Warby Parker’s leap: From affordable glasses to AI game-changer
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Release Date: 10/09/2025
20X growth in five years: How Factor pushed healthy eating beyond broccoli
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Joining us this week is Adam Park, CEO and managing director of Factor US — one of the fastest-growing names in health and nutrition that bills itself as the No. 1 ready-to-eat meal company in America. You might have seen them around delivering meals to people’s doors that emphasize high-protein, veggie-forward, low-calorie or even GLP-1 supportive options, making it easier to eat clean at home. Since being acquired in 2020 by one of Europe’s best-known consumer brands, HelloFresh, Factor has grown more than 20 times, fending off fierce competition to capture about 75% of the US...
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LARQ: From reinventing the water bottle to being acquired by BRITA
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Our latest guest is Justin Wang, who, back in 2017, decided that the way we drink water could use an upgrade. Justin left a successful corporate career to tackle an everyday problem all of us face at some point: icky water bottles. He is the co-founder & CEO of LARQ, the company behind the world’s first self-cleaning water bottle that it says can eliminate up to 99.9% of harmful bacteria and is meant to ensure you’re not worrying about how clean the water is when you’re traveling. What started as a crowdfunded product quickly turned into a multinational brand, earning a spot on...
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‘Not just hand sanitizer’: How Touchland built an $880 million brand
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
This week, we're joined by Touchland co-founder & CEO Andrea Lisbona, who turned an overlooked essential into a brand with $100 million in annual sales. Now, her company is being acquired for up to a whopping $880 million. From rebuilding after a "rock-bottom moment" to landing in Sephora and Ulta, Lisbona shares how she made people want to use hand sanitizer. With a cult following and expansion into all kinds of personal care products, Touchland now says one of its items sells roughly every two seconds. In this interview, we get into: | 00:00 — Introduction | 05:00 —...
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Future of flying? JetZero CEO takes on Airbus and Boeing with jet that aims to cut emissions in half
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Tom O’Leary is on a mission to reshape how we fly. He’s the co-founder and CEO of JetZero, an aviation startup building a blended-wing body aircraft that aims to use up to 50% less fuel than today’s commercial jets. That means it could, in theory, cut both fuel burn and emissions in half — making it cheaper and greener for airlines to operate. The pitch? Helping carriers dramatically reduce costs on what's typically their single biggest expense — fuel — while helping them hit emissions targets more easily. Sounds simple, right? Not quite. JetZero is trying to take flight in an...
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Coffee Meets Bagel co-founder on building the ‘anti-Tinder’ and turning down Mark Cuban
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Arum Kang, co-founder and former longtime CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel, is our guest this week. She's one of three Korean sisters who, back in 2012, were fed up with how online dating often felt dejecting and demoralizing — especially for women. Their solution? To create a serious dating app. From the start, it billed itself as a platform for serious daters, boldly calling the app “the anti-Tinder.” This meant that instead of giving users a sea of endless swipes to go through, it sent them just one curated match each day. Together, the Kangs have turned Coffee Meets Bagel into a household...
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‘Your Rich BFF' Vivian Tu's top money tips: How she made $7M a year by 31
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Vivian Tu is the founder and CEO of Your Rich BFF, a leading financial education brand helping millions learn how to build wealth and make smarter money decisions. She left Wall Street and a lucrative career in media sales to become one of the biggest voices in the creator economy, earning over $7 million by age 31 and gaining about 10 million followers across social media. Known online as “your favorite Wall Street girly,” Vivian teaches financial literacy lessons you never got in school — from understanding the economic cost of war and the impact of interest rate cuts to mastering...
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Warby Parker’s leap: From affordable glasses to AI game-changer
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Dave Gilboa is co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, the eyewear brand that started with a pair of lost glasses while he was studying at Wharton Business School. In 2010, he and three friends pooled their savings and bought the company’s URL for $9. Almost everyone they spoke to said the idea would not work. Dave joins us to talk about the brand’s early days, being so frugal they practically refused to buy pens, experimenting with retail, handling rejection, raising more than half a billion dollars before going public, and staying focused on mission and purpose. He also shares new details...
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Introducing Behind the Business
Behind the Business with Michelle Toh
Welcome to Behind the Business, a new podcast and video series hosted by CNN and FORTUNE alum Michelle Toh that aims to explore the decisions and philosophies behind some of today’s most influential leaders, such as the founders of Warby Parker, Coffee Meets Bagel, "Your Rich BFF" and more. Recorded in studios across the U.S. as a special interview series, the show is grounded in the belief that business is in fact personal, providing the backstory of founders, corporate leaders, investors, and creators a
info_outlineDave Gilboa is co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, the eyewear brand that started with a pair of lost glasses while he was studying at Wharton Business School.
In 2010, he and three friends pooled their savings and bought the company’s URL for $9. Almost everyone they spoke to said the idea would not work.
Dave joins us to talk about the brand’s early days, being so frugal they practically refused to buy pens, experimenting with retail, handling rejection, raising more than half a billion dollars before going public, and staying focused on mission and purpose.
He also shares new details about Warby Parker’s partnership with Google to develop AI-powered eyewear, and why he believes smart glasses may finally become a reality.
Topics discussed:
| 00:00 – Introduction
| 02:14 – Dave Gilboa’s early life: from Sweden to San Diego
| 03:10 – From pre-med to management consulting at Bain
| 04:57 – Working in finance and realizing he wanted more meaning
| 05:44 – Losing his glasses and discovering a billion-dollar idea
| 07:32 – Turning frustration into the Warby Parker startup
| 08:45 – Why glasses are overpriced and ripe for disruption
| 11:14 – How “Warby Parker” got its name from Jack Kerouac’s journals
| 14:49 – Bootstrapping with friends and pooling $120K in savings
| 16:13 – Spending every dollar wisely: the three-spend rule
| 18:16 – Launch week chaos and the 20,000-person waitlist
| 25:36 – Rejection at Wharton and early pushback on pricing
| 32:29 – Fundraising journey: from seed round to Series G
| 32:58 – Taking Warby Parker public through a direct listing
| 34:06 – How to raise capital the right way and keep control
| 36:12 – Protecting the mission by walking away from wrong investors
| 37:43 – The “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program: 20 million glasses donated
| 40:24 – Home Try-On and inviting customers into their apartments
| 41:14 – The yellow school bus pop-up tour that drove national buzz
| 44:11 – Scaling brick-and-mortar retail across the U.S. and Canada
| 45:13 – Expanding into contacts, exams, and full-service vision care
| 45:48 – Partnering with Google to build AI-powered smart glasses
| 46:57 – Why Dave believes smart glasses will finally go mainstream
| 48:27 – How to grow a brand with no marketing budget
| 50:45 – Rapid-fire round: habits, hiring, and advice on focus
About Behind the Business:
Behind the Business is a video series and podcast hosted by Michelle Toh, CNN and Fortune alum, that explores the decisions and philosophies behind today’s most influential leaders. Recorded in studios across the US, the show is grounded in the belief that business is in fact personal, providing the backstories of founders, corporate leaders, investors and creators and how they push through to make the most of both work and life each day. What’s the worst day you’ve faced at your company? How do you cope with crisis or rejection? Or what’s a pinch-me moment you’ll never forget? In each episode, guests get into it all. New episodes every Thursday.
About Michelle Toh
Michelle Toh is an award-winning international journalist. She has covered some of the top stories in global business and tech, most recently as a reporter appearing across CNN’s digital and television platforms. Before joining CNN, she was an associate editor of Fortune Magazine, and her reporting has appeared in TIME, USA Today, and the South China Morning Post..
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