Warby Parker

Warby Parker is an American brand of prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses founded in 2010. Warby Parker sells online and has a limited number of showrooms in the United States.

History

The company was founded in 2010 by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider,[1] and is headquartered in New York City. The name “Warby Parker” derives from two characters that appear in a journal by the Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac.[2]

The company was started in the Venture Initiation Program of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where the founders all studied.[3] The company received $2,500 seed investment through the program and launched in February 2010.[3] Shortly after launching, the company was featured on Vogue.com,[1] and in GQ, which called it “the Netflix of eyewear”.[4] In May 2011, Warby Parker raised its first round of funding totaling $2.5 million. In September 2011, the company raised a Series A round of $12.5 million.[5] In Fall 2012, it raised a $37 million Series B round,[6] with an additional $4 million announced in February 2013 with noted investors American Express and Mickey Drexler.[7] Warby Parker shipped more than 100,000 pairs of glasses in 2011, and had 60 employees.[8] By the end of 2012, the company grew to over 113 employees.[9] As of April 2015, the company is valued at $1.2 billion.[10]

Shortly following its extension into retail stores, Warby Parker announced the company’s intention to build its own point of sale (POS) system. One feature planned for Warby Parker’s custom POS is to charge the customer when their product is shipped instead of when it is first ordered in-store.

Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, Co-CEOs and Co-Founders

Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses.

Prior to launching Warby Parker in 2010, Neil served as Director of VisionSpring, a non-profit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own businesses selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in developing countries. In 2005, Neil was named a Fellow for Emerging Leaders in Public Service at NYU Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service.

In 2012, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. In 2013, he became a member of the United Nations’ Global Entrepreneurs Council and was named one of Crain’s “40 Under Forty”. In 2013, he received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Neil serves on the board of RxArt and on the United Nations Global Entrepreneurs Council.

A native of New York City, Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was both a Social Enterprise Fellow and a Leadership Fellow. Neil lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Rachel Leigh, the founder of Cricket’s Circle.

Dave Gilboa is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative fashion brand offering designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses.

Prior to Warby Parker, Dave was an Associate at merchant bank Allen & Company and, earlier, worked at Bain & Company. He also served as Special Assistant to the Founder and CEO of the TriZetto Group, and has held strategy and business development roles at Genomic Health and Crescendo Bioscience.

Dave has worked extensively with non-profit organizations, and serves as a founding member of the Entrepreneur Board of Venture for America, an organization dedicated to mobilizing graduates as entrepreneurs in low-cost cities.

Born in Sweden and raised in San Diego, Dave graduated with a BS in Bioengineering with Honors from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from Wharton Business School.