Frictionless: Why the Future of Everything Will Be Fast, Fluid, and Made Just for You

by Christiane Lemieux, Duff McDonald

Overview

Serial entrepreneur Christiane Lemieux describes the new rules of entrepreneurship and business, arguing that visionary startups leverage the concept of “frictionless” to beat their competitors.   

Based on interviews with dozens of startup founders, experts and scholars on entrepreneurship, Frictionless provides readers with a wide-ranging education in starting companies that thrive in the world of frictionless commerce—made possible by new technologies, a new mindset, and new demands from Millennial consumers. Working with bestselling author and journalist Duff McDonald, Lemieux also shares her own story—lessons learned, failures absorbed—at the helm of DwellStudio (which was acquired by Wayfair) and her latest venture, The Inside.  

Some founders profiled in the book are reducing friction in their own business models, others reduce friction through improved customer experiences, and still others are revolutionizing their operations to create frictionless organizations. Readers will glean lessons from the founders of well-known companies such as Instant Pot, Bonobos, Hims, and Halo Top—as well as upstarts Billie, Dame Products, and Convene. 

Frictionless outlines the groundwork necessary for getting a company up-and-running and explains how companies make and market products and services while meeting the demands of their customers and employees today. Frictionless is the essential handbook for creating tomorrow’s mind set and competitive advantage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062893673
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/23/2020
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Christiane Lemieux is a serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of direct-to-consumer home furnishings brand, The Inside and also operates and designs her namesake lifestyle brand, Lemieux et Cie. The first company she founded, DwellStudio, sold to Wayfair in 2013, where Lemieux served as Wayfair’s Executive Creative Director until 2016. Additionally, she was a co-host and a judge on Ellen Degeneres’ HGTV furniture design competition show Ellen’s Design Challenge.

Lemieux authored her first book to critical acclaim in 2011, titled Undecorate and released her second best-selling book The Finer Things in 2016. Her most recent book focused on the new rules of entrepreneurship and business, Frictionless, goes on sale this June 2020. Lemieux is a frequent contributor to Architectural Digest, Apartment Therapy and other design media. 

Lemieux has been listed as one of Fortune’s 2012 'Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, sits on the board of Every Mother Counts, and is a passionate philanthropist. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and Queen’s University in Canada and resides in New York City. 

Duff McDonald is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase, and The Golden Passport and the coauthor of The CEO, a satire. A contributing editor at the New York Observer, he has also written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, New York, Esquire, Fortune, Businessweek, GQ, Wired, Time, Newsweek, and other publications. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 What Do We Mean by Frictionless? 1

Chapter 2 My Journey Toward Frictionlessness 9

Chapter 3 The Frictionless Elephants: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 33

Chapter 4 A Frictionless Experience 41

The End of the Line Eric Kinariwala, Founder and CEO of Capsule 47

The One-Click Move David Greenberg, Founder and CEO of Updater 53

Project Body Hair Georgina Gooley, Cofounder of Billie 59

The Most Comfortable Pair of Sweatpants Ever Made Joe Kudla, Founder and CEO of vuori 63

Getting Personal Arnaud Plas, Cofounder and CEO of Prose 69

Men Have Skin and Feelings Too Nick Allen Dave Skaff, Cofounders of Geologie 73

When Your Best Customers are "Potheads" Robert Wang, Founder and CEO of Instant Brands 79

We've Got You Covered Jennifer Fitzgerald François de Lame, Cofounders of Policygenius 83

Schooled by the Machine Max Bennett Fayez Mohamood Mahmoud Arram, Cofounders of Bluecore 89

Chapter 5 Frictionless Competition 93

Everybody Wins, Including Your Dog Brett Podolsky Jonathan Regev, Cofounders of the Farmer's Dog 107

The Four Seasons of Coworking Ryan Simonetti, Cofounder and CEO of Convene 113

Start Your Startup Here Emily Heyward, Cofounder of Red Antler 119

Disrupting Insurance the Artist's Way Dave Hanley, Founder and CEO of Tomorrow 125

Decadent and Healthy Justin Woolverton, Founder of Halo Top Creamery 131

How to Ace "The Walgreens Test" Andrew Dudum, Founder and CEO of Hims 137

Chapter 6 Frictionless Organizations 143

The Organization is the Product Ari Buchalter, CEO of Intersection 147

What Office? Andrea Breanna, Founder and CEO of Rebelmouse 155

The Power of the Pivot Chris Kemper, Founder and CEO of Palmetto 161

The Frictionless Fit Andy Dunn, Cofounder and CEO of Bonobos, Former SVP of Digital Brands, Walmart Ecommerce 169

Chapter 7 The Frictionless YOU 179

The Courage to Learn Heidi Neck, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Babson College 181

The CEO of Living Forever Gil Blander, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Insidetracker 185

Go with Your Gut Dr. Erika Ebbel Angle, Cofounder and CEO of Ixcela 191

The Business of Orgasm Alexandra Fine, Cofounder and CEO of Dame Products 197

One Penny at a Time Brandon Krieg, Cofounder and CEO of Stash 203

Chapter 8 Frictionless Systems 207

Can I Put it on My Spaceship? Matt Barnard, Cofounder and CEO of Plenty 213

Eating Our Way Out of this Mess Brent Preston Gillian Flies, Cofounders of the New Farm 219

Trillion-Dollar Triage Sanjeev Krishnan, Chief Investment Officer of S2G Ventures 225

Changing the World from the Bottom Up Jimmy Chen, Founder and CEO of Propel Hannah Calhoon, Cofounder and Managing Director of Blue Ridge Labs 231

