Henry Davis
General Partner, White Star Capital. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorexecutivefounderwhitestarcapital.com/team/henry-davis ↗
Henry Davis is best known for helping scale direct-to-consumer beauty brand Glossier as its President, COO, and CFO, and later co-founding e-commerce data platform Chord Commerce. Today, he is a General Partner at venture firm White Star Capital, having earlier worked as a venture capitalist at Index Ventures.
2shows
2appearances
13statements
3resolved
2supported
0contradicted
67%fully supported
19said about them ↓ Everything Henry Davis said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Davis: Amazon is destroying the traditional brand ecosystem
“I think Amazon is destroying the brand ecosystem. And that's the opportunity that we see at Glossier is to take digital and redefine it away from what Amazon is trying to make e-commerce.”
Davis: VC diversity pipeline arguments disguise exclusionary hiring practices
“You're either saying in the entire world, there are not minority groups in this industry as clever as we are, which I don't think anyone's intending, or you're saying that you fundamentally have set up your recruiting processes in a way that excludes them. You…”
Davis: Traditional brands rely on shelf hegemony, not true brand loyalty
“I think what a lot of brands are about to find out with the advent of Amazon is that they don't have as much brand loyalty as they think they do. They have product loyalty and shelf hegemony.”
Davis: Glossier aims to replace L'Oréal and Estée Lauder as conglomerates
“But we believe that that is very short-sighted of us to even think about that option, because actually what we want to do is replace L'Oreal or Estee Lauder as the massive conglomerate incumbent.”
Davis: Venture capital is as bad as any industry for diversity
“And I think venture capital is, is as bad as any industry for diversity and should be called out as such.”
Davis: Glossier questions every VC firm it meets on diversity practices
“So every venture capital firm we meet, and we're fortunate enough now to have access to some really great firms, we ask about their approach to diversity. And we call them out when we get an answer about, yeah, we're trying to hire, but you know, we just can't…”
Davis: Amazon won multi-brand e-commerce; new entrants must build single brands
“My thesis around e-commerce investing was that multi-brand e-commerce had already been won by Amazon, which was true then. It's even truer today. And if you wanted to play in e-commerce, you had to go the branded route.”
Davis: Glossier has no intention of being acquired
“Well, just to put to bed any rumors, no one has moved on Glossier just yet, and we have no intention of being moved on.”
Davis: The future of consumer brands will be entirely digital
“I believe that the future of brand will be entirely digital. I think brick and mortar will serve a purpose to be a touch point for brand, but I think that the fundamental tenant of what it means to be a brand in the world will be access and community in a way …”
Davis: Early DTC giants won primarily through supply chain efficiencies
“Warby Parker and Harry's and Dollar Shave Club and so on and so forth were doing wonderful things. They'd typically been supply chain disruption businesses, and they'd been targeting efficiencies in the supply chain to give the customer a cost saving or an eff…”
Henry Davis: Brushing teeth immediately after drinking coffee wears down softened enamel
“It's actually best to wait 30 minutes after your last sip to brush your teeth, because you can actually wear your enamel that has just been softened by the acid from the coffee.”
Davis: Amazon is on track to claim over 40% of US e-commerce
“Amazon's market share of US e-commerce, for example, was a third two years ago. I think it was 36 or 37% last year, and it's on track to be over 40% this year.”
Davis: Glossier delayed UK expansion for three years due to infrastructure
“We're three years and six days old now, and it took us three years to come to the UK despite demand from the beginning. And we would have loved to have been able to do that right away. But as a company, we didn't have the infrastructure to be able to offer the…”
The other half of the tape: Henry Davis's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 19 times in 6 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 19
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 19
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 18 mentions in 5 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: Index's Danny Rimer on His Biggest Lessons On Price, Ownership, Board Dynamics & Building Consumer Businesses from Backing The Likes of King, Skype, Farfetch, Glossier and more...
- 20VC: Why Brands Can Have The Same Revenue Multiples As Enterprise Companies & The Right Way To Think About Amazon In Today's World of Commerce with Eurie Kim, General Partner @ Forerunner Ventures
- 20VC: 3 Core Considerations When Investing In Physical Product Co's, Are We In A Direct-To-Consumer Bubble & Why Many Sub $100m Funds Are Moving Earlier and Earlier with Nick Brown, Managing Partner @ Imaginary
- 20VC: The Fundamentals Of Optimising The Fundraising Process, SAFE's vs Priced Equity Rounds & Why Hiring Is Really A Big Data Problem with Chris Hutchins, Founder @ Grove & Former Partner @ Google Ventures
- 20VC: 3 Key Differences Between US and Asian Tech Markets & With Such Large Incumbents Chasing Early Acquisitions, Is There A Market For Later Stage VC with Crystal Huang, Investor @ GGV Capital
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Henry's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | General Partner, White Star Capital | 1 | 12 | 50% 1/2 | full record on 20VC → |
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | General Partner, White Star Capital | 1 | 1 | 100% 1/1 | full record on How I Built This → |