Warby Parker: Dave Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal (2016)

嘿。

Hey.

我是盖伊，我有个冷知识要告诉你。

It's Guy here, and I've got a random bit of trivia for you.

杰克·凯鲁亚克写完《在路上》一年后，又出了第二本书。

So a year after Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road, he came out with a second book.

那本书叫《达摩炸弹》，书里有两个角色，他们的名字后来真的启发了一家公司的命名。

It was called The Dharma Bombs, and two of its characters actually inspired the name of a real life company.

一个角色叫沃比，另一个叫帕克。

One character was Warby and the other was Parker.

那家公司叫什么，我想你应该能猜到。

And the company as well, I think you can guess.

这一集里我们会详细聊聊这件事，还有更多内容，这集最早是在2016年播出的。

And we're gonna hear all about that and a lot more on this episode, which originally ran back in 2016.

我们当时没告诉任何人网站已经上线了。

We hadn't told anyone that the site was live.

我们不想给网站引流量，因为我们不确定它能不能行。

We didn't wanna drive any traffic to it because we weren't sure it would work.

所以

So

我接到一个订单，然后十分钟后又来一个订单，接着又一个，再来一个。

I get an order, and then ten minutes later, we get another order, and then another order and then another order.

我们一下子从兴奋的感觉变成了，哎呀，糟糕。

And we kind of go from this feeling of elatement to, oh, crap.

我们没那么多库存。

We we don't have this much inventory.

这里是NPR的《How I Built This》，一档关于创新者、企业家、理想主义者以及他们背后运动故事的节目。

From NPR, it's how I built this, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

我是Guy Raz，今天节目中，Warby Parker的两位创始人讲述了他们如何孕育出一个想法，这个想法颠覆了整个美国眼镜行业，并发展成一家价值十亿美元的公司。

I'm Guy Raz, and on today's show, two of the founders of Warby Parker tell the story of how they birthed an idea, an idea that disrupted the entire eyeglass industry in America and grew into a billion dollar company.

回到2008年，Neil Blumenthal和Dave Gilboa都来到了宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的校园。

So back in 2008, Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa both arrived on the campus of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

他们去那里是为了上商学院。

They were there to start business school.

他们彼此认识，还认识了另外两个学生，安迪·亨特和杰夫·雷德，这四个人后来一起创立了沃比·帕克。

And they met each other and two other students, Andy Hunt and Jeff Raider, and the four of them would go on to cofound Warby Parker.

但在2008年，那时候他们还不知道这一点。

But in 2008, at that time, they didn't know that yet.

他们都知道的，也是他们共同的一点是，他们对眼镜的运作方式感到非常沮丧。

What they did know and something that they all had in common was they were really frustrated with how eyeglasses worked.

而这源于一件大多数人可能都经历过的事情。

And it stemmed from this thing that, well, most people have probably experienced at some point.

他们老是丢眼镜。

They kept losing their glasses.

事实上，戴夫在开始上商学院之前，不小心把眼镜落在了飞机上。

And Dave, in fact, right before he started business school, had accidentally left his glasses on an airplane.

那副眼镜花了我700美元，作为一个全职学生，我实在没法接受再花那么多钱买一副新眼镜。

And they'd cost me $700, and, I just couldn't justify as a full time student paying that much for a new pair of glasses.

当时新出的iPhone 3G，我在苹果店排队买，花了200美元，它能干各种神奇的事情。

The new iPhone three g had come out that weighed in line at the Apple Store, paid $200 for, and it did all these magical things.

而眼镜背后的技术都800年了，这完全说不通啊。

And meanwhile, the technology behind a pair of glasses is 800 years old, and it just didn't make sense.

然后你就想，好吧。

And what you're like, okay.

我手里有这部超棒的iPhone，这个通往人类所有知识的神奇入口，而且它才……

I've got this this amazing iPhone, this magical portal to all of human knowledge, and it's...

才花了我200美元，可这些塑料做的眼镜却贵得要命。

It cost me $200, and yet these eyeglasses made out of plastic are, like, super expensive.

所以，是的，我跟所有愿意听的人抱怨，为什么眼镜这么贵。

So, yeah, I was complaining to anyone that would listen about why glasses were so expensive.

然后Andy老是丢眼镜，他什么东西都在网上买，但就是想不通为什么不能在网上买新眼镜，为什么没人好好在网上卖眼镜。

And then Andy kept losing his glasses, and he was buying everything online but couldn't figure out why he couldn't buy new glasses online and why no one was effectively selling glasses online.

因为什么……

Because what...

我是说，那是2008年，而且，到那个时候，网上卖东西其实还不算什么新鲜事。

I mean, this is, 2008, and, I mean, by that point, it wasn't, you know, like, selling things online.

那还是个全新的概念。

Was just a brand new idea.

