Outdoor Voices: The $15M Revival
Once the darling of DTC activewear, Outdoor Voices raised ~$65M from Forerunner, GV, and General Catalyst, hit ~$90M in revenue at peak, and built a retail footprint of 15 stores, before shuttering everything in 2024.
Enter Consortium Brand Partners. They acquired OV for just ~$15M and did something unexpected: they brought founder Tyler Haney back as partner and co-owner.
In the last 9 months, Haney:
Recruited a hybrid of original and new creative talent
Relaunched through her loyalty platform TYB
Reimagined the product line with a confident, community-first tone
The new OV line debuted last week. A rare second act in DTC, let’s hope the comeback sticks.
Walmart’s $325B AI Ambition
Walmart wants 50% of its $650B in revenue to come from online within 5 years and is going all-in on AI to make it happen.
Moves so far:
Hired Daniel Danker (ex-Instacart Product Chief) as EVP of AI Acceleration
Built an AI framework around four “super agents”; Sparky (customers), Marty (suppliers & advertisers), Associate (store teams), Developer (engineers), all using Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol
Reported results already: store managers saving 1 hr/shift on planning, customer service resolution time down 40%, faster trend detection across online + stores
Scaling AI across 4,700+ stores and 2.1M employees isn’t just tech, it’s operational discipline at retail’s biggest stage.
Membership Vet Care Gets $55M
Small Door Veterinary, a NYC-based premium vet care startup, just raised $55M from Valspring Capital to scale its $179/year membership model.
Perks include:
Annual exams
24/7 telehealth
Priority appointments
Transparent pricing
With 13 clinics today, the model echoes One Medical’s human primary care playbook, $199/year membership, tech-enabled access, which Amazon acquired for $3.9B.
The question: Can Small Door hit scale fast enough to become the One Medical of pet care?
🚨 Deal Alert: Soft Landing for DTC Furniture Brand
Modern furniture brand redefining “relaxed living” is exploring strategic options.
📈 Scaled from $0.9M (2022) → $2.9M (2024) on a single hero product
🪑 Premium modular lounge furniture with 57% gross margins
💬 $2,000 LTV on just $724 CAC
🎙 Podcast Spotlight — Building a Challenger Holdco
Josh Williams, CEO of Very Great, runs three very different brands — W&P (innovative kitchenware), Wild One (premium pet accessories), and Courant (design-first tech accessories) — under one roof.
We talk about:
How they decide when to build vs. acquire
The “design DNA” linking such different categories
Why they avoid chasing trends
Lessons from scaling across retail + DTC
How Wild One continues to grow at mid-8-figures
If you’re a founder or investor, this one’s a blueprint for building multi-brand platforms that last.
🎧 Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify.
That’s it for this week.
If you liked this issue, forward to a friend who obsesses over brand strategy, capital flows, or exit timing.
In the Money – following the flow of capital in consumer
P.S. We love talking to brands interested in exiting in the next 3-18 months. If you know of any brands interested in exiting, or any firms trying to help port cos manage turnarounds, we'd love to share a POV.
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