, 2017, https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws.

28 Parker Harris, “Salesforce Selects Amazon Web Services as Preferred Public Cloud Infrastructure Provider,” Blog, Salesforce, May 25, 2016, https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/05/salesforce-aws-public-cloud-infrastructure.html.

29 “Salesforce Announces Service Cloud Einstein and Amazon Connect Integration,” press release, Salesforce, March 28, 2017, https://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/press-releases/2017/03/170328-3/.

30 Barb Darrow, “Marc Benioff Touts Amazon as Salesforce’s New Best Friend,” Fortune, May 19, 2017, http://fortune.com/2017/05/19/salesforce-amazon-benioff/.

31 “It Make [sic] Sense for Amazon to Build its Second HQ Near Washington,”The Economist, March 8, 2018, https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/03/08/it-make-sense-for-amazon-to-build-its-second-hq-near-washington.

32 Larry Dignan, “Alexa for Business Likely to Win in Smart Office, Leverage AWS, Echo, Developers and Consumers,” ZDNet, January 19, 2018, https://www.zdnet.com/article/alexa-for-business-likely-to-win-in-smart-office-leverage-aws-echo-developers-and-consumers/.

33 Ibid.

34 “Learn More About How AWS is Working to Achieve Its Goal of 100% Renewable Energy Usage for our Global Infrastructure Footprint,” Amazon Web Services, accessed January 18, 2019, https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability/sustainability-timeline/.

35 John Furrier, “How Andy Jassy Plans to Keep Amazon Web Services On Top of the Cloud,” November 27, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/2017/11/27/exclusive-how-andy-jassy-plans-to-keep-amazon-web-services-on-top-of-the-cloud/.

36 Larry Dignan, “Alibaba Cloud Hits Annual Revenue Run Rate Tops $4.4 billion, ZDnet.com, May 15, 2019, https://www.zdnet.com/article/alibaba-cloud-hits-annual-revenue-run-rate-tops-4-4-billion/.

37 Hari Kannan and Christopher Thomas, “Public Cloud in China: Big Challenges, Big Upside,” McKinsey&Company, July 2018, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/public-cloud-in-china-big-challenges-big-upside.

38 “Chinese Tech Companies Plan to Steal American Cloud Firms’ Thunder,”The Economist, January 18, 2018, https://www.economist.com/business/2018/01/18/chinese-tech-companies-plan-to-steal-american-cloud-firms-thunder.

39 Kannan and Thomas, “Public Cloud in China.”

40 “Chinese Tech Companies Plan to Steal American Cloud Firms’ Thunder,” The Economist.

4. Netflix Chills TV

1 “Can Netflix Please Investors and Still Avoid the Techlash?,” The Economist, June 28, 2018, https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/06/28/can-netflix-please-investors-and-still-avoid-the-techlash.

2 “Netflix is Moving Television Beyond Time-slots and National Markets,” The Economist, June 30, 2018, https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/06/30/netflix-is-moving-television-beyond-time-slots-and-national-markets.

3 Ibid.

4 Seth Fiegerman, “Netflix Adds 9 Million Paying Subscribers, But Stock Falls,” CNN Business, January 17, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/media/netflix-earnings-q4/index.html; “Number of Netflix Streaming Subscribers in the United States from 3rd Quarter 2011 to 4th Quarter 2018 (in millions),” Statista, accessed January 21, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/250937/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-in-the-us/.

5 Scott Galloway and Mark Mahaney, “Mark Mahaney on the Future of Netflix,” October 26, 2016, in A Conversation with Scott Galloway, podcast, L2 Inc, https://www.l2inc.com/daily-insights/the-future-of-netflix-with-mark-mahaney.

6 Aline Van Duyn, “DVD Rentals Pass Their Screen Test,” Financial Times, October 4, 2005.

7 Brian Barrett, Jason Parham, Brian Raftery, Peter Rubin, and Angela Watercutter, “Netflix is Turning 20—But Its Birthday Doesn’t Matter,” Wired, August 29, 2017, https://www.wired.com/story/netflix-20th-anniversary/.

8 Willy Shih, Stephen Kaufman, and David Spinola, “Netflix,” Harvard Business School, April 27, 2009, https://slideblast.com/netflix_59509ad11723dd456abc3b8a.html.

9 Greg Sandoval, “Blockbuster Laughed at Netflix Partnership Offer,” CNET Magazine, December 12, 2010, https://www.cnet.com/news/blockbuster-laughed-at-netflix-partnership-offer/.

10 Shih et al., “Netflix.”

11 Netflix Media Center, “NETFLIX.com Transforms DVD Business Eliminating Late Fees and Due Dates From Movie Rentals,” press release, December 16, 1999, https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/netflixcom-transforms-dvd-business-eliminating-late-fees-and-due-dates-from-movie-rentals-migration-1.

12 Sandoval, “Blockbuster Laughed.”

13 Shih et al., “Netflix.”

14 Ibid.

15 Greg Satell, “A Look Back at Why Blockbuster Really Failed and Why It Didn’t Have To,” Forbes, September 5, 2014, https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/09/05/a-look-back-at-why-blockbuster-really-failed-and-why-it-didnt-have-to/.

16 Ibid.

17 Marc Graser, “Epic Fail: How Blockbuster Could Have Owned Netflix,” November 12, 2013, https://variety.com/2013/biz/news/epic-fail-how-blockbuster-could-have-owned-netflix-1200823443/.

18 Reed Hastings, quoted in Matt Preuss, “Netflix IPO: A Lesson in Investor Relations from Reed Hastings,” Founders Forward (blog), Visible, May 25, 2018, https://visible.vc/blog/netflix-ipo/.

19 Matthew Ball, “Netflix Isn’t Being Reckless, It’s Just Playing a Game No One Else Dares (Netflix Misunderstandings, Pt. 3),” July 8, 2018, REDEF, https://redef.com/original/5b400a2779328f4711d5675e.

20 Ball, “Netflix Isn’t Being Reckless”; Christine Wang, “Netflix Says Its Cash Burn Will Peak This Year, Then Go Down,” CNBC, January 17, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/17/netflix-says-its-cash-burn-will-peak-this-year-then-go-down.html.

