Wittlebee
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Wittlebee was a subscription-based kids' clothing club, often dubbed the 'Birchbox for babies.' Launched in 2012 out of the Science incubator in Los Angeles by Sean Percival, it charged $39.99 a month for a curated box of eight essentials — onesies, t-shirts, socks, leggings — selected from brands like Gap, Carter's, American Apparel and Cotton Seed, tailored to the child's size, color preferences and location. It raised about $2.6 million, acquired kids' label Cottonseed in late 2012, but never secured a Series A and sold to FabKids in November 2013.
02 / Wittlebee FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Wittlebee was a casualty of the 2012–2013 Series A crunch for e-commerce startups. Revenue was still growing, but the company was undercapitalized and could not close a Series A round; co-founder and CEO Sean Percival stepped down in May 2013, saying time had run out. That November, Wittlebee sold to rival FabKids for pennies on the dollar. Notably, the subscription model itself was sound — it succeeded under the new parent — so the failure was a capital-market timing failure rather than a broken business model. This concerns Wittlebee's financing, not subscription commerce as a category.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Wittlebee launches out of the Science incubator in Los Angeles: a $39.99-a-month curated kids' clothing club; it acquires kids' label Cottonseed later that year.
- Workforce reduced
Unable to raise a Series A amid the e-commerce funding crunch, co-founder and CEO Sean Percival steps down in May; the company scales back.
- Acquisition
In November 2013, Wittlebee sells to rival kids' clothing club FabKids for pennies on the dollar.
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
How the factors connect
- 01
2012: 'Birchbox for babies' launches from LA's Science incubator
- 02
$39.99/mo curated kids' clothing; ~$2.6M raised
- 03
2013: Series A crunch; CEO Sean Percival steps down in May
- 04
November 2013: sold to FabKids for pennies on the dollar