Designing a Community Mariam Naficy, Founder and CEO of Minted 237

Kicking People in the Wallet Patti Greene, Professor Emeritus, Babson College 243

We're all Technologists Now Georgie Giner Benardete, CEO of Align17 247

Conclusion 253

Acknowledgments 259

Notes 261

Editorial Reviews

02/24/2020

Every successful start-up has helped reduce the “friction,” or inconvenience, of day-to-day life, asserts Lemieux (The Finer Things), founder of The Inside, a home furnishing company, in her snappy but thin survey. Lemieux interviewed more than six dozen entrepreneurs and found each one, in one way or another, trying to reduce inconvenience—whether in pharmacy prescriptions, shaving kits, customized hair care, or office rentals. She warns that in modern business being frictionless isn’t just advantageous, it’s necessary—digital natives won’t bother with products that are anything less. Less time spent on using a good or service means more to spend on family, friends, or oneself, Lemieux writes, and, based on interactions with her own millennial workforce, she believes “found time” is important for younger generations. While Lemieux’s tone is refreshingly salty—millennial workers are “taking back their time from the people that have been taking it away from the rest of us our whole lives”—the concept of friction reduction is overly familiar, and the frequent plugs for her business are off-putting. There’s little new here. (June)

Publishers Weekly

With more nonprofits looking to other sectors for best practices in engaging and mobilizing constituents, particularly through the use of available and new technologies, there is no book more timely or relevant than Frictionless. Christiane has gathered opinions from some of the best thinkers, from whom we all could learn a lesson or two on dissolving the barriers between people and their passions.” — Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts

“In the world of fashion and retail, the more we reduce the friction from every aspect of our business, the easier it becomes to delight and engage our customers. Anyone looking to advance business, disrupt incumbents, or reshape industries should read Christiane’s book. She has helped me by gathering the opinions of other entrepreneurs and experts.” — Clare Vivier, founder of Clare V

“Frictionless is a creative user’s manual for the postvirus world, a way forward that is smarter, faster, and more nimble. Christiane Lemieux is a wayfinder, and this book may show the direction for the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.” — Michael Cannell, author of A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc.

“Anyone looking to advance their business, disrupt incumbents, or reshape industries should read Christiane’s book. She has gathered the opinions of an erudite cohort doing just that.” — Anjali Kumar, founding general counsel and head of Social Innovation at Warby Parker

From the Publisher

Frictionless is a creative user’s manual for the postvirus world, a way forward that is smarter, faster, and more nimble. Christiane Lemieux is a wayfinder, and this book may show the direction for the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Michael Cannell

With more nonprofits looking to other sectors for best practices in engaging and mobilizing constituents, particularly through the use of available and new technologies, there is no book more timely or relevant than Frictionless. Christiane has gathered opinions from some of the best thinkers, from whom we all could learn a lesson or two on dissolving the barriers between people and their passions.

Christy Turlington Burns

In the world of fashion and retail, the more we reduce the friction from every aspect of our business, the easier it becomes to delight and engage our customers. Anyone looking to advance business, disrupt incumbents, or reshape industries should read Christiane’s book. She has helped me by gathering the opinions of other entrepreneurs and experts.

Clare Vivier

Anyone looking to advance their business, disrupt incumbents, or reshape industries should read Christiane’s book. She has gathered the opinions of an erudite cohort doing just that.

Anjali Kumar

04/01/2020

What will the next wave of successful start-up businesses have in common? According to Lemieux (Undecorate, The Finer Things) and McDonald (The Golden Passport) it's that they will deliver what they have promised (whatever that may be) without monopolizing any of their customers' preciously guarded free time. To be "frictionless," any given business transaction must seem to be effortless and instant and the start-ups that will flourish will be those driven by services that make something we're already doing easier, thereby adding to that free time. Though there are frequent references to co-author McDonald, the book is written as first-person advice from Lemieux. This advice comes largely in the form of examples from the current crop of start-ups that embody various aspects of the titular concept—"frictionless experience," "frictionless competition," "frictionless YOU"—31 in all. Lemieux also details what she's learned from her own start-up experiences with DwellStudio and The Inside. VERDICT Following the evolution of ideas that led to the businesses Lemieux describes makes for interesting reading as well as speculation as to whether her predictions of success will hold true. Will appeal to budding entrepreneurs and those interested in start-up culture.—Sara Holder, Univ. of Illinois Libs., Champaign

Library Journal

Serial retail entrepreneur Christiane Lemieux is a highly intelligent writer, so she needed someone equally intelligent to narrate this exceptional guide to how high-tech consumer brands and retailers interact with customers today. Jean Ann Douglass deftly manages the delicate balance between sounding totally in command of her content and friendly enough to soften the hard-hitting realities this audio delivers. Her comfortable phrasing and mid-range vocal pitch sound lilting but confident, assertive but humble, and respectful but not solicitous toward her listeners. Lemieux, using her own business experience and the success stories of familiar brands, explains how customer analytics and fulfillment paradigms are creating buying opportunities that are lightning-quick and free from unnecessary friction. T.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Serial retail entrepreneur Christiane Lemieux is a highly intelligent writer, so she needed someone equally intelligent to narrate this exceptional guide to how high-tech consumer brands and retailers interact with customers today. Jean Ann Douglass deftly manages the delicate balance between sounding totally in command of her content and friendly enough to soften the hard-hitting realities this audio delivers. Her comfortable phrasing and mid-range vocal pitch sound lilting but confident, assertive but humble, and respectful but not solicitous toward her listeners. Lemieux, using her own business experience and the success stories of familiar brands, explains how customer analytics and fulfillment paradigms are creating buying opportunities that are lightning-quick and free from unnecessary friction. T.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile