2What’s in a reputation?
More than two years in the past, Fast Company revealed a narrative with the headline “Two Ex-Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom-And-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete.” The focus of the story was a nascent startup by the identify of Bodega .
The firm had raised $2.5 million in funding from First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman, Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green and Homebrew’s Hunter Walk. To announce their funding and imaginative and prescient to create the unmanned retailer of the longer term, Bodega briefed a variety of journalists on its massive concept. Given the simplicity of its product — a tech-enabled merchandising machine, in essence — the crew was blindsided by the uproarious response that adopted. September 13, 2017 was presupposed to be probably the most thrilling day within the startup’s historical past, a minimum of till that time; as an alternative, it was a nightmarish lesson in poor branding and messaging.

Why do tech wizards preserve pondering of latest and extra horrible methods to keep away from coping with folks? -CityLab, September 13, 2017

The press storm and public lambasting catapulted Bodega into the limelight — for all of the mistaken causes. Overnight, the corporate went from simply one other early-stage commerce enterprise to the image of every part that’s mistaken with Silicon Valley. Many questioned if it could fall sufferer to criticism and crumble like Juicero, a well-financed startup that offered a $400 juicer — that’s, till a Bloomberg story proved its juice packets might be squeezed by hand, no machine needed. Or wouldn’t it take the general public condemnation in stride, listening to out the critics and amending its model as needed?
Two years after its ill-fated launch, the latter appears to be true. Today, the three-year-old Oakland-based firm — now referred to as Stockwell — is alleged to be rising rapidly due to greater than $45 million in enterprise capital funding from a variety of deep-pocketed traders, the corporate has confirmed to TechSwap.
Bodega’s authentic branding included a cat brand. Cats are sometimes options of small neighborhood shops, referred to as bodegas.
Public outcry
“Bodega is either the worst named startup of the year, or the most devious,” wrote The Verge within the fall of 2017. “Tech firm markets glorified vending machines where users can buy groceries,” stated The Guardian. The Washington Post dubbed the corporate “America’s most hated start-up.” CityLab, which writes about points impacting cities, bluntly reported “Bodega, a Startup for Disrupting Bodegas, Is Terrible,” adopted by 30 explanation why the startup sucks: “Maybe a Bodega can stock Soylent to appeal to people who also think that eating delicious food is a grim burden,” CityLab wrote. “Why do tech wizards keep thinking of new and more horrible ways to avoid dealing with people? How come they hate being human?”
It’s protected to say Bodega endured one of the crucial catastrophic firm launches within the historical past of tech startups. But the press cycle surrounding Bodega was greater than an assault on the startup alone. It represented a better frustration with Silicon Valley tradition and its status for funding “disruptive” merchandise devoid of influence. Time and time once more, VCs had confirmed their willingness to inject hundreds of thousands into normal ideas missing originality. A juicer had raised greater than $100 million, in spite of everything, scooters had been starting to draw non-public capital and Soylent, which sells a meal alternative drink match for techies, was sizzling off the heels of a $50 million spherical.
A mini-fridge geared up with laptop imaginative and prescient expertise boasting a culturally insensitive identify wasn’t going to vary the world. Questioning why it had the assist of VCs was solely honest.

An harmless misunderstanding?
Behind the upsetting identify was a enterprise creating a whole bunch of five-foot-wide pantry packing containers to be housed in luxurious condo lobbies, places of work, school campuses, gyms and extra. Similar to Amazon Go, the “smart stores” acknowledge what clients take away from the instances utilizing laptop imaginative and prescient and routinely cost the bank card related to the account.

When you’re not within the room, the identify of your organization is what will get handed between folks. -James Currier, NFX .

Bodega was based by a pair of Google veterans, Paul McDonald and Ashwath Rajan. It had all of the components for a profitable startup stew. Founders with years of expertise in massive tech: McDonald spent greater than a decade at Google; Rajan had simply completed up the search engine’s aggressive affiliate product supervisor program. Both attended high universities: University of California -Berkeley and Columbia University, respectively. Still, neither of the 2 males nor their traders appeared to have predicted the controversy afoot.
“Bodega doesn’t want to disrupt the bodega,” Hunter Walk, a Bodega investor and co-founder of the seed fund Homebrew, wrote in a 2017 weblog publish. “Some instances of today’s press coverage suggested that element, a sound bite which, exacerbated by Bodega’s naming, pissed people off as another example of tech startups being at best tone-deaf, and at worst, predatory … It didn’t occur to me that some people would see the word and associate its use in this context with whitewashing or cultural appropriation.”
The firm, too, rapidly authored a weblog publish outlining their thought course of behind the identify: “Rather than disrespect to traditional corner stores — or worse yet, a threat — we intended only admiration,” McDonald wrote.

