Around 2003, after forays into banking, baseball cards, and—believe it or not—bobsledding, Marc Lore landed on an idea for an e-commerce business: a website to make it simple for parents to order diapers. The only problem, as he quickly discovered, was that it's impossible to make money selling diapers on the internet. But Marc and his co-founder had a strategy: they'd lose money on diapers, but make it up by selling other baby products. By 2010, Diapers.com was such a competitive threat that Amazon acquired the company for over $500 million. In 2015, Marc launched another e-commerce venture and Amazon competitor called Jet.com. Walmart bought Jet.com less than a year later in a deal valued at $3.3 billion.
1:33 - Intro
4:01 - Having a body builder mom
4:30 - School
7:06 - College as an athlete
10:08 - Leaning towards finance
11:00 - First job at a bank out of college
13:00 - Qualifying for US national bobsled team
16:31 - Marc wants to join the .com hype
18:48 - Marc quits his job to start a baseball card business
21:35 - The website launches
22:42 - Marc sells the company and works for Topps
25:00 - The idea for Diapers.com
28:43 - Starting the website
32:30 - Struggling with manufacturers
33:48 - Losing money on diapers
35:53 - Finally getting diapers
37:11 - Figuring how how to make money
40:45 - Going into sixth gear
42:20 - Creating an empire
43:54 - Getting on Amazon's radar
46:09 - Trying to raise more money
47:34 - Having to surrender to an acquisition
55:20 - The idea for Jet.com
59:33 - Competing against Amazon
63:03 - The site launches
65:42 - Proving investors wrong
66:34 - An acquisition offer from Walmart
72:04 - Stepping down
73:14 - What's next?
74:35 - Luck vs. hard work
75:22 - Reflecting
Dollar Shave Club
Diapers.com
Jet.com
Decathlon
Bankers Trust
US Bobsled team 1998
Vinit Bharara
The Pit
Topps
Proctor & Gamble
Kimberly-Clark
Quidsi.com
Amazon Mom
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
Archer