21 Ibid.

22 Liane Yvkoff, “You Might Be Waiting a While for ‘Full Self-Driving Approval’ To Stream Netflix in a Moving Tesla,” Forbes, July 29, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/2019/07/29/you-might-be-waiting-a-while-for-full-self-driving-approval-to-stream-netflix-in-a-moving-tesla/.

23 Matthew Ball, “Netflix is a Product & Technology Company (Netflix Misunderstandings, Pt. 2),” REDEF, May 12, 2018, https://redef.com/original/5aef99591e5d473edfd9a4c5.

24 Ball, “Netflix Is a Product & Technology Company.”

25 Ibid.

26 Josef Adalian, “Inside the Binge Factory,” Vulture, June 2018, https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/how-netflix-swallowed-tv-industry.html.

27 Ball, “Netflix Isn’t Being Reckless.”

28 Anna Hecht and Shawn M. Carter, “Disney vs Netflix: Here’s Which Stock Would Have Made You Richer if You Invested $1,000 10 Years Ago,” CNBC Make It, April 24, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/24/would-investing-1000-dollars-in-disney-or-netflix-have-made-you-richer.html.

29 Nathaniel Lee and Sara Silverstein, “Scott Galloway: Netflix Could Be the Next $300 Billion Company,” Business Insider, April 24, 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/scott-galloway-netflix-next-300-billion-company-2017-4.

30 “Netflix is Moving Television Beyond Time-Slots and National Markets,” The Economist, June 30, 2018, https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/06/30/netflix-is-moving-television-beyond-time-slots-and-national-markets.

5. From Sales to Salesforce

1 Marc Benioff and Carlye Adler, Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went From Idea to Billion-Dollar Company—and Revolutionized an Industry (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 255.

2 “Advertising Revenue of Google from 2001 to 2018 (in billions of U.S. dollars),” Statista, accessed June 11, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/266249/advertising-revenue-of-google/; “Digital Ad Spending 2019,” eMarketer, March 28, 2019, https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-digital-ad-spending-2019; “Facebook’s advertising revenue worldwide from 2009 to 2018 (in million U.S. dollars),” Statista, accessed June 11, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/271258/facebooks-advertising-revenue-worldwide/.

3 “A Brief History of Customer Relationship Management,” CRM Switch, September 12, 2013, https://www.crmswitch.com/crm-industry/crm-industry-history/.

4 “Gartner Says CRM Became the Largest Software Market in 2017 and Will Be the Fastest Growing Software Market in 2018,” Gartner, press release, April 10, 2018, https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-04-10-gartner-says-crm-became-the-largest-software-market-in-2017-and-will-be-the-fastest-growing-software-market-in-2018; Laurence Goasduff, “Cloud to Represent 75% of Total Spend on CRM in 2019,” Gartner, April 4, 2019, https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/cloud-to-represent-75-of-total-spend-on-crm-in-2019/.

5 Ron Miller, “Salesforce Keeps Revenue Pedal to the Metal with Another Mammoth Quarter,” TechCrunch, May 30,2018, https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/30/salesforce-keeps-revenue-pedal-to-the-metal-with-another-mammoth-quarter/.

6 Carlye Adler, “The Fresh Prince of Software,” CNN Money, March 1, 2003, https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2003/03/01/338759/index.htm.

7 Benioff and Adler, Behind the Cloud, 1–2.

8 Ibid., 3.

9 Marc Benioff, “How to Create Alignment Within Your Company in Order to Succeed,” Salesforce Blog, April 8, 2013, https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/04/how-to-create-alignment-within-your-company.html.

10 Bill Gross, “The Single Biggest Reason Why Start-ups Succeed,” filmed March 2015 in Vancouver, BC, TED video, 6:41, https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gross_the_single_biggest_reason_why_startups_succeed.

11 Benioff and Adler, Behind the Cloud, 3.

12 Ibid., 5–6.

13 Ibid., 20–21.

14 Ibid., 13.

15 Ibid., 37.

16 Jason Compton, “Salesforce.com IPO Raises $110 Million,” Destination CRM, June 23, 2004, https://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/Salesforce.com-IPO-Raises-$110-Million-44252.aspx.

17 Matt Weinberger, “The Rise of Marc Benioff, the Bombastic Salesforce CEO Who’s Buying Up Time Magazine for $190 Million,” Business Insider, September 17, 2018, www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-2016-3.

18 “Masterful Salesmanship Has Pushed Salesforce to Ever-Greater Heights,” The Economist, January 4, 2018, https://www.economist.com/business/2018/01/04/masterful-salesmanship-has-pushed-salesforce-to-ever-greater-heights.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 “2. Salesforce,” 100 Best Companies, Fortune, accessed June 12, 2019, http://fortune.com/best-companies/salesforce/.

22 Benioff and Adler, Behind the Cloud, 244–45.

23 Ibid., 139.

24 Benioff and Adler, Behind the Cloud, 153; and “Philanthropic Programs,” Salesforce.org, accessed June 12, 2019, https://www.salesforce.org/philanthropic-programs/.

25 Benioff and Adler, Behind the Cloud, 168.

26 Bob Evans, “Why Cloud Customer Success is New Top Priority for Salesforce, Microsoft, Workday, SAP And Oracle,” Forbes, May 25, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/05/25/why-cloud-customer-success-is-new-top-priority-for-salesforce-microsoft-workday-sap-and-oracle/.

27 Diana Edmundson, “7 Reasons Salesforce Essentials is Perfect for Your Small Business,” Salesforce UK blog, July 20, 2018, https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2018/07/7-reasons-salesforce-essentials-is-perfect-for-your-small-busine.html.

28 Salesforce Ventures website, accessed September 24, 2019, https://www.salesforce.com/company/ventures/portfolio/.

29 “Salesforce Ventures Introduces $100 Million Canada Trailblazer Fund,” Salesforce, press release, May 3, 2018, https://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/press-releases/2018/05/180503/.

30 Benioff and Adler, Behind the Cloud, 258.

31 Nick Turner, Gerry Smith, and Nico Grant, “Salesforce’s Benioff to Buy Time Magazine, Boosting Influence,” Bloomberg, Sept. 16, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-17/salesforce-s-benioff-to-buy-time-magazine-boosting-influence.