所以我们就开始聊起来，对眼镜行业的各种问题都挺不满的。

And so we kind of started this conversation where we were kind of frustrated by different pieces of the eyewear industry.

我们知道尼尔在眼镜非营利组织工作了好几年，可能比我们懂得多得多。

And we knew that Neil had spent a number of years, working for an eyewear nonprofit and and probably knew a lot more about this than we did.

有一天我们在电脑实验室，就开始问尼尔一堆问题。

And so we were on the computer lab one day, and, we started asking Neil a bunch of questions.

没有双关的意思，但我觉得我们都眼前一亮，发现这真是个巨大的机会。

And no pun intended, but I think all our eyes, were open that there was this massive opportunity.

尼尔，你还记得在电脑实验室的那次会面吗？

What do you remember about that meeting in the computer lab, Neil?

他们当时都问了你些什么？

What, like, what were they asking you?

当时的问题就是，为什么眼镜这么贵？

It was sort of like, why are glasses so expensive?

我在那个非营利组织Vision Spring工作的时候，其实设计过眼镜，还会去工厂生产这些眼镜。

And when I was working at that nonprofit Vision Spring, I had actually designed eyewear, and I would go to the factories to produce these glasses.

所以我对眼镜行业有点了解，这个行业被几家大公司垄断了。

And so I knew a little bit about the optical industry, and it's dominated by a few very large companies.

其中一家就是陆逊梯卡。

One of which is Luxottica.

陆逊梯卡的市值大约300亿美元，他们拥有奥克利、雷朋、奥利弗·皮普尔斯、帕索和阿内特这些品牌。

Luxottica has a market cap of about $30,000,000,000 They own Oakley, Ray Ban, Oliver Peoples, Persol and Arnett.

他们还授权几乎所有大牌时尚品牌，比如拉夫·劳伦、香奈儿、普拉达和杜嘉班纳。

They license almost every major fashion brand under the sun, like Ralph Lauren and Chanel and Prada and Dolce and Gabbana.

他们还拥有很多大型零售连锁店，比如亮视点、珍珠眼镜和太阳镜。

They also own a lot of the major retail chains like LensCrafters and Pearl Vision and Sunglass.

一家公司拥有所有这些？

One company owns all those things?

这太疯狂了。

It's crazy.

还有西尔斯光学、目标光学。

Sears Optical, Target Optical.

哇。

Wow.

所以你去眼镜店的时候，那些品牌，像Persol、雷朋这些，其实都是同一家公司旗下的？

So when you go to, like, a glasses store and all those brands, Persol and Ray Ban and all these, it's all owned by the same company?

都是同一家公司的。

All owned by the same company.

他们还拥有全国第二大视力保险计划，叫EyeMed。

And they own the second largest vision insurance plan in the country, EyeMed.

所以你走进亮视点，你根本不会意识到他们店里大部分镜框都是自己生产的，而你用的视力保险也是同一家公司的。

So you walk into a LensCrafters, you don't realize that most of their selection are frames that they've made, and the vision insurance that you're using is also the same company.

所以你早就知道这些了。

So you knew this.

没错。

Exactly.

所以我们当时就想，哦，这下就明白为什么眼镜这么贵了。

So we just thought like, oh, well, now it's a lot clearer why glasses are so expensive.

然后我们就想，那为什么不干脆卖眼镜呢？

So we thought, oh, why not sell glasses?

我们几个一下子都灵光一现。

And the light bulbs went off in all of our minds.

然后那天晚上晚些时候……

And then later that night...

就是那种，你有个特别兴奋的想法或者感觉，激动得都睡不着觉。

Like, you know when you have a feeling or just an idea you're so excited about, you actually have trouble sleeping.

不会……

Doesn't...

你会……

You get...

脑子里一直想着这事儿。

Can't get it out of your head.

对。

Exactly.

就是那种感觉。

It was that feeling.

我记得大概是凌晨两点，我发了封邮件。

And I think it was, like, two in the morning and shot off an email.

然后大概两点零一分，戴夫就回了。

And then at, like, 02:01, Dave responded.

两点零二分，杰夫也回了。

And 02:02, Jeff responded.

安迪也回了。

And Andy responded.

我们大家都没睡，都在琢磨这事儿。

And, like, we were all up thinking about this.

所以第二天，我们就决定，嘿。

So then next day, we decide, hey.

下课后，大家聚一聚吧。

After class, let's all get together.

我们真的就在23街和核桃街拐角的一家酒吧坐了下来。

We actually sat down at a bar right on 23rd And Walnut.

喝着啤酒，我们继续讨论这件事，然后我们说，嘿。

And over a beer, we're discussing this more, and we said, hey.

我们要不要做这个？

Like, should we do this?

我们真的要全力以赴吗？

Like, we really go after this?

然后我们大家都说，对。

And we all sort of said, yeah.

