diapers.com: Marc Lore. The ecommerce visionary who lost to Amazon but still made billions (2021)
From How I Built This with Guy Raz by Guy Raz | Wondery
March 30, 2026 · 1h 13m · Episode 822
About this episode
Marc Lore shares his journey of building Diapers.com and his subsequent ventures in ecommerce, including the challenges faced with Amazon and Walmart.
Back in the early days of ecommerce, Marc Lore took a classic retail loss leader–diapers– and turned it into a DTC giant– Diapers.com . It did so well that it attracted the attention of Amazon, which slashed prices on its own diapers until Marc was forced to sell them his business. It was not a happy moment, but it was a galvanizing one: Marc went on to launch another ecommerce company, jet.com. Within a year, it was bought by Walmart in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. This is a story about a devastating corporate surrender, a multi-million dollar comeback, and a founder with a relentless ability to re-invent himself. Timestamps: 10:04 – Marc’s “boost-your-grades” bet with his college coach 14:21 – A job on Wall Street and a Master Plan: 8 figures by age 48 16:28 – How a lunchtime lark turned into a spot on the U.S. Bobsled Team 27:44 – How random Google searches led Marc to diapers 35:29 – Guerilla tactic: Buying all of P&G’s diapers to get their attention 40:07 – The simple packaging hack that boosted sales 45:53 – Building a retail empire (and getting on Amazon’s radar)…
People in this episode
Host: Guy Raz
Guest: Marc Lore
Topics covered
- ecommerce
- business strategy
- entrepreneurship
- corporate challenges
- comeback stories
Keywords
- ecommerce
- Diapers.com
- Marc Lore
- Amazon
- Walmart
- jet.com
- business strategy
- entrepreneurship
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Amazon, Walmart, jet.com, Diapers.com
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