My postmortem on the Foxtrot sudden closure. As a fan of the brand, this one hurt…
My primary thought is that the leadership team was disconnected from what their consumers wanted from the brand. A lesson learned: stay close to your customers and stay connected to how they view your brand / what they want from your company.
As a long time patron, I had to ask myself, how did Foxtrot fail? Always full of people, $7 coffees flowing, highly curated and expensive goods being sold, and a wildly strong cult fan base.
Then I read their Series C PR - here’s the disconnect I see, and a possible cause of death.
As a consumer of the brand, I viewed them as the modern bodega. A place to meet with friends, work from home, study for exams, and grab curated goods for dinners, parties, and events with friends.
The leadership team, as mentioned in their Series C raise, viewed their company instead as a “digital first, omni-channel technology company focused on 30 minute delivery and 5 minute pickup - thinking of their stores as distribution hubs.”
🚨 Not every company needs to be a tech company!
There was solid product market fit, yet they burned through $160mil in funding in 2 years, focusing on tripling their development team, investing in technology, and improving distribution.
I get it, scaled retail requires technology to be efficient and profitable. However, a bodega can also just be a great bodega, and funding could have been invested in community events, brand activations, and other physical (non tech company) strategies.
RIP to a great concept/brand. If you’re wanting to build a great company and not focused on PE/VC backed accelerated growth / thinking you’re a tech company - there is still a cult following and product market fit for the concept.
This is just my $0.02, and we’ll learn more with time - what are your thoughts?
Chairman, Principal, CEO, Founder,President, Board of Directors, Leader of Social Impact and #B Corp
6moWell deserved!