好的。

Okay.

所以你们在商学院，然后你们想，好吧。

So you guys are are are in business school, and you're thinking, okay.

咱们干吧。

Let's do this.

那当时你们是怎么做的呢？

So, I mean, at that point, what did you do?

比如，你们有没有写商业计划书？

Like, did you, like, write a business plan?

你们开始找资金了吗？

Did you start looking for money?

你知道，我觉得我们所有人都聊过对这个想法有多兴奋，然后我们说，我们来商学院就是为了学怎么经营企业。

So, you know, I think all of us, we talked about how excited we were about this idea, and we said, well, we're at business school to learn how to run a business.

还有什么比亲自创办一家公司更好的方式呢？

What better way than to actually build one ourselves?

所以我们决定一起上一门创业课，那门课的成果就是一份完整的商业计划书。

So we all decided to take the same class, an entrepreneurship class, where the output of that class is a full business plan.

所以接下来的几个星期，我们真的深入研究了创意的每一个方面，从教授那里得到了很多宝贵的见解，做了很多调查，还在不同的眼镜店站了好几个小时。

And, so we spent the next several weeks really researching every element of our idea, getting a bunch of great insights from professors, running a bunch of surveys, standing for hours in different optical shops.

最后，我们完成了一份大约40页的商业计划书。

And then that culminated in essentially a 40 page business plan.

我们参加了沃顿商学院的商业计划竞赛，但在半决赛中被淘汰了。

We entered the Wharton business plan competition, and we got eliminated in in the semifinal round.

我觉得这让我们有点不服气，心里想，好吧。

I think just kinda put a chip on our shoulder where we said, okay.

现在我们有东西要证明了。

Well, now we got something to prove.

那时候，我们真的觉得这个计划一定会成功。

And at that point, we felt really passionate that that this was gonna work.

那时候，你们是不是……

And and at that point, you're...

我是说，你们还在纸上谈兵。

I mean, you guys were still working off of paper.

我是说，你们当时应该还没有任何资金吧。

I mean, you you still did not have any money, I'm assuming.

你们也没有产品。

You didn't have a product.

也没有制造商。

You didn't have a manufacturer.

那你们为什么那么有信心？

So why were you guys so confident?

比如，你们是怎么测试这个想法的？

Like, how were you even able to test the idea?

你知道，我们跟所有愿意给我们五分钟的人聊了这个想法。

You know, we we talked to everyone that would give us five minutes just about the idea.

一开始，我们收到了很多反对意见，他们说，在网上买眼镜这个想法对我来说有点奇怪。

Initially, we got a bunch of pushback that said, well, the idea of buying glasses online is kind of strange to me.

比如，是谁跟你们这么说的？

Like, who who was saying that to you?

基本上，都是我们的朋友和同学。

Basically, all our friends and classmates.

而且很多人告诉我们，创建一个品牌已经够难了，创建一个电商网站也一样难。

And a lot of people told us that creating a brand is hard enough, so is creating an an e commerce site.

你应该选其中一个来做。

You should pick one of those.

但对我们来说，妙处在于打造一个垂直整合的品牌。

But for us, the magic was in creating a vertically integrated brand.

所以我们专注于解决一个问题：必须找到一种让人们试戴眼镜的方法。

So we honed in on this issue that we had to figure out a way people could try on glasses.

因为人们说，没人会在网上买眼镜，因为你得摸到它们。

Because people were saying nobody's gonna buy glasses online because you've gotta touch them.

你得感受它们。

You gotta feel them.

没错。

Exactly.

然后呢，

And then

那真是一个自我怀疑的时刻。

it's a real moment of self doubt.

这些旅程总是会让人觉得自己像个彻头彻尾的傻瓜。

These journeys are always these moments where you feel like a complete idiot.

而这就是那种让我们真正质疑自己的挑战之一：我们是应该继续在这上面花时间，还是去做学校里其他一百万件可以做的事情？

And this was, like, one of those challenges that really made us question, should we continue to spend time on this versus the million other things that we could be doing at school?

那么，你们是怎么解决这个问题的呢？就是人们觉得必须亲手摸到眼镜才能试戴。

So how did you think you could get over this problem of of people, you know, thinking they needed to touch them to try them on?

所以我们一直在想，怎么才能消除购买过程中的每一个障碍。

So we just thought a lot about how do we remove every obstacle to purchasing.

我们的想法是，如果我们提供免费送货，那就会鼓励人们购买。

And the thought was, well, if we offer free shipping, that will encourage people to buy.

如果我们提供免费退货，那也会降低顾客的风险。

If we offer free returns, that will also make it less risky for our customers.

这让我们想到了另一个主意，就是在家试戴计划。

And that's sort of led us to this other idea to do a home try on program.

