. >> warby parker has become a start-up success story.blumenthal recounts the company's journey in this edition of "small to big." >> we were able to start warby parker with $120,000. that enabled us to build a website, get some support. and purchase our initial inventory. i remember the launch vividly. february 2010. we made it live, february 15. we didn't tell our friends and family because we did note the website work. the orders started pouring in. we hit the first-year sales target in three weeks. sold out of our top 15 styles in four weeks. and accumulated a waiting list of over 20,000 people. we had to start cutting class because we were full-time students. we were getting our mba's. it was crisis management. we had orders coming in and didn't have enough inventory to fulfill those orders. we had think about communication strategy. the customer service policy. we would just profusely apologize but also explain to people what was going on. we just launched and didn't expect to have this much demand. and when you tell people the deta

. >> we were able to start warby parker with $120,000.o build a website, get your support. i remember launch vividly. february 2010. made it to february 2015. we didn't tell our friends and family because we did note the website work. the order started pouring in. we hit the first year sales target in three weeks. we had the top 15 styles in four weeks. we had us start cutting class because we were full-time students. we were getting our mba's. it was crisis management. we had orders is coming in and didn't have enough inventory to fulfill those orders. way to think about communication strategy. we would just profusely apologize but also explained to people what was going on. we just launched and didn't expect to have this much demand. when you tell people the details they can have patience and understand and sympathize. building relationship with customers is like the way human beings both customers with other human beings. our first door was my apartment. we made up the glasses on the dining room table. that was our first foray into lea