Warby Parker (2010): the glasses fitting room, shipped to your home

Warby Parker was founded by four Wharton students after one of them lost his glasses backpacking and found replacements so expensive that he spent a semester without them. The company launched in February 2010 selling prescription glasses directly online at $95, against an industry where frames were marked up 10 to 20 times their manufacturing cost and dominated by incumbents with little incentive to innovate.

The immediate problem was the one thing e-commerce couldn't do: try the frames on. A virtual try-on actually lowered conversion, so the founders built Home Try-On instead — customers pick five frames, they arrive free for five days, and buyers keep what they like and return the rest. Demand exploded: inventory ran out within 48 hours, and the site beat its first-year sales goal in three weeks.

Home Try-On made the brand: by 2014 Warby Parker had sold its millionth pair, and the program became the signature of the direct-to-consumer eyewear market it helped create. The service ran for 15 years; by 2025, with more than 300 stores, mature virtual try-on and 2.6 million active customers, the company retired Home Try-On as no longer necessary.