所以你们决定，把这些镜框寄给人们。

So you guys decide, let's send these frames to people.

让他们在家试戴。

Let them try them on at home.

如果他们喜欢，就寄回来，我们装上镜片，就这样。

And if they like them, they just send them back, we'll put the lenses in, and that's it.

你们有没有……

Did you guys have...

我的意思是，在构思这个想法的时候，你们还预料到其他问题吗？

I mean, were there any other problems that you had anticipated as you were thinking through this idea?

我觉得另一个问题是，我们卖的产品通常要几百美元，而我们卖不到一百美元。

I think the other element was that we were trying to sell a product that normally costs several $100, and we were selling it for less than $100.

所以人们自然会对质量产生怀疑。

And so there was inherent skepticism about the quality.

所以我们说，那怎么才能让尽可能多的人戴上我们的眼镜呢？

And so we said, well, how do we just get as many of our glasses on people's faces as possible?

就在那时，我们灵光一现，想到了在家试戴这个项目，当时真的没有哪家公司提供这个服务。

And that's when kind of this light bulb went off for the home try on program, which really no no company was offering until that time.

我们说，我们就是想让人们戴上我们的产品，我们觉得之后他们会买的。

And we said, we just wanna get our product on people's faces, and we think people will buy afterwards.

所以你们想让你们的眼镜明显比竞争对手便宜，甚至不到一百美元。

So so so you guys wanted your glasses to, obviously, to be much cheaper than the competition's, like, even less than a $100.

那你们是怎么确定具体价格的呢？

How how did you decide on the exact price?

我们最初的想法是把眼镜卖到45美元。

Our initial thought was to sell glasses for $45.

我们记得走进沃顿商学院市场营销系主任的办公室，坐在他旁边，把演示文稿放在他桌上，说，嘿。

And we remember going into the head of the marketing department's office at Wharton, and we sit next to him, slide the deck on his desk, and say, hey.

我们要改变眼镜行业。

We're gonna transform the optical industry.

我们要把一副500美元的眼镜卖到45美元。

We're gonna charge $45 for a $500 pair of glasses.

他当时就笑了笑，说，不可能。

And he kinda just laughed at us and said, no way.

这行不通。

It won't work.

我们当时就想，等等。

And we're like, wait.

你连我们的方案都没看吧。

You didn't even, like, read our deck.

你看，每张图表都是往上走的。

Like, every graph goes up into the right.

他说，不好意思，各位。

And he said, I'm sorry, guys.

首先，价格是品质最重要的指标，而且你说要把产品卖到原价的十分之一，这简直让人难以置信。

Like, first of all, price is the biggest indicator of quality, and it's just outside of the realm of believability that you can sell a product for a tenth of its price.

所以我们走出那次会议时挺沮丧的，但这促使我们进一步研究定价。

So we walked out of this meeting pretty deflated, but it led us to investigate pricing a little further.

结果我们发现，没错，价格确实是质量的指标。

And it showed us that, yes, price is indicator of quality.

100美元左右有一个心理门槛。

There's a psychological barrier around a $100.

所以当时有个想法是，我们是不是该定价99美元？

So one thought was, should we charge $99?

但我们觉得那样显得太廉价、太掉价了，因为我们想打造一个让人向往的品牌。

And we felt that was too discounting and cheap, and we were building an aspirational brand.

所以最后我们凭直觉定了95美元，觉得这个价格听起来不便宜，而且看起来是经过深思熟虑的，视觉上也挺好看。

So we actually settled on $95 using just our instinct thinking that this doesn't sound cheap and that it looks deliberate and visually looks decent.

你们是怎么想出这个名字的？

How did you guys come up with a name?

因为听起来有点像……

Because it sounds like like a...

就像英国诺森伯兰郡的贵族，或者像Warby Parker那样。

An aristocrat from, like, you know, Northumberland in England or something like Warby Parker.

我们经常开玩笑说，早期最难的事情就是选一个我们四个人都喜欢的名字。

We often joke that the the hardest thing that we did in those early days was settle on a name that all four of us liked.

我想我们还留着那个有2000多个名字的表格，都是在我们那些非常有耐心的朋友身上测试的。

I think we still have our spreadsheet of over 2,000 names that we tested on our very patient friends.

两个早期的杰克·凯鲁亚克笔下的人物，是戴夫在纽约公共图书馆的凯鲁亚克展览上发现的，其中两个人物是Warby Pepper和Zag Parker。

Two early Jack Kerouac characters that Dave actually discovered when he went to New York Public Library exhibit on Kerouac, and two of the characters were Warby Pepper and Zag Parker.

所以你们的名字就是这么来的。

And that's how you got the name.

然后你们就……

And that's how you...

现在每个加入Warby Parker的人，第一天上班时，桌上都会放一本《达摩流浪者》，还有其他一些小礼物。

And now everybody that, joins Warby Parker on their first day on their desk, they get a a copy of Darma Bums along with a few other goodies.

