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Fortune
Fortune
Leo Schwartz

Consumer brands like Warby Parker and Casper built the New York tech scene. Where did they go?

Warby Parker store (Credit: Michael M. Santiago—Getty Images)

Can a mayonnaise company be a tech startup? 

Twenty years ago, as social media and enterprise software still transfixed venture investors, the answer would have been an obvious no. But that changed in the early 2010s with the “direct to consumer” revolution, including companies like Warby Parker, Glossier, and Away that cut out the middleman and convinced VCs to treat them like Silicon Valley hotshots. 

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