I felt gaslit by Cometeer

Jan 31, 2023

∙ Paid

Good morning.

If you asked me a year ago, “Hey Emily, what company probably isn’t going to make it?” odds are I would’ve said Cometeer. Cometeer raised more than $100 million for its flash-frozen coffee pods, popular with VCs and the tech twitter set. In December, Cometeer quietly conducted layoffs and installed its chief operating officer as co-CEO. Former employees spoke of dysfunction and high executive turnover as growth has slowed at the most-funded coffee startup ever, where head count is down nearly 50%. Every time a friend has tried to suggest the brand to me, I felt like I was being tricked. Cometeer is more expensive than Nespresso and other at-home options, but still struggled to make any money of each order it shipped. As Forbes journalist Alex Konrad wrote," “DTC flash-frozen coffee is hard!” This is how I make coffee: buy the ground French vanilla coffee from Dunkin, put it in the pour over, pour water over it, add milk.

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