According to Marc Benioff a sales force CEO, “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.” This quote is closely aligned with the philosophy of the co-founders of Warby Parker. Subsequently, when Neil Blumenthal, David Gilboa, Andrew Hunt and Jeffery Raider went through their hiring process one of the components that had to be met was a devotion to the company’s social mission. For instance, one of their core values was “Take our work and our impact seriously, but not ourselves.”
Warby Parker is an innovative player in the fashion space. The company offers high quality, classically crafted eyewear at remarkably low prices, avoiding traditional overhead costs with direct interaction between customers and the elimination of high industry markups. The company was founded in 2010 by four friends, Neil Blumenthal, David Gilboa, Andrew Hunt and Jeffery Raider. The four attended college together at Wharton business school. The concept of their business Warby Parker was developed because David Giloba and Raider had found themselves appalled with high retail cost of designer eyewear. In addition, Neil Blumenthal’s was the former director of a non-profit that delivered eye glasses in developing countries. Consequently, he witnessed first- hand the gap between the eyewear industries manufacturing cost and retail prices. They quickly realized a feasible way to solve this tangible consumer pain point. Their solution was to provide eyewear at a lower cost through online distribution. At the time Eyewear market was largely dominated by two companies: Luxottica Group Spa and Essilor International SA. However, Warby parker was able to successfully enter the market after they identified the opportunity created by the lack of branded, high quality and low priced eyewear.
The business Warby Parker had its up’s and downs through their initial start-up period. For example, with the first collection completed by the end of 2009, the official launch was delayed because of issues in the development of the website. As a result, they sold glasses to classmates through paper orders and trunk shows. at the beginning of its third year of existence as a consequence of growth and in order to avoid losing momentum they had to make some quick decisions. One of the challenges that Warby Parker faced were maintaining the company culture, finding adequate partners to preserve the quality of the "Buy a Pair, Give a Pair" program, and devising an integrated online and offline marketing strategy that fit the brand personality.