The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Our guest today is Ashleigh Hinde, Founder and CEO of Waldo. Waldo makes daily contact lenses without the hassle or price tag. We discuss how she’s building a brand with a product that you can’t see, how she approaches e-commerce and retail, and why she founded a contact lens company in the first place.

Some of the questions I ask:

1. What was the insight or pain point you went through that led you to founding Waldo?
2. Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?
3. How much do contacts usually sell for? How did you think about pricing strategy?
4. How did you approach your supply chain/manufacturing?
5. On the price point / margin side
6. Efficient customer acquisition
7. So you think about sustainability and
8. It seems similar to what you are doing in contact lenses - making them more affordable, building a digitally native brand - it sounds similar to what Warby Parker did with eye glasses. What are some of the differences selling contacts vs. glasses?
9. How important is having buy-in from eye doctors for customer acquisition? Does their recommendation have a big effect on the customer on which contacts they should buy from? How do you approach partnerships?
10. How did you come to strike a big partnership with Walmart? Why?
11. What does the customer journey look like?
12. How do you build a brand with a product that you can’t see?
13. What was the geographical distribution strategy? Why did you start in the UK then come to the US and how do you think about the contact lens market from a global perspective?
14. How do you think about impact?
15. How do you think you’ve grown since founding Waldo?
16. What is the stickiness part of your business or how do you think about competitive advantages
17. How did you approach fundraising? What was the biggest reason why an investor would pass or make the investment? What was the bet?
18. What is one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
    1. Professionally: The Hard Things About Hard Things
    2. Personally: Designing Your Life
19. What’s the best piece of advice for founders?