Billion Dollar Brand Club

How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy

By: Lawrence Ingrassia

Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins

A leading business journalist takes us inside a business revolution: the upstart brands taking on the empires that long dominated the trillion-dollar consumer economy.

Dollar Shave Club and its hilarious marketing. Casper mattresses popping out of a box. Third Love’s lingerie designed specifically for each woman’s body. Warby Parker mailing you five pairs of glasses to choose from. You’ve seen their ads. You (or someone you know) use their products. Each may appear, in isolation, as a rare David with the bravado to confront a Goliath, but taken together they represent a seismic shift in a business model that has lasted more than a century.

As Lawrence Ingrassia--former business and economics editor and deputy managing editor at the New York Times--shows in this timely and eye-opening book, a growing number of digital entrepreneurs have found new and creative ways to crack the code on the bonanza of physical goods that move through our lives every day. They have discovered that manufacturing, marketing, logistics, and customer service have all been flattened—where there were once walls that protected big brands like Gillette, Sealy, Victoria’s Secret, or Lenscrafters, savvy and hungry innovators now can compete on price, value, quality, speed, convenience, and service.

Billion Dollar Brand Club reveals the world of the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate behemoths battling over this terrain. And what fun it is. It’s a massive, high-stakes business saga animated by the personalities, flashes of insight, and stories behind the stuff we use every day.

Enjoyed it!

Had good examples, focuses a lot on "hip" or trendy brands. It would be great to learn more about the generic consumable brands for comparisons in the direct to consumer markets.

Solid Book on Several Modern Day Case Studies

As a young DTC business owner, I found this book highly informative and relevant. I would recommend

Great book with more than you think

The book starts a little slow and at first it seems like it'll just be a recanting of how Dollar shave Club made it. but it picks up quickly and covers a ton on direct to consumer products branding and much more.

This book is one of my favorites!

This book is one of my favorites. I love the way each business and industry is unfurled/explained. I will read this book again.

It's an okay introduction

For listeners with an advanced skillset in digital marketing and D2C this is of little interest. A lot of the cases are getting a bit old, and it's simplified to the extent on some issues that it's so imprecise it's actually incorrect.

However, as an introduction to the subject it is quite good. Perfect for students and people interested in starting their own company etc.