added by sari · updated 2y ago
How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight
- What had more important ramifications for the company’s future was Santos’ singular focus on press, with nearly all profits — at least in the early days — going to marketing.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- The company also landed a series of high-profile customers — Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine, model Karlie Kloss, and payments startup Venmo — as well as designers like celebrity interiors guru Orlando Soria.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- The company’s unraveling, which was reported by New York magazine, left dozens of designers reeling. At least two were owed more than $30,000, potentially life-altering sums for freelancers.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- The founders openly favored signing up the most physically attractive designers, saying they would be more appealing to clients.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- Santos and Nathan argued about how to use the infusion of cash. Santos wanted much of it to go to marketing; Nathan thought it should go to coders to strengthen the back end. But within six months of the funding announcement, the arguing stopped — Nathan left.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- By employee estimates, 75% of the leadership team that started in 2018 didn’t end 2018 with the company.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- The board likely shares half of the blame, speculates Steve Blank, an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Stanford University. “Where were they?” he asks. “It seems like a toxic combination of a board not paying attention and a first-time founder in crisis.”
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago
- Santos, dark-haired and so striking-looking one website referred to him as “the brains (and beauty)” behind the operation, was the CEO. Nathan, who had a shaved head, sometimes with a beard, was the chairman. They started the company with $400.
from How a Hot $100 Million Design Startup Collapsed Overnight by Courtney Rubin
sari added 3y ago