After penning weblog posts, the founders continued engaged on the corporate beneath the provocative and upsetting identify. Meanwhile, traders appeared unfazed by the unfavourable press, evidenced by the corporate’s means to proceed elevating enterprise capital funding. After all, lots of the finest companies endure the wrath of bloggers, competing founders and most people. As for VCs, high-risk bets are simply a part of the ball recreation.
DCM Ventures, a U.S.-based enterprise capital fund with places of work in Beijing, Tokyo and Silicon Valley, was the primary to comply with put money into Bodega following the PR catastrophe. The agency, an investor in Lime, Hims and SoFi, led a $7.5 million Series A financing within the enterprise in early 2018, the corporate confirmed. DCM co-founder and normal associate David Chao joined the corporate’s board following the deal. DCM vp David Cheng can also be actively concerned with the corporate, in accordance with his bio.
Finally, after pocketing almost $10 million in whole funding, Bodega introduced a reputation change: “Did you buy something today from a Bodega?” Bodega’s McDonald wrote. “You may have noticed that we’ve changed our name to Stockwell . Our new name is one of the changes we’re making as we expand our offerings and open more stores around the country.”
Stockwell, fka Bodega, founders Paul McDonald (left) and Ashwath Rajan (Courtesy of Stockwell).
A brand new period
With a brand new brand and a toned-down, considerably bland identification, Stockwell had a contemporary begin and, quickly, extra consideration from high VCs. In late 2018, the corporate raised a $35 million spherical of funding co-led by Uber and Slack-backer GV, previously referred to as Google Ventures, and NEA, an investor recognized for bets in Coursera, MasterClass and OpenDoor, Stockwell has confirmed. NEA’s Amit Mukherjee and GV’s John Lyman joined Stockwell’s board as a part of the deal, which is alleged to have valued the enterprise at north of $100 million. Stockwell, nevertheless, declined to verify the determine.

Instead of saying the information by way of TechSwap, Venture Beat, Forbes or one other tech publication, as is the norm for fast-growing consumer-facing startups, Stockwell remained mum on financing occasions and scaling plans, assumedly burned by the press and the general public’s scorn a 12 months prior.
Rather than topic itself to continued scrutiny because it tried to rewrite its narrative, Stockwell was heads down, iterating, increasing and quietly elevating hundreds of thousands. Bad press can break a startup, and given the sheer variety of unfavourable experiences on Stockwell so early on, the corporate had already defied the chances. Keeping a low profile was undoubtedly one of the best technique transferring ahead, and it appears to have paid off.
“It was a difficult time and transition and we learned a lot from it,” a spokesperson for Stockwell stated in an e-mail to TechSwap. “As a company, we put our heads down and focused on building our business. We kept a low profile and concentrated on our core product, the mission, and the people who work for us. We’re excited for the progress we’ve made but won’t forget the path that got us here.”
Today the corporate counts 1,000 “stores” within the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago. Stockwell has used its newest infusion of funding to discover shared possession fashions, i.e. the chance for anybody to run their very own Stockwell retailer. The firm tells TechSwap they’re additionally engaged on constructing out their “unique curation model,” which permits clients to assist decide what gadgets are stocked of their native “store,” in addition to their assist for rising manufacturers, whose merchandise they’ll inventory of their next-generation merchandising machines.
Stockwell’s five-foot extensive next-generation merchandising machine.
So what’s in a reputation?
Human beings make snap judgments, consider merchandise rapidly and might develop distaste for manufacturers in a matter of seconds. An organization’s moniker is their first alternative to impress clients.
“When you’re not in the room, the name of your company is what gets passed between people,” writes NFX co-founder James Currier. “It speaks for you when you’re not there … It sets expectations of your company in the blink of an eye. And first impressions are hard to change. Both positive and negative.”
Most instances of poor startup naming are simply mounted. Most founders aren’t compelled to bear the brunt of the web’s fury. The case of Bodega is far more excessive and, as such, serves as the final word lesson for founders looking for the easiest way to inform their story. At the tip of the day, avoiding an entire and whole train-wreck is straightforward in the event you embody a various group of individuals within the naming course of and bear in mind there’s quite a bit in a reputation — if that weren’t the case, Bodega would nonetheless be Bodega.