I'm going live tomorrow (5:30p EST)
Delving into the Delve fraud scandal, Goop Kitchen expands to NY, RHORI, Tracee Ellis Ross' Cloud Bob + are we done talking about Emma Grede???
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I published this nearly 6 months ago after seeing Emma Grede speak at an Axios Pro Rata event, so imagine my surprise to see her comments on motherhood, corporate success and work life balance turn into such a discourse months later 😭
I literally told you guys back then that she wasn’t that kind of girl!
What’s funny is that when I was in the room, I had no clue how far that statement would travel once her book actually came out. Nothing about her comments felt particularly explosive in that moment and literally nobody reacted. To be fair, I was sitting in a room full of tech junkies and people who watch the markets.
Also not lost on me is the irony that during that same conversation, the interviewer (Axios correspondent Mady Mills) asked her her thoughts on the rise in outrage as marketing.
Emma basically shrugged it off and more or less said that it doesn’t matter as long as people are talking. Outrage comes and goes, and people move on to the next thing to be mad about.
I’ve seen some people on the internet refer to Emma as a ‘genius marketer’ due to having started this intense discourse on 3-hour parenting and not working from home. And to that I say….people are overthinking it lol.
I don’t think she’s marketing outrage so much as the online community craves a reason to be outraged. What I’m peeping is this — most people can’t recognize a controversy when it’s actually happening. They only recognize it once the internet tells them how to feel about it.
The difference between being a doer and a thinker if you will.
This ropes back into my piece last week. The friction between the two only creates more success and opportunity for the former.
So if people who’ve never created a thing in their life want to talk about how you navigate your world — let them!!!!
Some News
My latest hyperfixation has become the Delve scandal. You girls know I live for a fraud story. ICYMI, Delve, a 30U30, YC-backed startup, got exposed for selling fake compliance certifications to other companies. They marketed themselves as an AI platform but were allegedly outsourcing manual work to overseas audit mills. An anonymous whistleblower DeepDelver published a takedown here on Substack and We HAVE to talk about this!
Ali Kriegsman and I are putting our investigative hats on and going live tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:30p EST on here. I WILL be bringing my juiciest glass of Shiraz for this exposé!!!!
Vogue has deleted Tracee Ellis Ross’ “Cloud Bob” from their article.
Dare I say….Goop Kitchen is actually that girl. It was one of few delivery options that I didn’t hate while living in West Hollywood. Sue me! Yesterday they brought their delivery service to New York City. I think Goop will continue to win because they sold an extreme and highly particular vision of what a well-lived life looks like and then figured out how to monetize it. Food is the most intimate and repetitive wellness behavior. But also, Goop Kitchen is more accessible than their philosophy would lead you to believe. I would order in even as a penny pinching founder when delivery after a long day at the warehouse felt borderline self indulgent. It's about time they expanded to new markets and with a reported 60% YoY growth, the numbers support it.
Walmart is rolling out digital price tags, and I’m scared about what this could mean for the future of commerce. The technology (which they claim they’re using for operational efficiency) enables dynamic pricing, which is the same model airlines, hotels, and rideshares already use to charge you more when they think they can get away with it. It’s only a matter of time that this hits Neiman Marcus! Don’t PMO!!!!
Of all the Kardashian brands, Kylie’s seem to invoke shell company the most. She pivoted her canned vodka brand Sprinter into a functional, ingestible skin hydration powder (under the same brand)???
Vacation receives a $70 million investment from VMG partners. How did I miss this Soft Services collab? I do enjoy that buffing bar.
That’s all for today. Meet me and Ali Kriegsman tomorrow on here at 5:30p EST sharp so we can delve into the Delve scandal!
See you then!!!!