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At dinner last night with a VC, company sizes came up. One of the most appealing business models, which I shared is DNVB's(1). For example, NATIVE, the deodora

At dinner last night with a VC, company sizes came up. One of the most appealing business models, which I shared is DNVB's(1). For example, NATIVE, the deodorant brand I use. Had four employees, 1m customers, in business for 2.5 years and just sold for $100m to P&G(2). Yes please. (1) https://medium.com/@dunn/the-future-of-brands-6682841bd4 https://medium.com/@dunn/the-future-of-brands-6682841bd4 (2) https://www.racked.com/2018/1/19/16905724/natural-deodorant-schmidts-native https://www.racked.com/2018/1/19/16905724/natural-deodorant-...

daxorid 9y ago
Interesting. My primary business happens to be a (bootstrapped) DNVB with comparable customer count. And despite stories such as Bonobos, etc, we have seen virtually zero interest from outside investors. I suspect your contention is accurate only for founders who are previously "connected" to the Silicon Valley world.
- TaylorGood 9y ago
  As mentioned above, the anecdote Native received funding I was also unaware of. However, you could continue to scale and be just as appealing for M&A. What’s your DNVB angle? Proctor and Gamble isn’t quite “inner valley”
  - daxorid 9y ago
    Without going into too much detail, it's men's apparel and accessories - primarily accessories. Yes, P&G isn't SV. I meant more that the founding team was already pre-connected to the VC world, possibly through law school connections. They had already raised prior to P&G noticing them in the first place, and very likely leveraged those connections for an introduction to P&G. DNVB businesses whose founding or management teams have no such connections is not in a position to even meet such people, let alone attract interest from them. Hence, we quietly bootstrap and slowly build our businesses away from any serious equity funding opportunities.
shanghaiaway 9y ago
4 employees, 4 years ago, before they got their investor that scaled up and sold the business. They actually had 100s of employees at the time of sale.
- TaylorGood 9y ago
  Thank you.. didn’t question the fact as their packages come from an outsourced fulfillment center. To take it a step further, the formulas were likely done in a lab not their own, potentially using third party bookkeeping and what’s left? Customer service and marketing which both can be outsourced as well.

daxorid 9y ago

Interesting. My primary business happens to be a (bootstrapped) DNVB with comparable customer count. And despite stories such as Bonobos, etc, we have seen virtually zero interest from outside investors. I suspect your contention is accurate only for founders who are previously "connected" to the Silicon Valley world.

TaylorGood 9y ago
As mentioned above, the anecdote Native received funding I was also unaware of. However, you could continue to scale and be just as appealing for M&A. What’s your DNVB angle? Proctor and Gamble isn’t quite “inner valley”
- daxorid 9y ago
  Without going into too much detail, it's men's apparel and accessories - primarily accessories. Yes, P&G isn't SV. I meant more that the founding team was already pre-connected to the VC world, possibly through law school connections. They had already raised prior to P&G noticing them in the first place, and very likely leveraged those connections for an introduction to P&G. DNVB businesses whose founding or management teams have no such connections is not in a position to even meet such people, let alone attract interest from them. Hence, we quietly bootstrap and slowly build our businesses away from any serious equity funding opportunities.

shanghaiaway 9y ago

4 employees, 4 years ago, before they got their investor that scaled up and sold the business. They actually had 100s of employees at the time of sale.

TaylorGood 9y ago
Thank you.. didn’t question the fact as their packages come from an outsourced fulfillment center. To take it a step further, the formulas were likely done in a lab not their own, potentially using third party bookkeeping and what’s left? Customer service and marketing which both can be outsourced as well.