Billion Dollar Brand Club

“Billion Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy”
by Lawrence Ingrassia
2020/Henry Holt    

$30/272 pages

When Michael Dubin noticed that his friends grumbled about the cost of staying smooth-faced, he began to think of ways to solve that problem. He’s no inventor but knows few things are impossible, so he conceived of the Dollar Shave Club. He cut a video, which led him to someone who believed in him, which led to audiences with venture capitalists, which ultimately changed the way men shave.

Warby Parker likewise went online to disrupt businesses that relied on physical stores to serve the vision needs of customers. Their success wasn’t instant; they had to solve the problems of price, weight and of sampling, but once customers discovered the convenience, Warby Parker’s name became disruptive.

Through the internet, as Lawrence Ingrassia, author of  “Billion Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy,” discovered, any potential entrepreneur can find suppliers to furnish products needed to upend behemoth competitions. Data collection is a clear advantage over almost every old-school method of customer acquisition, and building a relationship with clients is easier than ever online. Says Ingrassia, “The revolution... has just begun.”

As excited as you may be to start reading “Billion Dollar Brand Club,” know that there are no clearly delineated business plans inside this book. Instead, you’ll have to read these various stories and infer a lot. Still, there’s no denying that the stories illustrate not just a new way of doing business, but a much-ignored stream of revenue.