Since the $545 million sale of Diapers.com, Vinit Bharara ’96LAW has taken on the world of digital media and content. He’s founded Some Spider Studios, a fast growing media and entertainment company that operates two channels, Scary Mommy and CAFE, and will be launching more. The Company is ranked number #44 on the latest US media power rankings. Reaching over 100 million people each month across social platforms and 20 million on its website, Scary Mommy leads the family category by an especially wide margin, attracting more social actions than the next 5+ properties combined. Featured in the New Yorker, Washington Post & Time Magazine, CAFE’s smart and funny take on news and culture reached over 50 million people each month in its first year.
He’s financed the company himself and with his co-founder from Diapers.com, Marc Lore, who recently sold his latest start-up, JET.com, to Walmart for $3.3 billion. As the New York Times detailed, Vinit recently enlisted his brother, Preet Bharara ’93LAW, former United States Attorney of New York, to Some Spider. He’s also opened offices in Hollywood, as the Company makes a big push into video and shows and series.
The massive followings that each brand has engaged show how Bharara continues his winning startup strategy – make authentic, lasting human connections with your audience.
When Bharara co-founded Quidsi, the parent company to Diapers.com, in 2005, he faced a space packed with online retailers, including the behemoth: Amazon. So, Bharara and his business partner, Marc Lore, focused on how best to create emotional relationships with a large community.
Diapers.com focused on delivering products and services that “foundationally, are about just very simply, how do we best treat the customer,” Bharara told Inc.
The strategy worked – within five years, the company raised $59 million from outside investors and annual sales totaled several hundred million dollars. In 2011, Bharara and Lore sold Quidsi (and, in turn, Diapers.com) to Amazon for $545 million.
Diapers.com built brand loyalty with the understanding that its customer base – parents and caregivers – were a community that needed to save time and money and could use one less thing to worry about – as there’s enough to worry about with a new baby.
First, Diapers.com delivered – literally – with its reliably fast and free 2 day delivery diaper shipments and amazing customer service. This was no small feat for the startup: The company began with a lean team and infrastructure, where orders were often filled by bringing a truck to Costco and buying diapers in bulk. As the company grew, it continued to engage more deeply with its customer base. It added hundreds of thousands of products through additional sites like Soap.com, Wag.com, and Yoyo.com, it started to deliver in one day and then same day, it launched auto-ship programs, a baby registry, and countless other service initiatives.
Some Spider delivers on the same promise – making tens of millions of human connections with specific large communities through authentic, honest, and humorous storytelling that stands the test of time.
Check out Bharara’s latest business endeavor here.