Through 2014 to 2018, Casper was everywhere on the Internet, flooding advertisements into every trendy podcast, website, and YouTube video. Need a mattress? Want a mattress? Buy Casper. Not comfortable buying a mattress you’ve never seen or touched before? No problem! Sleep on it for three months and return it anytime for a full refund within those 100 days, no questions asked. With a radically generous return policy and aggressive multi-million advertising budgets, Casper quickly rose to fame as the flashiest and fast growing online consumer brand.

Silicon Valley fueled Casper’s meteoric rise, eager to showcase the company as a shining example of technological innovation and business transformation. Casper, Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club were all pioneers of a new revolutionary type of business called Direct-To-Consumer.

If you prefer reading over watching, here is a written transcript of this episode: https://medium.com/@modernmba/....how-casper-failed-wh

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:53 Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Business Model
2:45 3 Billion in Venture Capital
3:50 Turning Down A Billion Dollars
4:30 Casper's Embarrassing IPO Debut
5:41 A Broken Business Model
7:46 Rising Costs of Online Advertising
8:40 Bursting of the DTC Bubble
10:45 Reality of Mattress Buying Habits
11:30 Irony of Retail Sales