这就是Warby Parker的尼尔·布卢门撒尔。

That's Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker.

休息之后，尼尔和联合创始人戴夫·吉尔博将谈谈如何把那个深思熟虑的商业计划从纸上搬到现实世界。

After the break, Neil and cofounder Dave Gilboa will talk about moving that well thought out business plan off of paper and into the real world.

我是盖伊·拉兹，你正在收听NPR的《我是如何打造这个的》。

I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to how I built this from NPR.

嘿。

Hey.

欢迎回到NPR的《我是如何打造这个的》。

Welcome back to how I built this from NPR.

我是盖伊·拉兹。

I'm Guy Raz.

今天节目里，我们请到了尼尔·布卢门撒尔和戴夫·吉尔博，他们是沃比·帕克的两位创始人。

And today on the show, we've got Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, two of the founders of Warby Parker.

上次我们讲到，他们想出了这个主意，并且仔细考虑过。

So when we left off, they had come up with this idea, and they thought it through.

现在剩下的就是执行了。

And now the only thing left was to execute.

你们最初筹集了多少钱来创办这家公司，是怎么做到的？

How much money did you guys raise initially to to to launch this company, and how did you do it?

商学院的好处在于，大多数人都是工作几年后才回去读书的。

So the nice thing about business school is that most people work for a few years before going back to school.

所以我们四个人把上学前工作攒下的积蓄都拿出来，投进了这家公司。

And so collectively, the four of us took our life savings from when we were working before school and invested into the business.

我们四个人一共投了十二万美元，让公司起步。

We invested a $120,000 between the four of us to get the business off the ground.

而且，你知道，我们干了一年半，没给自己发过工资。

And, you know, we worked for a year and a half without paying ourselves a salary.

我们连办公室都没有。

We didn't have an office.

我们确实从沃顿商学院拿到了几笔资助，那也帮了不少忙。

We did win a couple of grants from Wharton, so that that helped as well.

但我们当时非常节俭，基本靠自筹资金撑了挺长一段时间，最后我们推出了业务，又过了十五个月才完成了第一轮融资。

But we were very scrappy and very much bootstrapped for quite a while, and we ended up launching the business and then went another fifteen months before we raised our first round of funding.

那你们后来是怎么找到制造商来帮你们做眼镜的？

And so then how did you guys actually find the the manufacturer to make the glasses for you?

我是说，你们有没有……

I mean, did you...

尼尔，你在那家非营利组织工作的时候，有没有认识一些联系人？

Neil, did you have contacts from when you worked at that nonprofit?

我们利用了很多我积累的人脉，然后直接去工厂实地考察。

We leveraged a lot of the relationships that I had, and we went over to visit the factories.

我们还专门准备了一个PPT，因为虽然对方是我们的供应商，但我们还是得让他们相信我们的愿景，让他们觉得我们是认真的，而且确实有能力付款。

We actually prepared a PowerPoint because even though this was gonna be a vendor that we are buying from, right, we had to sell them on our vision and that we were indeed serious and would be able to afford to pay them.

当然，他们大部分款项都是提前收的，所以他们承担的风险不大。

Of course, they took most of the payment upfront, so they didn't assume much risk.

好的。

Okay.

所以你们是付钱买这些镜架的。

So you pay for these frames.

制造商负责生产这些镜框。

The the manufacturer makes them.

那你们拿那些眼镜都做了什么？

And what did you even do with all those glasses?

我记得一箱一箱的镜框被送到我们公寓，那是个有门卫的大楼。

I do remember getting boxes and boxes of these frames shipped to our apartment, and, like, it was a doorman building.

门卫完全不知道该怎么办。

The doorman had no idea what to do.

我们花了几个小时，用电梯一趟趟地把这些箱子搬进公寓，然后堆起来，再拆开，每一副镜框都是我们自己检查的。

It literally took us a couple hours to load, do all these runs in the elevator into, our apartment, then stack all these boxes, and then unpack them, and we ourselves inspected every single frame.

而这一切都是在我们忙着琢磨怎么推出这个产品的时候做的。

And this was all the while we were working to figure out how are we gonna launch this thing.

基本上，为了启动这个生意，我们只投了三样东西。

We basically, to start the business, only invested in three things.

首批库存、我们的网站，还有公关，因为我们知道推出一个品牌只有一次机会。

Our initial inventory, our website, and some PR knowing that you only have one shot to sort of launch a brand.

所以，你们在公司还没成立之前，就已经找了公关公司去宣传造势了？

So so even before you launched the company, you had a publicist going out trying to to drum up publicity for it?

我们当时见了差不多五十家公关公司，一方面是我们去评估他们。

So we had meetings with almost 50 PR firms, and part of it was us evaluating them.