32 Ari Levy, “Salesforce’s Marc Benioff Unplugged for Two Weeks, and Had a Revelation That Could Change the Tech Industry,” CNBC, January 5, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/30/salesforce-marc-benioff-talks-tech-ethics-time-magazine-and-vacation.html.

33 Victor Antonio, “How AI is Changing Sales,” Harvard Business Review, July 30, 2018, https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-ai-is-changing-sales; and “PowerDialler for Salesforce,” Salesforce Appexchange, accessed June 11, 2019, https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016ay4EAA/.

34 Antonio, “How AI is Changing Sales.”

6. Shopify Your Business

1 Kim Bhasin, “How Those Color-Block Bikinis Took Over the Beach,” Bloomberg, August 17, 2015, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-17/how-those-color-block-bikinis-took-over-the-beach.

2 “Shopify Announces Fourth-Quarter and Full Year 2018 Financial Results,” Shopify, press release, February 12, 2019, https://investors.shopify.com/Investor-News-Details/2019/Shopify-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2018-Financial-Results/default.aspx.

3 James Bagnall, “Shopify to Triple Size of Ottawa Headquarters,” Ottawa Citizen, updated March 20, 2017, https://ottawacitizen.com/business/local-business/shopify-to-triple-size-of-ottawa-headquarters.

4 Tobi Lütke, “The Apprentice Programmer,” Tobi Lütke (blog), March 3, 2013, https://tobi.lutke.com/blogs/news/11280301-the-apprentice-programmer.

5 Trevor Cole, “Our Canadian CEO of the Year You’ve Probably Never Heard of,” the Globe and Mail, Report on Business Magazine, November 27, 2014, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/meet-our-ceo-of-the-year/article21734931/.

6 Lütke, “The Apprentice Programmer.”

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder (New York: Random House, 2014), 90.

10 Abigail Hess, “Here’s How Much the Average Student Loan Borrower Owes When They Graduate,” CNBC, February 15, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/heres-how-much-the-average-student-loan-borrower-owes-when-they-graduate.html.

11 Adam Levinter and Carl Rodrigues, “36: Basement to $1 Billion, with SOTI’s Carl Rodrigues,” November 2, 2018, in E2: Entrepreneurs Exposed, hosted by Adam Levinter, podcast, http://entrepreneursexposed.libsyn.com/36-basement-to-1-billion-with-sotis-carl-rodrigues.

12 Tobias Lütke, “How did Shopify Get Started?,” Quora, answered May 20, 2011, https://www.quora.com/How-did-Shopify-get-started.

13 “How Shopify Grew From a Snowboard Shop to a $10B Commerce Ecosystem,” Product Habits, accessed June 14, 2019, https://producthabits.com/shopify-grew-snowboard-shop-10b-commerce-ecosystem/.

14 Cole, “Our Canadian CEO of the Year,” Report on Business Magazine.

15 “Shopify API Platform and App Store Launched,” PRWeb, June 2, 2009, https://www.prweb.com/releases/shopify_app_store/shopify_api/prweb2488884.htm.

16 Dayna Winter, “Celebrating 8 Years of Ecommerce: 14 Shopify Stores Launched in Our First Year,” Shopify (blog), May 30, 2014, https://www.shopify.ca/blog/14314785-celebrating-8-years-of-ecommerce-14-shopify-stores-launched-in-our-first-year.

17 Cole, “Our Canadian CEO of the Year.”

18 Darrell Etherington, “Shopify Debuts Fully Integrated Credit Card Payment Processing for Its E-Commerce Platform, TechCrunch, https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/12/shopify-debuts-fully-integrated-credit-card-payment-processing-for-its-e-commerce-platform/.

19 “Shopify—Funding Rounds,” Crunchbase, accessed June 14, 2019, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/shopify/funding_rounds/funding_rounds_list#section-funding-rounds.

20 Daniel Sparks, “10 Stocks That are Crushing the Market in 2018, The Motley Fool, July 16, 2018, https://www.fool.com/slideshow/10-stocks-are-crushing-market-2018/.

21 “The Hottest Stock on the NYSE is... A Completely Illegal Get-Rich-Quick Scheme (with a Good Software Platform),” Citron Research, October 4, 2017, https://citronresearch.com/citron-exposes-the-dark-side-of-shopify/.

22 “Shopify PS Ratio (TTM,” YCharts, accessed August 9, 2019, https://ycharts.com/companies/SHOP/ps_ratio.

23 Stephanie Bedard-Chateauneuf, “Shopify Inc. is Targeting Market Share Before Profit,” The Motley Fool, February 20, 2018, https://www.fool.ca/2018/02/20/shopify-inc-is-targeting-market-share-before-profit/.

24 Sajjad Shahid, “Top Ecommerce Platforms Market Share in 2018, Cloudways, December 19, 2018, https://www.cloudways.com/blog/top-ecommerce-platforms/.

25 “Shopify Welcomes LA to Our First-Ever Physical Entrepreneur Space,” Shopify, October 11, 2018, https://news.shopify.com/shopify-welcomes-la-to-our-first-ever-physical-merchant-space.

26 “Shopify to Open First Bricks-and-Mortar Service Location This Year,” the Globe and Mail, Report on Business Magazine, May 8, 2018, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-shopify-to-open-first-brick-and-mortar-service-location-this-year/.

27 Canadian Press, “Ontario Chooses Shopify to Run Online Cannabis Sales,” CBC, February 12, 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ontario-shopify-marijuana-online-shopping-1.4531228.

28 Mark Rendell, “Shopify to Run B.C.’S Online Cannabis Sales, Financial Post, June 22, 2018, https://business.financialpost.com/cannabis/shopify-to-run-b-c-s-online-cannabis-sales.

7. The Spotify Soundtrack

1 Mark Gurman and Debby Wu, “Apple to Unveil High-End AirPods, Over-Ear Headphones For 2019,” Bloomberg, June 25, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-25/apple-is-said-to-amplify-its-audio-device-strategy-in-2019.

2 Felix Richter, “Streaming Drives Global Music Industry Resurgence,” Statista, April 3, 2019, https://www.statista.com/chart/4713/global-recorded-music-industry-revenues/.

