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When we heard that Ashton Kutcher had launched a home try-on t-shirt company with two other co-founders, we were skeptical. But after checking out the site (and noting the total absence of Ashton Kutcher's name), we were fairly impressed. T-shirts, man! An Oprah's favorite thing! No brainer! But we just got word that the company is shuttering. Or, in their words, "taking an extended staycation."
One of the co-founders, Ryan Donahue, confirmed to PandoDaily, "We had a hard conversation with our board and investors, and we mutually agreed that we gave it a good shot and it's time to move on. We built a good brand and a great product, with loyal customers, but where we really struggled was in unlocking healthy enough customer acquisition to scale it to a point where it made sense. We simply ran out of time and runway." Which is startup jargon for it couldn't get big enough to make things cheaply. RIP to Pickwick + Weller and to a time when we thought Ashton Kutcher possessed any business acumen in the digital space.
· Ashton Kutcher's Pickwick & Weller Closes Up Shop, Reminding Us that Ecommerce Is Plain Hard [Pando]
· Ashton Kutcher's T-Shirt Company Actually Looks Kind of Cool [Racked]