Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Betsy DeVos pursues school choice in Michigan, Britney Spears is pregnant, and the future of brand loyalty is on the blockchain. Have a lovely Tuesday.
– Loyalty rewards. Through all of Outdoor Voices’ ups and downs, the activewear startup founded by Ty Haney in 2012 had one undeniable advantage. “Our number one strength was community,” Haney, who stepped down as CEO in early 2020 and left the brand in January 2021, says now. “It became core to our growth strategy.”
Within an eight-year time span, the athletic apparel company raised $100 million in VC funding, quickly becoming the de rigueur startup darling.
Even as the clothing brand, which brought on retail veterans like former J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, stumbled spectacularly on retail strategy and developing multigenerational leadership, its customer base of passionate brand ambassadors remained loyal to the brand, attending events, wearing special merchandise, and promoting the Outdoor Voices recreation-driven lifestyle.
For her next venture, Haney is sticking with what she knows best—but with a twist. Thefounder is now behind the new startup Try Your Best, a blockchain-based platform for brand loyalty and rewards. Or as Haney characterizes it: brand loyalty and community built for Web3.
 Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney has a new venture, the blockchain-based rewards platform Try Your Best. Courtesy of Walis Larraga Anstis At Outdoor Voices, the company found that customers who encountered the brand through a community engagement tactic like word-of-mouth or IRL marketing were four times more valuable than customers reached through targeted Facebook or Instagram ads. “Tying activation or experience to product was something that we found really created that bond and stickiness with the customer,” she says. Haney thinks that those same strategies apply to Web3, through tools like NFT rewards and collectibles.
“The collectible becomes the new activation unit,” Haney explains. The startup tested the waters last month with an NFT for the CBD company Joggy, and eventually plans to create a marketplace of Try Your Best-backed loyalty programs, where consumers can keep track of company rewards in one wallet.
The startup raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by blockchain-focused firm Castle Island Ventures in October (“Raising just the amount that we need” is top of mind for Haney after experiencing the pressures brought on by Outdoor Voices’ mountain of venture capital money). But it’s not the only one applying blockchain technology to brand loyalty.
Glow Labs, a Web3 software platform for customer rewards, announced a $4.15 million seed round this morning. Founded by two former JPMorgan Chase engineers, Annie Reardon and Renee Russo, the company strives to be the loyalty infrastructure for native Web3 brands, rewarding customers for repeat NFT purchases, for example. Compare that strategy to Try Your Best’s, which is mainly bringing Web3 tools to brands outside of the industry, including many in activewear. Outdoor Voices alumni comprise 60% of the roughly 20-person startup.
Glow Labs is backed by Anu Duggal’s Female Founders Fund and Kirsten Green’s Forerunner Ventures—an early Outdoor Voices investor. “We believe there is an exciting future around how brands engage with their consumers leveraging the blockchain,” says Duggal.
Green did not invest in Haney’s Try Your Best, and declined to comment on either company.
 Renee Russo and Annie Reardon, Co-Founders of Glow Labs.Courtesy of Glow Labs All three founders see a white space for brands in Web3. Haney’s interest in crypto began about a year-and-a-half ago, while Russo and Reardon started buying crypto and applying to blockchain-related jobs in 2016 (Russo even appeared for our interview wearing a “Just DAO it” hat, a play on the phrase decentralized autonomous organization.)
They appear to have found a promising niche. So much of Web3, after all, is about ownership, and brands want that sense of ownership to translate to greater loyalty to their businesses. From either perspective, it’s clear that companies are eager to understand how to leverage Web3 tools for business growth. “This shift is taking place right now,” Haney says. “It’s no longer about the [customer acquisition cost]. It’s all about retention, loyalty, and [lifetime value].”
Emma Hinchliffe
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@_emmahinchliffe
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- Second choice. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is still pursuing a school choice law in her home state of Michigan. If passed, the law would grant tax credits to private donors who contribute to scholarship funds. Those scholarships could, in turn, be used to pay for private school tuition, effectively redirecting public funds to private schools. The state's voters rejected a voucher system more than 20 years ago, but the GOP-controlled legislature may be able to override Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's veto. The 74
- Déjà vu. Fiona Hill, one of the foremost experts on Vladimir Putin, issued warnings about Russia's leader to two American presidents: President Donald Trump and President George W. Bush. During the Bush era, Hill advised against supporting NATO membership for Ukraine, concerned that doing so would aggravate Russia. She calls Bush's lukewarm decision to voice some support without full backing from allies the "worst of all possible worlds." As for Trump, she says he resembled Putin in "political practice and predilection more than he resembled any of his recent American presidential predecessors." New York Times
-U-turn. For years, Russian Central Bank governor Elvira Nabuillina has been tasked with improving Russia's ties with the global economy. These days her job is radically different: to offset the effects of Western sanctions against Russia following the country's invasion of Ukraine. Wall Street Journal
- Baby one more time. During the hearings over her conservatorship last year, Britney Spears testified that she wanted to have another baby but her conservators wouldn't allow her to stop using birth control. Now, Spears' conservatorship is in the past—and she's pregnant. The star wrote on Instagram yesterday that she and partner Sam Asghari are expecting a baby. CNN
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Nonprofit All Our Kin named Institute for Women's Policy Research president and CEO C. Nicole Mason chair of its board.
CONTENT FROM MCKINSEY & COMPANY The reviews are in. McKinsey’s new book, CEO Excellence, is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller. It’s an insight-packed look at how the best CEOs do their jobs—including chiefs at JPMorgan Chase, Netflix, and Sony. Looking for a master class from the highest-performing CEOs on the skills and practices that have driven their success? Order now.
- Doctor's note. Queen Elizabeth II told hospital staffers at a virtual engagement last week that contracting COVID in February left her feeling "very tired and exhausted." Buckingham Palace has been relatively tight-lipped about the virus's affect on the 95-year-old monarch, who canceled most of her events for weeks after her diagnosis. CNN
- Abortion access. Maryland lawmakers overrode a veto by Gov. Larry Hogan that would prohibit medical professionals other than physicians from performing abortions. The law, which also provides $3.5 million for abortion care training, is meant to expand access to abortion in the state. Fourteen other states already allow trained medical professionals other than doctors to perform abortions. New York Times
- Power couple. Ruchi Kalra and Ashish Mohapatra are the first husband and wife duo to build separate billion-dollar startups in India. Kalra's company, digital lender Oxyzo, achieved the valuation after a recent $200 million funding round. Mohapatra runs the SoftBank-backed small business materials supplier OfBusiness, which he says is six months to a year out from an IPO. Bloomberg
- Perfect 5. The latest startup to be backed by Serena Williams's venture fund is Parfait, a direct-to-consumer customized wigs business. The startup, founded by sisters Isoken and Ifueko Igbinedion, relies on A.I. to manufacture better fitting and better quality wigs, made with Black women in mind. The company raised $5 million in seed funding. Fast Company
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Justice for Girls: Looking back at Lena Dunham's opus 10 years later Vanity Fair
Mommies who mushroom Harpers Bazaar
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