3 Tom Ball and Eric Auchard, “Music Streaming Revenues Surge and Investors Like the Beat,” Reuters, April 24, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-music-sales/music-streaming-revenues-surge-and-investors-like-the-beat-idUSKBN1HV1KL.

4 Amy Watson, “Spotify’s Revenue Worldwide from 2013 to 2018 (in million euros),” Statista, February 11, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/813713/spotify-revenue/.

5 Spotify Hits 108M Paying Users and 232M Overall, but Its Average Revenue Per User Declines, Manish Singh, July 31, 2019, https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/31/spotify-108-million/.

6 Jordan Ritter interview by Brian McCullough, “The Napster Story With Jordan Ritter,” April 16, 2017, in Internet History Podcast, http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2017/04/the-napster-story-with-jordan-ritter/.

7 “The Choir was Singing, but Not in Tune, As Napster’s CEO Stepped Up Before The Senate Judiciary Committee In Washington,” ZDNet, July 12, 2000, “https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-testimony-of-napster-ceo-hank-barry/.”

8 “The Choir Was Singing.”

9 Tyler Jenke, “Bootleggers are Holding Rare Radiohead Material for a $150k Ransom,” Tone Deaf, June 5, 2019, https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/radiohead-rare-150k-ransom/.

10 Steven Bertoni, “Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption,” Forbes, September 21, 2011, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2011/09/21/sean-parker-agent-of-disruption/.

11 Wikipedia, “Sean Parker,” accessed September 24, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker#Plaxo.

12 Ibid.

13 Scribd.com, “Sean Parker’s Email to Spotify’s Daniel Ek,” August 25, 2009, https://www.scribd.com/doc/67465758/Sean-Parker-s-Email-to-Spotify-s-Daniel-Ek.

14 Sean Parker, email message to Daniel Ek and Shakil Khan, August 25, 2009, https://www.scribd.com/doc/67465758/Sean-Parker-s-Email-to-Spotify-s-Daniel-Ek.

15 Alexia Tsotsis, “Live from Facebook’s 2011 F8 Conference [Video],” TechCrunch, September 22, 2011, https://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/live-from-facebooks-2011-f8-conference-video/.

16 Ibid.

17 Marc Hogan, “The Record Industry Expects a Windfall. Where Will the Money Go?” Pitchfork, May 30, 2019, https://pitchfork.com/features/article/the-record-industry-expects-a-windfall-where-will-the-money-go/.

18 Daniel Sanchez, “Apple Music, Not Spotify, Ranks as the Most Popular Music Streaming Service,” Digital Music News, March 29, 2018, https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/03/29/verto-analytics-study-apple-music-spotify/.

19 Steve Knopper, “As Spotify Prepares to Go Public, Music Industry Divided on Royalties,” Rolling Stone, March 7, 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/as-spotify-prepares-to-go-public-music-industry-divided-on-royalties-118197/.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 From phone conversation with Daniel Goldenberg, September 23, 2019.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Lisa Marie Segarra, “Taylor Swift’s Spotify Songs Made an Insane Amount of Money in a Week,” Fortune, June 23, 2017, http://fortune.com/2017/06/23/taylor-swift-spotify-songs-money/.

26 Knopper, “Spotify Prepares to Go Public.”

27 Amazon.com, Amazon Music, accessed September 24, 2019,https://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/promotions/AmazonMusicUnlimited.

28 “Spotify Ad Campaign Turns Mirror on Music Lovers with ‘Weird 2016’ Stats,” Newstalk, November 29, 2016, https://www.newstalk.com/business/spotifys-new-ad-campaign-throws-up-plenty-of-weird-2016-listening-stats-562620.

29 Tim Ingham, “Profits, Payments and Podcasts: 5 Takeaways from Spotify’s Q3 Earnings Call,” Music Business Worldwide, November 5, 2018, https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/profits-payments-and-podcasts-5-takeaways-from-spotifys-q3-earnings-call/; Jon Porter, “Spotify is First to 100 million Paid Subscribers,” The Verge, April 29, 2019, https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/29/18522297/spotify-100-million-users-apple-music-podcasting-free-users-advertising-voice-speakers.

30 Tim Ingham, “Spotify Can’t Keep Losing More Than $1 Billion a Year. Can Podcasts Rescue Its Business Model?” Rolling Stone, November 2, 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/can-podcasts-rescue-spotify-business-model-749970/.

31 Ingham, “Profits, Payments and Podcasts.”

32 Kabir Sehgal, “Spotify and Apple Music Should Become Record Labels So Musicians Can Make a Fair Living,” CNBC, January 26, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/26/how-spotify-apple-music-can-pay-musicians-more-commentary.html; “Having Rescued Recorded Music, Spotify May Upend the Industry Again,” The Economist, January 11, 2018, https://www.economist.com/news/business/21734488-its-clout-streaming-could-allow-it-sign-new-artists-itself-challenging-major-record.

8. Booming Boxes

1 Sarah Mitroff, “From Coffee to Condoms, Now There’s a Subscription Service for Everyone,” Wired, November 21, 2012, https://www.wired.com/2012/11/subscription-services-2012/.

2 Andria Cheng, “The Subscription Box Industry is Getting More Crowded Than Ever,” Forbes, May 30, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2018/05/30/the-subscription-box-industry-is-getting-more-crowded-than-ever/.

3 Deborah L. Cohen, “Makeup Startup Thinks Inside the Box,” Reuters, November 17, 2010, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-cohen-birchbox-idUSTRE6AG3B620101117.

4 Cohen, “Makeup Startup.”

5 “Total Revenue of Avon Products Inc. Worldwide from 2011 to 2018 (in billion U.S. dollars),” Statista, accessed June 17, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/670869/avon-inc-global-revenue/.

6 Chavie Lieber, “The Uncertain Fate of Avon in a Digital Beauty World,” Racked, April 30, 2015, https://www.racked.com/2015/4/30/8515985/avon-digital-business.

7 Alison McCarthy, “Millennials Dominate US Beauty Market,” eMarketer, December 14, 2016, https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Millennials-Dominate-US-Beauty-Market/1014857.

