In 2008, Dave Gilboa was starting his MBA at Wharton when he lost an $800 pair of glasses. As a broke grad student, he couldn't justify the cost of replacing them, and he spent much of his first semester focused on how absurd it was that eyewear cost so much.

That complaint found the right audience. Gilboa's classmate Neil Blumenthal had spent years working at VisionSpring, a nonprofit that sold affordable glasses to people in the developing world. He knew something most shoppers didn't: the manufacturing cost of a pair of glasses was nowhere near what retailers charged. 

One late night, Gilboa, Blumenthal, and two other classmates, Jeffrey Raider and Andrew Hunt, combined the two ideas. If glasses were cheap to make and expensive to buy, someone was capturing a lot of margin in between.

The Early Days

The four spent their MBA program testing the idea, surveying classmates to figure out what people wanted from a glasses brand: style first, then value and service, then a social mission. 

They launched Warby Parker in 2010. They built in the giving-back piece from day one, partnering with Blumenthal's old employer, VisionSpring, so that every pair sold would fund a pair donated to someone who couldn't otherwise afford glasses.

The Solution

Nothing about the launch went as planned - in the best way. A GQ feature ran the week they went live, and Warby Parker's "Home Try-On" program, which let customers order five frames to test at home before buying, sold out within 48 hours. 

The company hit its first-year sales target in three weeks and ran out of inventory entirely. Rather than treating it as a crisis, they leaned into transparency and found that owning the mistake publicly built more customer loyalty than a smooth launch would have.

Warby Parker expanded into more than 100 stores, entered the contact lens business, and grew its giving program to more than 5 million pairs of glasses distributed worldwide.

In September 2021, Warby Parker went public via direct listing on the NYSE, reaching a valuation above $6 billion on its first day of trading.

The Lesson

Sometimes the founder story isn't about scraping by on too little, but about what you do when your company grows faster than you're ready for.

Our team has been working around the clock at Beyond Physician to build the technology behind our voice AI.

I keep a mental list of what is working when things get hard. Founders, keep your head up.

→ Not having investors that are slowing you down - fast decisions.

→ Having trust between founders that enables us to bring our best work to the table.

→ Listening to each other.

→ Openly discussing what is working and not worrying about who was right and only on what needs to change.

→ Auditing our spend and adjusting.

→ Investing in technology that may be too far ahead of its time but focusing on the value to the customer.

→ Leaning on our investors and network for customers or help.

None of this is glamorous, but it’s what keeps the business moving. Proud of Beyond Physician's company and culture.

My daughter just started college, and we’ve been talking through her career options together.

It’s had me reflecting on my own path more than I expected. Specifically on how much difficulty I’ve been willing to tolerate, and why.

A few years ago, I was questioning whether I really wanted to continue my career in venture capital.

It was stressful. Things weren’t moving in the direction I wanted. No guarantee of an outcome in this industry, just risk and sacrifice.

So I asked myself: how badly do I want it? I had to dig deep. Why did I get into this? What do I actually like about it?

I discovered a different perspective: maybe it was testing my commitment to building, working hard, and making progress.

The hard stretches weren’t a sign I wasn’t supposed to be there. They were testing me before the real breakthroughs.

The clearer you get on why something matters to you, the more that clarity turns into the conviction to keep going when you face challenges.