Since when is increasing your AOV a crime?
Don't blame Haus's random parent company for getting the bag
Good morning.
Four of you emailed me about Haus, and about 38 of you tweeted about it. Less than a year after announcing that it would be ceasing operations due to losing funding, Haus, the low-alcohol spirits company that was a DTC darling, was acquired earlier this year. Raising approximately $17mm (!!!) in funds from venture capitalists and other investors, Haus quickly grabbed headlines — I remember in 2019 when they launched because I was sitting in the office of a startup with five coworkers who got absolute boners for news like this.
So, when co-founder Helena Price Hambrecht announced that Constellation Brands had abruptly pulled out of a $10mm Series A funding round in July of 2022 and the company was in trouble, many were shocked. Not long after, in August, the company entered a voluntary ABC (Assignment for Benefit of Creditors) period, effectively shuttering operations. The Naked Market (which raised a $27.5mm series A led by Hong Kong-based Integrated Capital in 2021) purchased Haus earlier this year to add to its portfolio and completely relaunch the brand. And don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of The Naked Market either but it looks like they’re a totally millennial-coded “omni-channel food & beverage platform that creates & launches health oriented brands/products across a variety of categories.” I always have a pet peeve for people who use that many &’s and /’s on their About Page, but that is not my job and they are hiring a CMO so I’ll leave it to that person.
Which brings us to the caviar. Yesterday, Haus returned to Instagram after a few quiet months with a welcome message: “Say hello to Haus Siberian Reserve Caviar.” The CPG community took to their keyboards:
When I noticed yesterday that someone from The Naked Market subscribed to Feed Me, I reached out. Here’s what the new Haus team emailed me last night: