Plum District
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Plum District was a San Francisco daily-deals site for moms, founded by Megan Gardner and launched in March 2010. It ran a 'deal of the day' in each local market — Orange County, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Denver and San Francisco at its peak of 27 metro areas — sourced by a sales force of moms ('District Consultants'), and made money from affiliate marketing, ad placements and merchant revenue-sharing. It raised over $30 million from General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Comcast Ventures and Duke University, acquired Chatterfly, DoodleDeals and Spotivate, and partnered with Disney on Disney Family Deals in 2012.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
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03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launch
Plum District launches in March 2010 as a daily-deals site for moms, founded by Megan Gardner.
- $20M Series C
In December 2011, Plum District raises $20 million led by General Catalyst (total funding $30M+) and acquires Chatterfly and DoodleDeals.
- Contraction
From a peak of 27 metro areas, the company contracts nearly 50% by August 2012 with several rounds of layoffs as the daily-deals market cools.
- CEO change
Founder Megan Gardner departs; ex-Googler Susan Kim permanently takes over as CEO in March 2013, and the company acquires Spotivate.
- Acquired by Coupon Lawn
In July 2020, coupon site Coupon Lawn acquires Plum District's website and merges the two sites.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
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