On January 17, 2019, a D2C shoe (or rather, fashion slipper) company – Birdies Slippers, secured a series A funding round of $8M. The similarity in name, and business model, automatically reminded us of another bird – Allbirds, which, in September 2016 secured its series A funding, of $7.3M. By the time both companies reached series A, they had raised virtually the same sum of money – $10M.
The fact that both companies directly sell shoes and for the most part – online only, allows us to measure their performance – comparing their digital metrics during the six months prior to their series A investment. What we found – that besides a similar name, product and investment size – the companies vary greatly in their strategy and outcome at time of funding, hinting that investors may be spending more today and get lower performance.