Decoder with Nilay Patel

Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas — and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.

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episode 479: Recode Decode: Larry Ingrassia

Journalist Larry Ingrassia talks with Recode’s Jason Del Rey about his new book, Billion Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy. Ingrassia, a longtime editor for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Los Angeles Times, returned to his journalistic roots to report and write the book, which was triggered by the news that the upstart direct-to-consumer razor company Dollar Shave Club had been bought by Unilever for $1 billion. He explains how the relatively inexperienced outsiders who founded the companies he profiles exploited a “customer experience” gap that established retailers weren’t addressing; the inverse correlation between competition and venture capital among e-commerce startups; and how going directly to your customer may change what they expect of your culture and service. Plus: Why, in the end, these companies can’t ignore Amazon forever.

Featuring:

Larry Ingrassia (@IngrassiaLA), author, Billion Dollar Brand Club

Host:

Jason Del Rey (@delrey), senior commerce editor, Recode

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