[dschadd]

I wonder what the second order effects are of everyone wising up to DTC.

Casper is a mattress company, not a tech company. The same can be said for Warby, Away, Allbirds etc.

I think it is likely for the ad revenues of Facebook and Google to slow their growth in response to VC financed commodity companies throwing around ad dollars.

[onion2k]

Casper is a mattress company, not a tech company.

Casper is a mattress marketing company.

[dschadd]

That's what makes it unlikely VC will continue to finance growth commodity manufacturing companies.

People are learning the only differentiation between these companies and older brands are slick copy, whitespace, and sleek colorways.

[onion2k]

VC money will always be available to a startup that has identified a market that hasn't been disrupted yet. It doesn't matter if the business is just some ad copy and whitespace, if there's a good margin and hockey stick growth there will always be investors waiting for you to execute.

At no point in the past, and at no point in the future, will a VC be put off by the fact a business is just a thin, shiny new veneer over an old model. If there's profit to be had and a founder who can take it that is all VCs want.

This is a good thing. It's how markets work. If it ever became impossible to disrupt a market because VCs decided it was too boring the startup world would fall apart. No incumbent business should be allowed to rest. Innovation is everything, even when that "innovation" is just better marketing.