8 Cohen, “Makeup Startup.”

9 Geoff Weiss, “How Ipsy, Michelle Phan’s Million-Member Sampling Service, Is Giving Birchbox a Run for Its Money,” Entrepreneur, March 31, 2015, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244536.

10 Weiss, “Michelle Phan’s Million-Member Sampling Service”; Sarah Perez, “Ipsy’s New Subscription Delivers Full-Size Beauty Products, Not Samples,” TechCrunch, August 27, 2018, https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/27/ipsys-new-subscription-delivers-full-size-beauty-products-not-samples/.

11 Deborah Weinswig, “Influencers are the New Brands,” Forbes, October 5, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahweinswig/2016/10/05/influencers-are-the-new-brands/.

12 “Michelle Phan Biography,” Biography, accessed June 18, 2019, https://www.biography.com/personality/michelle-phan.

13 Michelle Phan, “Midterms Are Over!,” Ricebunny’s Xanga site, March 7, 2009, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20090328182810/http:/ricebunny.xanga.com/.

14 “Michelle Phan Biography.”

15 Weiss, “Michelle Phan’s Million-Member Sampling Service.”

16 Natalie Robehmed, “How Michelle Phan Built a $500 Million Company,” Forbes, October 5, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/10/05/how-michelle-phan-built-a-500-million-company/.

17 Jamie Cuccinelli, “Michelle Phan Launches Ipsy Open Studios, a Free Studio Space & Mentorship Program to Help Kick Start Your Career,” Bustle, June 9 2015, https://www.bustle.com/articles/89095-michelle-phan-launches-ipsy-open-studios-a-free-studio-space-mentorship-program-to-help-kick.

18 “Yield Growth Announces Sales and Marketing Alliance with ipsy, the World’s Largest Beauty Subscription Service,” Yield Growth Corp, press release, April 30, 2019, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/04/30/1812266/0/en/Yield-Growth-Announces-Sales-and-Marketing-Alliance-with-ipsy-the-World-s-Largest-Beauty-Subscription-Service.html.

19 Elizabeth Segran, “Here’s Why Nobody Wants to Buy Birchbox, Even After VCs Spent $90M,” Fast Company, https://www.fastcompany.com/40567670/heres-why-nobody-wants-to-buy-birchbox-even-after-vcs-spent-90m.

20 Digitalcommerce360.com, “Bark: The Makers of BarkBox,” accessed September 24, 2019, https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/02/06/case-study-barkboxs-path-150-million-sales-profitability/.

21 Cara Salpini, “The bite in BarkBox’s retail gameplan,” April 3, 2018, https://www.retaildive.com/news/the-bite-in-barkboxs-retail-gameplan/517974/.

22 “When is the BarkBox IPO Date?,” Money Morning, February 14, 2018, https://moneymorning.com/2018/02/14/when-is-the-barkbox-ipo-date.

23 Adam Levinter and Paul Jarrett, “24: Scaling Through Subscription, with BuluBox Founder & CEO, Paul Jarrett,” June 26, 2018,E2: Entrepreneurs Exposed, hosted by Adam Levinter, podcast, https://entrepreneursexposed.libsyn.com/24-scaling-through-subscription-with-bulubox-founder-ceo-paul-jarrett.

24 Alyssa Katzenelson and Scott Faber, “On Cosmetics Safety, U.S. Trails More Than 40 Nations,” Environmental Working Group, March 20, 2019, https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2019/03/cosmetics-safety-us-trails-more-40-nations.

25 Derek Blasberg, “How Jessica Alba Built a Billion-Dollar Business Empire,” Vanity Fair, November 2015, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2015/11/jessica-alba-honest-company-business-empire.

26 Jason Del Rey, “Jessica Alba’s Honest Company is Replacing Its CEO After a Sale to Unilever Fell Through,” Recode, March 16, 2017, https://www.vox.com/2017/3/16/14951098/new-honest-company-ceo-change-nick-vlahos.

27 Jordan Valinsky, “Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. Just Got a $200 Million Lifeline,” CNN Money, June 6, 2018, https://money.cnn.com/2018/06/06/news/companies/honest-company-funding/index.html; “How Jessica Alba Built the $1 Billion Honest Company,” July 19, 2018, http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/from-the-big-screen-to-a-billion-dollar-brand-how-jessica-alba-built-the-honest-co.

28 Valinksy, “Jessica Alba’s Honest Co.”

29 Mark Matousek, “Elon Musk Set Off Weeks of Confusion and Controversy One Year Ago Today by Tweeting that He Was Thinking of Taking Tesla Private—These Are 37 Of His Wildest Quotes,” Business Insider, August 7, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-shocking-quotes-tweets-2018-10.

30 Bill Chappell, “U.S. Births Fell To A 32-Year Low In 2018; CDC Says Birthrate is in Record Slump,” NPR, May 15, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/05/15/723518379/u-s-births-fell-to-a-32-year-low-in-2018-cdc-says-birthrate-is-at-record-level.

31 Ed Hammond and Melissa Mittelman, “Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. Gets Investment from L Catterton,” Bloomberg, June 6, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-06/jessica-alba-s-honest-co-gets-investment-from-l-catterton.

32 Jason Del Rey, “Jessica Alba’s Honest Company Has Been in Talks to Sell to a Big Consumer Product Giant,” Vox, September 9, 2016, https://www.vox.com/2016/9/9/12858866/honest-company-acquisition-sale-procter-gamble-unilever.

9. Dollar Shave Club Disrupts an Industry

1 Adam Lashinsky, “How Dollar Shave Club Got Started,” Fortune, March 10, 2015, http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/dollar-shave-club-founding/.

2 Salvador Rodriguez, “Meet Science, the L.A. ‘Startup Studio’ Behind Dollar Shave Club and Google’s Latest Acquisition,” Inc., October 16, 2013, https://www.inc.com/salvador-rodriguez/science-famebit-los-angeles.html.

3 Ibid.

4 Frieswick, “The Serious Guy.”

5 Dave Fink, interview by the author, April 27, 2018.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Steven Bertoni, “Razor Wars: Harry’s Raises $75 Million to Fight Gillette and Dollar Shave Club,” Forbes, July 7, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2015/07/07/razor-wars-harrys-raises-75-million-to-fight-gillette-and-dollar-shave-club/.

