The Warby Parker Founders

Quick Facts

• Role: Four MBA students—Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andy Hunt, and Jeff Raider—who co-found an online eyewear company that upends a monopoly
• First appearance: As cautious, skeptical would-be entrepreneurs testing a “crazy” idea in a university computer lab
• Key relationships: With each other (cofounder trust and co-CEO structure), with Adam Grant (professor-turned-case-study author), and with employees (open-idea culture)
• Notable detail: Grant describes Neil Blumenthal as “tall and affable, with curly black hair and a calm energy”

Who They Are

The Warby Parker Founders are the book’s clearest example of original thinkers who succeed by minimizing risk rather than glorifying it. Their story is used to dismantle the stereotype of the swashbuckling entrepreneur and to illustrate the theme of Risk Mitigation and the Myth of the Risk-Taker. Instead of betting the farm, they keep their safety nets, run disciplined tests, and chip away at uncertainty. Their core insight begins with “vuja de”: noticing that eyeglasses—a simple product—cost more than a smartphone. That question leads them to uncover a monopolistic industry structure and to design a business that methodically removes friction for customers and founders alike.

Personality & Traits

Pragmatic rather than impulsive, the founders act like investigators and engineers of risk—curious enough to question defaults, patient enough to gather evidence, and disciplined enough to build safeguards into every decision.

• Risk-averse and calculated: They refuse to drop out, take summer internships, and secure full-time job offers as a fail-safe. Their caution isn’t fear—it’s strategy, giving them time to test assumptions without existential pressure.
• Methodical and data-driven: Before launch, they develop a detailed plan, test price points with surveys, run focus groups to surface hesitation about buying glasses online, and generate over 2,000 name options before settling on “Warby Parker.”
• Curious and questioning: A “vuja de” moment—why are glasses so expensive?—pushes them to investigate pricing and discover a monopoly artificially inflating costs.
• Collaborative: They design for fairness and shared ownership from day one (including co-CEOs) and later build programs like “Warbles,” inviting ideas from every employee and institutionalizing collective intelligence.
• Passion for execution: Inspired by a rebellious spirit but defined by craft, their breakthrough isn’t edgy branding—it’s the free home try-on program, a surgical solution to the biggest adoption barrier.

Character Journey

They begin as students with a suspect idea and a chorus of naysayers insisting, “If this were a good idea, someone would have done it already.” Rather than leaping blindly, they keep their day jobs in sight, treat the venture as a series of go/no-go experiments, and let evidence—not bravado—move the goalposts. Focus groups identify the crux: customers won’t buy frames without trying them on. The founders reframe the business around that constraint, inventing free home try-ons to neutralize buyer hesitation and de-risk the model. As tests pass and bottlenecks fall, doubt gives way to earned confidence; by launch, as Dave Gilboa later notes, it no longer feels like a gamble. Initial success—hitting a one-year sales target in weeks and a 20,000-person waitlist—validates their process, and they translate those habits into culture: fairness at the top, open ideas for all, and systematic problem-solving as a norm.

Key Relationships

With Each Other Their friendship is the company’s bedrock. By prioritizing trust and fairness (including a co-CEO structure), they prevent zero-sum power struggles and keep decisions focused on evidence. That interpersonal stability enables the patience and discipline their de-risking approach requires.

With Adam Grant As their professor, skeptic, and eventual admirer, Grant initially misreads their hedging—staying in school, lining up jobs—as lack of conviction and declines to invest. His mistake becomes a teaching device: their success shows that originals can be cautious, and caution can be catalytic.

With Their Employees They architect a system for bottom-up innovation, exemplified by “Warbles,” where anyone can pitch and debate ideas. This operationalizes Fostering a Culture of Originality, signaling that creativity is a team sport and that good ideas should survive contact with scrutiny, not with hierarchy.

Defining Moments

A string of decisions, each designed to lower risk, reveals their method more than their myth.

• The “Vuja De” realization: In a university lab, they ask why eyeglasses outprice smartphones—an act of Challenging the Status Quo. Why it matters: It reframes a personal annoyance as a solvable market failure, directing their research toward industry structure, not just branding.
• The pitch to Adam Grant: Neil Blumenthal candidly explains they’re hedging—staying in school and securing jobs—which leads Grant to pass. Why it matters: Their transparency becomes evidence for Grant’s broader thesis: prudent risk portfolios often underwrite bold ideas.
• Inventing home try-ons: Focus groups expose the main obstacle—no try-on equals no sale—so they design free home trials. Why it matters: It is their keystone innovation, aligning customer psychology with operational feasibility and making online eyewear feel safe.
• The launch surge: They hit a one-year sales goal in under a month and amass a 20,000-person waitlist. Why it matters: Market traction validates their slow-cook strategy and shifts their identity—from tentative students to disciplined builders with momentum.

Essential Quotes

“If this were a good idea, someone would have done it already.” This refrain embodies default thinking and industry complacency. By treating it as a hypothesis to test rather than a verdict to accept, the founders transform skepticism into a roadmap: prove demand, remove friction, and let results answer doubt.

“We want to hedge our bets. We’re not sure if it’s a good idea and we have no clue whether it will succeed, so we’ve been working on it in our spare time during the school year.” Spoken by Neil Blumenthal, this confession captures their philosophy: protect the downside to explore the upside. Hedging here isn’t timidity; it’s the enabling condition for sustained experimentation.

“I had always considered them a medical purchase. I naturally assumed that if a doctor was selling it to me, there was some justification for the price.” Dave Gilboa articulates the default assumption the team later overturns. Noticing the social authority behind pricing helps them see how monopoly and habit entrench overpayment—and where a challenger brand can intervene.

“We talked constantly about de-risking the business. The whole journey was a series of go/no-go decisions. At every step of the way, we had checks and balances.” Blumenthal’s process summary reveals their operating system: modular decisions, pre-set checkpoints, and feedback loops. This turns entrepreneurship from a cliff jump into a staircase.

“By the time we were ready to launch, and I had to make the decision this was something we were ready to do full time, it didn’t seem risky. It didn’t feel like I was taking a big leap of faith.” Gilboa’s reflection shows how evidence rewires emotion. Systematic preparation doesn’t eliminate uncertainty; it shrinks it until commitment feels rational rather than heroic.