但与此同时，我们也得向这些公关公司推销我们自己，对。

But at the same time, we had to sell ourselves to those PR firms and Yeah.

没错，在时尚圈里，最不吸引人的就是四个沃顿商学院的MBA了。

Right, there's nothing less sexy in the fashion world than four MBAs from Wharton.

我们知道我们大概会在2010年春天推出产品，我们真的很想登上那些顶级杂志，作为认可的标志。

We knew we were gonna launch sometime in the spring of two thousand ten, and we really wanted to be in these premier magazines as a stamp of approval.

所以我们瞄准的目标就是《GQ》和《Vogue》。

So what we were targeting was GQ and Vogue.

我们当时有一些生产样品。

And so we had some production samples.

网站还没上线，但我们一直在向这些杂志推销，希望他们成为我们的独家发布合作伙伴。

We didn't have a website up, but we were really pitching these magazines as exclusive launch partners.

我们当时特别高兴，听说GQ和Vogue要报道我们。

And we were thrilled to hear that GQ and Vogue were gonna run stories.

我们完全不知道那些报道会是什么样，内容会是什么样。

We had no idea what those stories were gonna look like, what the content was gonna look like.

但你们当时完全保密，对吧？

But you guys were totally hushed like this.

我是说，这些大杂志怎么会信任一群连公司都还没有的商学院学生呢？

I mean, why would these huge magazines, like, trust a bunch of business school students who didn't even have a company?

比如，那时候你去看他们的网站，上面什么都没有。

Like, if you went to the website at that point, there was nothing up there.

想想都觉得不可思议，他们居然会这么做。

Like, it's crazy to think that they would have done that.

我……

I...

你知道，我觉得有几件事对我们有利。

You know, I think there were a few things that worked in our favor.

一个是找到了合适的公关人员来帮我们做宣传。

One was identifying the right PR person to help represent us.

但我们常说，公关嘛，我觉得是三分靠人，七分靠内容。

But we often say that PR is, I think, 30% the messenger, 70% the message.

对我们来说，这个内容……

And for us, the message...

这在当时算是挺新颖的。

This was a pretty novel at the time.

当时没有人网上卖眼镜，所以网上卖眼镜这个想法本身就挺新鲜。

There was nobody selling glasses online, so the idea of selling glasses online was novel.

500美元的眼镜卖95美元，这个价格点也挺新颖的。

The $95 price point for $500 glasses was pretty novel.

在家试戴这个项目也很新鲜。

The home try on program was novel.

所以实际上，GQ在文章里还把我们称为眼镜界的Netflix。

So in fact, GQ actually called us the Netflix, of eyewear in the article they they put.

所以我觉得，当时有一些这样的亮点，能让撰稿人和编辑们感到兴奋。

So I think there were, like, these hooks that writers and editors could get excited about.

那这对公司的启动产生了多大的影响呢？

So how much of an impact did that did that have on the launch of the company?

你知道吗，我们当时真的被它在流量和销售方面带来的影响震撼到了。

You know, we we were just blown away by the the impact that it had in terms of traffic and sales.

在GQ杂志上市前一天，我们接到了公关的电话，那时我们网站上还只有一个着陆页。

So we got a call from our publicist the day before GQ was gonna hit newsstands, and we still had a landing page up.

如果你访问warbyparker.com，上面写着“即将上线”。

If you went to warbyparker.com, it said coming soon.

请输入你的邮箱地址。

Please enter your email address.

哦，哇。

Oh, wow.

我说，各位，这是怎么回事？

I said, guys, what's going on here?

《GQ》明天就要发布了，可我们的网站还有一堆问题。

GQ's hitting tomorrow, and our website still had a bunch of bugs in it.

我们当时只有一个开发人员，我们就在电话里跟他一起手忙脚乱地修那些最要紧的网站漏洞。

We were working with one developer, and we were on the phone with him kind of frantically working out some of the most critical bugs on the site.

最后到凌晨四点，我们才说，行吧，这网站够稳定了。

And we finally, at 4AM, said, okay, guys, this is stable enough.

我们明天还有课，都得睡几个小时。

We all need a couple hours of sleep before we have class tomorrow.

把网站上线吧。

Let's make the site live.

第二天上课的时候，我们坐在教室里。

And we were sitting in in class the next day.

我们没告诉任何人网站已经上线了。

We hadn't told anyone that the site was live.

连我们父母都不知道网站上线了。

Our parents didn't know the site was live.

我们最好的朋友也不知道网站上线了。

Our best friends didn't know the site was live.

但我们当时不想给网站引流，因为我们不确定它能不能正常运行。

But we just wanna drive any traffic to it because we weren't sure it would work.

我设置了手机通知，只要网站有订单就会提醒我。

And I'd had my phone set up to be notified anytime we got an order through the site.