9 Crunchbase, “Dollar Shave Club > Funding Rounds,” CrunchBase, accessed June 19, 2019, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dollar-shave-club/funding_rounds/funding_rounds_list#section-funding-rounds.

10 “Unilever buys Dollar Shave Club, Co-Founder Michael Dubin to Remain CEO,” CNBC, July 20, 2016, https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/20/unilever-buys-dollar-shave-club-co-founder-michael-dubin-to-remain-ceo.html.

11 Serena Ng and Paul Ziobro, “Razor Sales Move Online, Away from Gillette,” the Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2015, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB12147335600370333763904581058081668712042.

12 Phil Wahba, “Gillette Says It’s Fighting Back in the Shaving Club Wars,” Fortune, October 23, 2015, http://fortune.com/2015/10/23/gillette-shaving-club-wars/.

13 The Wall Street Journal, “Unilever Buys Dollar Shave Club, Sharon Terlep,July 20, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/unilever-buys-dollar-shave-club-1468987836.

14 Mike Isaac, “Dollar Shave Club Sells to Unilever for $1 Billion,” the New York Times, July 20, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/business/dealbook/unilever-dollar-shave-club.html.

15 Lucy Handley, “Michael Dubin: Shaving America,” CNBC, updated April 11, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/21/michael-dubin-shaving-america.html.

16 Nikhil Basu Trivedi, “The Secret Behind Dollar Shave Club’s Billion Dollar Success in One Graph,” Medium, May 30, 2017, https://medium.com/@nbt/the-secret-behind-dollar-shave-clubs-billion-dollar-success-in-one-graph-f02fba883635.

17 James M. Kilts, “Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades,” The Onion,February 18, 2004, https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036.

18 Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Absurd Quest to Make the “Best” Razor,” Vox, December 11, 2018, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/11/18134456/best-razor-gillette-harrys-dollar-shave-club.

19 Barrett J. Brunsman, “P&G Settles Lawsuit with Unilever’s Dollar Shave Club,” Cincinnati Business Courier, March 29, 2019, https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/03/29/p-g-settles-lawsuit-with-unilever-s-dollar-shave.html; Barrett J. Brunsman, “Former P&G Executive Named CEO of Rival,” Cincinnati Business Courier, February 7, 2019, https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/02/07/former-p-g-executive-named-ceo-of-rival.html.

20 Tracy Maple, “Gillette Wants a Slice of the Online Razor Club Business,” Digital Commerce 360, July 16, 2015, https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2015/07/16/gillette-wants-slice-online-razor-club-business/.

21 Jeff Harder, “The Razor Wars Have Begun and Somebody’s Going to Get Hurt,” Globe Magazine, June 21, 2017, https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2017/06/21/the-razor-wars-have-begun-and-somebody-going-get-hurt/WbNBl0OSk1BgiHFZdkp16M/story.html.

22 Ibid.

10. Food, the Final E-Commerce Frontier

1 Andrew Lipsman, “Grocery Ecommerce 2019: Online Food and Beverage Sales Reach Inflection Point, eMarketer, April 8, 2019, https://www.emarketer.com/content/grocery-ecommerce-2019.

2 “Direct-to-Door Meal Kit Service Market Revenue Worldwide on 2015 and 2020 (in billion U.S. dollars),” Statista, February 22, 2016, https://www.statista.com/statistics/655037/global-direct-to-door-meal-kit-service-market-revenue/.

3 Alyson Shontell, “How Blue Apron Became a $2 Billion Startup in 3 Years,” Inc., October 20, 2015, https://www.inc.com/business-insider/how-blue-arpon-became-a-2-billion-dollar-startup.html.

4 Catherine Clifford, “How 2 Young Guys Went From The Brink Of Bankruptcy To Selling Their ‘Shark Tank’ Business for $300 million,” CNBC, September 22, 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/22/how-shark-tank-business-plated-sold-to-albertsons-for-300-million.html.

5 Rani Molla, “HelloFresh is Now Bigger Than Blue Apron in the U.S.,” Recode, March 26, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/3/26/17165030/hellofresh-blue-apron-meal-kit-delivery-marketshare-acquisition-organic-green-chef.

6 Paul Delean, “Healthy Options are a Package Deal At Oatbox and Yumibox,” Montreal Gazette, November 14, 2016, https://montrealgazette.com/business/healthy-options-are-a-package-deal-at-oatbox-and-yumibox.

7 Tom Vierhile, “2018 Cereal Trends: Morning Maneuvers,” March 12, 2018, Prepared Foods, https://www.preparedfoods.com/articles/121018-cereal-trends-morning-maneuvers?v=preview.

8 Hugh Williams, “N26 Valued at USD$3.5bn; Graze Continues European Expansion,” DTC Daily, July 22, 2019, https://www.dtcdaily.com/2019/07/n26-valued-at-usd3-5bn/.

9 Kirk Falconer, “Healthy Breakfast Provider Oatbox Closes $1.55 mln Seed Round,” PEHUB Network, June 14, 2017, https://www.pehub.com/canada/2017/06/3457680/.

10 “Oatbox Raises C$1.55MM in Seed Funding to Accelerate Growth in Breakfast Industry,” Newswire, press release, June 14, 2017, https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/oatboxtm-raises-c155mm-in-seed-funding-to-accelerate-growth-in-breakfast-industry-628378283.html.

11 Ian Brooks, interview by the author, May 8, 2018.

12 Sam Nickerson, “Concerned About Food Waste? Study Finds Meal Kits May Be Greener than Grocery Shopping,” EcoWatch, April 26, 2019, https://www.ecowatch.com/meal-kits-environmental-impact-2635612047.html.

13 Adam Levinter and Josh Hix, “45: The Rise of Meal Kits, w/ Plated Co-Founder Josh Hix,” March 7, 2019, in E2: Entrepreneurs Exposed, hosted by Adam Levinter, podcast, http://entrepreneursexposed.libsyn.com/45-the-rise-of-meal-kits-w-plated-co-founder-josh-hix.

14 Adam Levy, “Should You Invest in Meal Kits?” The Motley Fool, July 7, 2018, https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/07/07/should-you-invest-in-meal-kits.aspx.

