2PM - No. 378: On The Glossier Mafia

Welcome to the world of the Glossier mafia

Digitally Native / Glossy:  With Melanie Masarin's Ghia brand of non-alcohol aspertif and high demand and Morgan Von Steen affecting positive change with Supersystem.us, there is a validity to this article that I didn't anticipate. Glossier employees have gone on to build Nécessaire, Arfa, and Ojook. Meanwhile head of Comms (and 2PM Executive Member) Ashley Mayer is making waves as an early stage angel investor. She recently signed as Verified Scout of Indie.vc. In short, Glossier Mafia's impact may not be as widely known as Warby Parker's alumni cohort but - at this rate - it may be more meaningful in the long run. 

Take a glance around the beauty landscape today, and it won’t take long to spot a former Glossier employee running or playing a role with one of the industry’s newer brands. It appears (and not surprisingly) that the name carries quite a weight for alumni after they move on from the company.

Additionally, this is what Ghia founder Melanie Masarin shared with 2PM: "My time at Glossier left me with a lasting mindset to use every possible moment to surprise and delight the customer, and build a culture where being your most creative is appreciated and encouraged."

2PM Data: Most popular DTC brands on social media by social media content actions

Browsing eCommerce: An untapped $250B+ opportunity

eCommerce / Vivek Goyal: Current leaders, Amazon, Alibaba or JD, are mostly search based — users know what they want, they search for it on the app, and find the product within the first scroll. Browsing eCommerce is a model where users come with the intent of having fun, much like going to a shopping mall, browse for products and end up buying things if they like. What Amazon is to buying, browsing eCommerce is to shopping.

Editor's Note: for some reason the author included Verishop but not Instagram when referring to platforms that excelled at cart functionality and entertainment. 

Where do social media influencers go to sell to their fans?

Linear Commerce / The Logic: Like celebrities of every era, social media stars are lending their image and following to products via endorsements and collaborations. But a growing cohort of content creators are launching their own beauty and apparel lines, enabled by third-party vendors and managers handling tasks from design to fulfillment. And many are doing it on Shopify, the eCommerce firm driving a cross-category explosion of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands.

Why skincare brand Topicals uses Twitter as a growth engine

DTC / Modern Retail: At a time when much of the focus is on the new and more controversial of social media platforms, DTC brand Topicals is leaning into the conversative and lessonary nature of Twitter as a tool for its growth strategy. It’s a different look, but it makes a ton of sense given their subject matter and the general lack of depthful knowledge surrounding it.

Editor's Note: Cheers to Executive Member Olamide Olowe for this feature on her Lerer-backed cosmetics brand.

Allbirds wants people to understand their sneakers' carbon footprint like they do calories in food

DTC / CNBC: The news raises the conversation around whether or not DTC brands are well-advised to reach such skyhigh valuations, and the purpose of venture capital. Allbirds was profitable at the time the pandemic hit, according to the WSJ. But without a network of wholesale partners – Allbirds briefly sold a limited selection of inventory in Nordstrom stores but has otherwise stayed clear of third-party retail – a relatively niche retailer will need to expand aggressively in order to meet the demands of such a valuation. Earlier this year, the brand rolled out a running shoe, placing it in the category of competitors to sports brands like Nike and Asic for the first time. How it will compete is an altogether different question. 

Part of the solution may lie in telling the story better, and earlier this month Allbirds published a video featuring comedian Bret McKenzie explaining that emissions are pretty similar to calories. As he says: “The higher the number, the more work we have to do to cancel it out,” and to that point, Allbirds is publishing the carbon footprint of all of its products.

Allbirds' funding on the DTC Power List has been updated (2PM). Their position is unchanged. 

How not to be a boring direct-to-consumer brand

DTC Brands / Business of Fashion (paywall): [Web] Smith sees blanding as the product of a “DTC industrial complex” of companies “founded by a well-connected New Yorker or Los Angeles [resident] that raises money relatively easily and has easy access to branding.” More recently, a more diverse group of founders have launched brands that pull from a different set of references. Sterile minimalism is just one more thing to rebel against. [...]  Smith, of 2PM, said companies need to focus on creating standout products rather than on their branding, especially now that giant corporations are creating sub-brands that look exactly like their DTC competitors.

Editor's Note: I don't usually post paywalled articles but this one is the type of report that makes the BoF subscription worth it. This was a great continuation of our Member Report: Brands Beating Bland

Many of today’s processes are inverted. This is the basis of a scathing piece by Bloomberg Opinion that posed the question: “Why do disruptive startups slavishly follow an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone of voice?” 

Read More [2PM Members]

The mask barons of Etsy

eCommerce / The Verge: Between April and June, shoppers purchased $346 million worth of masks from Etsy stores, more than 5 percent of which would be pocketed by Etsy itself. It was an enormous surge for the site. Masks accounted for more than one out of every 10 dollars spent on the platform that quarter. For sellers, it was also a huge opportunity: a lucrative new market that existing shops hadn’t cornered. There was money to be made for anyone who wanted it — and for those who already knew the ins and outs of manufacturing, there was a lot of it.

The new localism

Sociology / Ana Andjelic: Once commonplace, then anomaly at the time of mass brands, personal relationships in food retail are making a comeback. There is a new wave of food companies (and influencers) who are building their business around wanting you to know who they are, where they come from, and what they are about. They want to know the same about you.

Snapchat is pitching high-frequency, high-reach 'Platform Burst' ad campaigns

Media / Digiday: Snapchat is making new promises to those who utilize their service to execute ad campaigns. It’s called ‘Platform Burst’, and the focus is on frequency. The media buy is being suggested as a great tool for targeting around launch days, and some believe that there is territory to be won amongst advertisers looking to shift from TV to digital.

Worried about more shortages, grocery stores are stockpiling goods

Supply Chain / CNN Business: Grocery stores across the United States are stocking up on products to avoid shortages during a second wave of coronavirus. Household products - including paper towels and Clorox wipes - have been difficult to find at times during the pandemic, and if grocery stores aren't stocked up and prepared for the second wave this winter, runs on products and shortages could happen again.

Gearing up for the second wave: 1. Paradoxes and Reading Waves (2PM) 2. When the Dust Settles (2PM)

They did what? I was sitting in the office with a small group of investors when the news crossed the wire: The Chernin Group completed a deal to sell a majority of Barstool Sports to Penn Gaming. The room was astonished. Chernin had taken an ill-advised chance in betting on the controversial media company in a 2016 deal that turned out to be one of the smartest private market media deals in recent history. The irony of the moment was that no one in traditional venture capital would have risked their limited partners’ capital on Dave Portnoy and his band of characters. But quietly, many investors wished they had. The Penn deal didn’t make sense to many in that room. Why so early?

Read it here