大概上午十点左右，我收到了第一笔订单。

And so it was around 10AM, and so I get an order.

然后十分钟后，又来了第二笔，接着第三笔、第四笔。

And then ten minutes later, we get another order, and then another order, and then another order.

我们一下子从兴奋变成了，哎呀，糟了。

And we kind of go from this feeling of elatement to, oh, crap.

我们的库存根本不够啊。

We we don't have this much inventory.

而且我们压根没想过在网站上做售罄功能或者候补名单功能。

And we hadn't contemplated building in any sold out functionality or waitlist functionality in the site.

所以你们真的把眼镜卖光了，但人们还在下单，因为网站不知道你们什么时候会断货？

So you were literally selling out of glasses, but people were still ordering them because the website didn't know when you would run out of it?

我们完全没有库存跟踪，因为我们当时以为一天也就一两单，还开玩笑说，就算没人买，我妈也会从我们这儿买一百副眼镜。

We had no inventory tracking at all because we, you know, we were assuming one to two orders a day and kinda joke that, you know, if nothing else, my mom would buy a 100 pairs of glasses from us.

但我们确实没抱太大期望，因为我们也明白，我们想做的是建立一个品牌，而这需要很长时间。

But we, you know, we really had tempered expectations because we we also recognize that what we were trying to do was build a brand, and that takes a really long time.

所以在那头一个半小时之后，我们开了个紧急会议，大家争论着，好吧。

So we called an emergency meeting after that first hour and a half class, and we were debating, okay.

我们该怎么办？

What do we do here?

是继续接单，然后再想怎么跟顾客解释？

Do we just keep taking orders and then figure out what to tell people later?

还是把网站下线？

Do we take down the website?

就在我们讨论这两分钟的时候，我看着手机，又多了十单。

And while we're having this two minute discussion, I'm looking at my phone, we have 10 more orders.

我就说，各位，我们得赶紧想办法了。

And I'm like, guys, we we gotta do something here.

于是我们紧急联系了开发人员，他奇迹般地当场就搞出了一个候补名单功能。

And so we placed an emergency call to our developer and miraculously was able to build in this waitlist functionality on the fly.

结果四个星期内，我们最畅销的款式就全卖光了。

And within a four week period, we'd sold out of our best selling styles.

候补名单上排了两万个顾客。

We had a waitlist of 20,000 customers.

你们到底卖了多少副眼镜？

How many how many frames did you guys sell?

好几万副。

Tens of thousands.

那真是……

It was...

你们当时就没……

And you just did not...

你们没有从制造商那里订够眼镜。

You had not ordered enough glasses from the manufacturer.

就是说，你们真的……

Like, you you literally...

你们没法……

You couldn't...

而且他们也没法给你们赶工生产，对吧？

And they couldn't make them fast enough for you?

你知道吗，我觉得我们在采购镜框数量上确实挺有野心的，但同时也比较保守，不想冒太大风险。

You know, I I think I think we were ambitious in terms of the number of frames that we purchased, but also not overly risk tolerant.

而且我觉得我们经营这家公司的方式就是，对，别在库存上把自己搞破产了。

And I think we've approached this business in in a way that, yeah, let's not bankrupt ourselves on inventory.

但我们也有局限。

But we're also constrained.

我的意思是，我们没从投资人那里筹过钱。

I mean, we hadn't raised any money from investors.

你知道，我们投入的是我们的全部积蓄。

You know, it was our our life savings that we poured in.

所以我们能买的镜框数量真的很有限。

So there was really a a limited number of frames that we had the ability to purchase.

所以，听起来这是个好问题，你有两万人的等候名单。

So, I mean, it sounds like a good problem to have, that you you you you have a wait list of 20,000 people.

你……

You...

你一开始就……

You're, like, out of the gate.

你简直太成功了。

You're just killing it.

这是……

Is that...

我说得对吗，还是这其实是个坏问题？

Am I right, or was it actually a bad problem?

我觉得在早期那些日子里，我们学到了很多重要的教训，那时候我们特别害怕，因为有很多早期用户都急着想从我们这里下单，但我们却没什么东西可以卖给他们。

I think we learned a lot of important lessons in those early days where we were terrified that, right, we had all these early adopters that were excited to place an order from us, and we didn't have anything to sell them.

而且对于很多客户来说，我们花了差不多九个月才把等待名单消化完。

And for a lot of those customers, it took us upwards of nine months to get through the wait list.

所以我们当时特别担心。

So we were terrified.

你知道吗，这些人会不会带着不好的印象离开，毕竟一个品牌只有一次亮相的机会？

You know, are these people gonna leave with a bad taste in their mouth that, know, really only have one opportunity to launch a brand?

他们确实在等。

Mean, they were waiting.