15 Lauren Hirsch and Angela Moon, “Meal-Kit Maker Blue Apron Goes Public, Demand Underwhelms as Amazon Looms,” Reuters, June 28, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blueapron-ipo/meal-kit-maker-blue-apron-goes-public-demand-underwhelms-as-amazon-looms-iduskbn19J1c5.

16 Jing Cao and Alex Barinka, “How Blue Apron Wooed Then Disappointed Wall Street,” Bloomberg, December 6, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-06/how-blue-apron-wooed-then-disappointed-wall-street.

17 Suman Bhattacharyya, “Blue Apron is Hemorrhaging Subscribers As It Expands Retail Partnerships Strategy,” Digiday UK, January 31, 2019, https://digiday.com/retail/blue-apron-hemorrhaging-subscribers-expands-retail-partnerships-strategy/.

18 “Upstart Meal-Kit Companies May Need a New Recipe for Growth,” The Economist, https://www.economist.com/business/2018/04/14/upstart-meal-kit-companies-may-need-a-new-recipe-for-growth.

19 Lauren Thomas, “Don’t Worry, Wal-Mart; Amazon Buying Whole Foods is Just a ‘Drop in the Bucket,’ ” CNBC, June 21, 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/21/dont-worry-wal-mart-amazon-buying-whole-foods-is-just-a-drop-in-the-bucket.html.

20 Sarah Whitten, “Whole Foods Stock Rockets 28% on $13.7 Billion Amazon Takeover Deal,” CNBC, June 16, 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/16/amazon-is-buying-whole-foods-in-a-deal-valued-at-13-point-7-billion.html.

21 Apoorva Mehta, “Tipping Point,” Instacart News, February 11, 2018, https://news.instacart.com/tipping-point-1a9b6335f905.

22 “Cheers! Instacart Expands Alcohol Delivery Experience for Customers Across the U.S.,” Instacart News, March 12, 2019, https://news.instacart.com/cheers-instacart-expands-alcohol-delivery-experience-for-customers-across-the-u-s-13641a1d7567.

23 Tracey Lien, “Apoorva Mehta Had 20 Failed Start-Ups Before Instacart,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, January 27, 2017, https://www.sun-sentinel.com/la-fi-himi-apoorva-mehta-20170105-story.html.

24 Kyle Alspach, “8 Things You Might Not Know About Kiva Systems,” March 19, 2012, https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/03/amazon-kiva-systems-acquisition-facts.html.

25 Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, “Famous Failures: The Grocery E-Tailer that Raised Over $800 Million and Went Public Before Filing for Bankruptcy, September 16, 2014, https://yourstory.com/2014/09/webvan-e-tailer/.

26 Alistair Barr, “From the Ashes of Webvan, Amazon Builds a Grocery Business,” Reuters, June 18, 2013, https://www.reuters.com/article/net-us-amazon-webvan/from-the-ashes-of-webvan-amazon-builds-a-grocery-business-idusbre95h1cc20130618.

27 Biz Carson, “The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Could Have Killed Instacart. Instead, the Startup is Stronger than Ever,” Forbes, December 12, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2017/11/08/amazon-whole-foods-deal-future-of-instacart-grocery-delivery/.

28 Ruth Reader, “Instacart is Thinking About a Self-Checkout System, Patent Reveals,” Fast Company, March 8, 2018, https://www.fastcompany.com/40541370/instacart-is-thinking-about-a-self-checkout-system-patent-reveals.

29 Jessica Galang, “Instacart Acquires Toronto-Based Unata to Build More Online Grocery Solutions,” Betakit, January 16, 2018, https://betakit.com/instacart-acquires-toronto-based-unata-to-build-more-online-grocery-solutions/.

30 Carson, “The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal.”

31 Reader, “Instacart is Thinking.”

11. A Fashion Industry Refit

1 Abha Bhattarai, “‘Retail Apocalypse’ Now: Analysts Say 75,000 More U.S. Stores Could Be Doomed,” the Washington Post, April 10, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/10/retail-apocalypse-now-analysts-say-more-us-stores-could-be-doomed/.

2 MarketWatch, “Stitch Fix Fumbles IPO Despite Strong Underlying Business,” November 20, 2017, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stitch-fix-fumbles-ipo-despite-strong-underlying-business-2017-11-17.

3 Lara Ewen, “Why Retailers are Going All In on Subscription Services,”Retail Dive, July 17, 2017, https://www.retaildive.com/news/why-retailers-are-going-all-in-on-subscription-services/445971/.

4 Katy Steinmetz, “Stitch Fix Has One of Silicon Valley’s Few Female CEOs. But the Company Stands Out for More than That,” Time, May 3, 2018, https://time.com/5264160/stitch-fix-has-one-of-silicon-valleys-few-female-ceos/.

5 Ashley Turner, “Stitch Fix Spikes After Beating Earnings and Revenue Expectations,” CNBC, June 5, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/05/stich-fix-q3-2019-earnings.html; David Marino-Nachison, “Stitch Fix: The Path to Doubled Profit Margins,” Barron’s, July 10, 2018, https://www.barrons.com/articles/stitch-fix-the-path-to-doubled-profit-margins-1531239413.

6 Minda Zetlin, “Stitch Fix Founder Katrina Lake was Coerced into Silence Over VC Justin Caldbeck’s Sexual Harassment,” Inc., July 2, 2017, https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/stitch-fix-founder-had-to-choose-between-speaking-.html; Kara Swisher and Jason Del Rey, “Stitch Fix’s CEO Complained About The Behavior Of Embattled Investor Justin Caldbeck Years Ago,” Recode, June 27, 2017, https://www.vox.com/2017/6/27/15880434/stitch-fix-ceo-justin-caldbeck-complaint-katrina-lake-sexual-harassment.

7 Katrina Lake interview by Guy Raz, “Stitch Fix: Katrina Lake,” in How I Built This with Guy Raz, podcast, April 2, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/598302861/stitch-fix-katrina-lake.

8 Chris George, interview by author, 2018.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Shawn Gold, “2% of Our Customers Really Hate Us,” Medium,May 31, 2016, https://medium.com/@shawngold/2-of-ur-customers-really-hate-us-6ac201bc25ac.

12 Sam Biddle, “The Biggest Scam in Online Fashion,” ValleyWag, September 27, 2013, valleywag.gawker.com/the-biggest-scam-in-online-fashion-1410935207; Sapna Maheshwari, “The Dark, Scammy History Of JustFab And Fabletics,” BuzzFeed, September 24, 2015, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sapna/justfab-the-billion-dollar-startup-with-a-dark-past.

13 Rebecca Greenfield, “Inside Rent the Runway’s Secret Dry-Cleaning Empire,” Fast Company, October 28, 2014, https://www.fastcompany.com/3036876/inside-rent-the-runways-secret-dry-cleaning-empire.

14 Nathalie Remy, Eveline Speelman, and Steven Swartz, “Style That’s Sustainable: A New Fast-Fashion Formula,” McKinsey & Co., October 2016, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/style-thats-sustainable-a-new-fast-fashion-formula.

15 Sarah Perez, “Gwynnie Bee is Bringing Subscription Clothing Rental to Traditional Retailers with Launch of ‘CaaStle,’” TechCrunch, March 22, 2018, https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/22/gwynnie-bee-is-bringing-subscription-clothing-rental-to-traditional-retailers-with-launch-of-caastle/.

12. Bricks and Bytes—Online Hits the Streets

1 Keiko Morris and Eliot Brown, “WeWork Surpasses JPMorgan as Biggest Occupier of Manhattan Office Space,” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-surpasses-jpmorgan-as-biggest-occupier-of-manhattan-office-space-1537268401.

2 Maya Kosoff, “How WeWork Became the Most Valuable Startup in New York City,” Business Insider, October 22, 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/the-founding-story-of-wework-2015-10.

3 Angela Moon, “Wework Gets $2 Billion after Softbank Cuts Planned Investment,” January 8, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wework-m-a-softbank/wework-gets-2-billion-after-softbank-cuts-planned-investment-idUSKCN1P21OH; Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell, and Anupreeta Das, “WeWork Co-Founder Has Cashed Out at Least $700 Million Via Sales, Loans,” July 18, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-co-founder-has-cashed-out-at-least-700-million-from-the-company-11563481395; https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-16/wework-is-said-to-likely-delay-ipo-after-valuation-plummets.

4 Eliot Brown, “How Adam Neumann’s Over-the-Top Style Built WeWork. ‘This Is Not the Way Everybody Behaves,’” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-is-not-the-way-everybody-behaves-how-adam-neumanns-over-the-top-style-built-wework-11568823827.

5 Kate Clark, “WeWork CEO Adam Neumann Steps Down,” TechCrunch, September 24, 2019, https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/24/report-weworks-adam-neumann-to-step-down-as-ceo/.

6 Herbert Lash, “WeWork’s Starry Valuation Dazzles Landlords, Reaffirms Doubters,” Reuters, May 10, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-property-wework-value/weworks-starry-valuation-dazzles-landlords-reaffirms-doubters-idUSKCN1SG1VD; Konrad Putzier, “WeWork’s Mounting Lease Debt Looms Over IPO Plans,” Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/weworks-mounting-lease-debt-looms-over-ipo-plans-11560855601.

7 Troy Wolverton, “WeWork is Setting up a $2.9 Billion Fund to Buy Buildings that It Will Lease To Itself,” Business Insider, May 15, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-ark-fund-to-buy-commerical-properties-2019-5.

8 “WeWork Economic Impact Report,” WeWork Newsroom, press release, May 8, 2018, https://www.wework.com/newsroom/posts/2018-wework-economic-impact-report.

9 Matthew Yglesias, “The Controversy over WeWork’s $47 billion Valuation and Impending IPO, Explained,” Recode, May 24, 2019, https://www.vox.com/2019/5/24/18630126/wework-valuation-ipo-business-model-we-company.

10 Ainsley Harris, “Is WeWork Worth $40 billion or $3 billion?” Fast Company, July 3, 2018, https://www.fastcompany.com/90179736/is-wework-worth-40-billion-or-3-billion; Jacqui Frank, “Scott Galloway: WeWork is Arguably the Most Overvalued Company in the World,” Business Insider, May 15, 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/scott-galloway-wework-overvalued-company-world-2017-5.

11 Stephanie Neal and Richard Wellins, “Generation X—Not Millennials—is Changing the Nature of Work,” CNBC, April 11, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/generation-x--not-millennials--is-changing-the-nature-of-work.html.

12 “WeWork Co-founder Pushed Aside in $5B SoftBank Takeover,” CBC, October 23, 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/wework-softbank-takeover-2qqqq1.5332147.

Conclusion

1 Andria Cheng, “The Subscription Box Industry is Getting More Crowded than Ever,” Forbes, May 30 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2018/05/30/the-subscription-box-industry-is-getting-more-crowded-than-ever/; Ashwin Ramasamy, “How Big is the Global Subscription Box Industry?,” Hackernoon, April 18, 2018, https://hackernoon.com/how-big-is-the-global-subscription-box-industry-4b8dcb756937.

2 Adam Levinter and Jesse Horwitz, “47: Hubble Contacts—Changing the Culture of Contact Lenses,” March 27, 2019, in E2: Entrepreneurs Exposed, hosted by Adam Levinter, podcast, http://entrepreneursexposed.libsyn.com/47-hubble-contacts-changing-the-culture-of-contact-lenses.

3 Jessica Dumont, “Instacart Slashes Membership and Delivery Fees,” Grocery Dive, Nov. 28, 2018, https://www.grocerydive.com/news/instacart-slashes-membership-and-delivery-fees/543180/.

4 Daphne Howland, “Restoration Hardware Declares Membership Model ‘a Success,’” Retail Dive, March 29, 2018, https://www.retaildive.com/news/restoration-hardware-declares-membership-model-a-success/520274/.

5 David Feldman, “Loyalty Myths: Is Breakage Good?” Medium,March 15, 2017, https://medium.com/@dfcatch/loyalty-myths-is-breakage-good-873950da26dc.

6 Brian Dumaine, “It Might Get Loud: Inside Silicon Valley’s Battle to Own Voice Tech,” Fortune, October 24, 2018, https://fortune.com/longform/amazon-google-apple-voice-recognition/amp/.