我是说，很多公司可能都撑不过去。

I mean, a lot of companies would not survive that.

你知道吗，我觉得这也有积极的一面，就是营造了一种氛围，让人觉得这东西需求特别高。

You know, I think it did have some positive effects that it created this aura that, wow, this is in really high demand.

而且

And

稀缺性最能制造酷感。

Nothing creates cool like scarcity.

但是

But

我觉得我们也学到了很多重要的经验，尤其是在对客户要有同理心这方面。

I think we, you know, we also learned a lot of important lessons in terms of, you know, being empathetic to customers.

我们四个创始人，每个人都主动联系了等候名单上的所有人，特别是那些……

All four of us founders, we reached out to everyone on that wait list for people that were...

有过不好体验或者非常失望的人。

Had bad experiences or were really disappointed.

我们会免费送他们眼镜。

We would give them free glasses.

我们给人们打折。

We gave people discounts.

我……

I...

你知道，我觉得从一开始，我们就想创办一家对世界有积极影响的企业，而其中一部分就是公平对待客户。

You know, I think from the get go, we wanted to create a business to have a positive impact on the world, and part of that is treating customers fairly.

就是……

It...

就是在价格上公平对待他们。

It's treating them fairly when it comes to price.

就是当他们打电话投诉时，公平对待他们，当我们犯错时，要道歉并解释。

It's treating them fairly when they call up and complain and to apologize and explain when we make mistakes.

而且这是我们从一开始就一直在做的事情。

And and that was something that we did from the very beginning.

我们主要是，你知道，我们还在摸索怎么经营这家公司。

We were primarily, you know, we're still trying to figure out how to run this business.

我们当时是全日制学生，就在自己的公寓里办公。

We were working out of our apartments as full time students.

我们的客服电话是一个我们设置的谷歌语音号码。

Our customer service line was a Google Voice number that we set up.

有人打电话来的时候，四个创始人的手机会同时响，谁接

When someone would call, it would simultaneously ring all four founders' cell phones, and whoever

谁接电话，那就算……

whoever answers That was...

你就是客服代表。

You were the customer service rep.

所以我们看了看课程表，发现每周有十二个小时我们四个人同时在上课。

And so we looked at our class schedules, and there were twelve hours per week when all four of us were in class at the same time.

我们就说，那我们应该雇个人，在我们都没空的时候接电话。

And we said, well, we should hire someone who can answer the phone when none of us are available.

于是我们雇了一个叫玛拉的女士，跟她说你每周工作十二小时，然后教她我们做的事情。

And so we hired this woman named Mara, and said, you're gonna be working twelve hours a week, and trained her on what we're doing.

我记得第一周，她最后工作了一百个小时。

And I think that first week, she ended up working a hundred hours.

现在她负责我们的客户体验团队，大概有一百五十人。

And now she's running our customer experience team, which is about a 150 people.

所以从第一天起，事情就一下子火起来了。

And so it's it's kind of off to the races from day one.

那你们……

So did you guys...

我是说，你们多快就聚到一起，然后说，天哪。

I mean, how quickly did you guys kind of get together and just say, holy hell.

我们……

We...

这是真的。

This is real.

我们会成功的。

We're gonna make it.

我们那时候太忙了，整夜不睡回客户邮件。

We were too busy staying up all night responding to customer emails.

我记得刚开始的几天，我们真的决定去上一门大家都上的课，然后我们都在电脑上拼命打字，因为根本没在听课，就是在回客户邮件、处理订单。

And I remember one of the first couple days, like, we actually decided to go to one of the classes that we were all in, And we were all typing feverishly on our computers because we weren't really paying attention, and we were just responding to customer emails and helping to process orders.

教室里一下子变得特别安静。

And everything in the classroom got really quiet.

然后我们四个人抬头一看，所有人都在盯着我们，包括教授。

And then the four of us sort of looked up, and everybody was staring at us, including the professor.

我们就在那儿拼命打字，可明明没什么笔记要记。

And here we were typing away when clearly there were no notes to be had.

很明显你们根本没在听课。

It was obvious you were not you were not listening.

所以那之后我们就不去上那门课了。

So we just stopped going to that class after that.

我记得每天早上醒来，笔记本电脑就压在胸口上，因为回客户邮件回着回着就睡着了。那阵子工作量真的特别大。

I mean, I I remember waking up every morning, with a laptop on my chest because I'd fallen asleep responding to customer emails, and there was just an overwhelming amount of work in those early days.

所以我们连喘口气、停下来想想发生了什么的时间都没有。

And so we didn't have, you know, even a minute to breathe and and take a step back and and think about what was happening.

那在发布之后，公司开始有起色了，你们是什么时候决定要开始融资的？

So so after this launch and after the company obviously, you know, starts to gain traction, when did you guys decide, you know, like, we we better start to raise some money?