I stole another glance at my phone to check the time. It was 5:54pm, and I was meant to be across town for dinner at 6. Surely I would be late, but it was hard to find the right moment to exit. Will Lasry was now 17 minutes deep into a conversation with a friend who joined us for drinks. They were discussing the nuances of life growing up in Nigeria, and the cultural norms and customs that came along with it — a conversation to which I had nothing to add but one I found hard to leave. Will didn’t grow up in Nigeria. He is Canadian. But his innate ability to understand and connect deeply with people who grew up worlds away from him is a marvel to watch.
Earlier that day, we wrapped the first edition of our Creator Bot School in San Francisco, where we taught 35 creator entrepreneurs how to code programs and projects with AI to help accelerate their businesses. When it came time for demos (and prizes), Will and his co-founder, Kishan, won first place. They built an agent to scan design files and return factories best suited to produce the items — an early prototype for a capability in production today; and part of an idea big enough for us to back with a $2.5m investment.
Our investment in Will Lasry and Glass Factory will help accelerate their mission to make manufacturing more accessible and transparent. The internet democratized how products are marketed. Shopify did the same for how products are sold. Glass Factory will do it for how products are made.
Will and team have visited more than 100 factories across Japan, Italy, Portugal, Türkiye, China, India, Colombia, Thailand, and counting. Every visit ends up on his YouTube channel as a behind-the-scenes look at the people and processes that power the factory. At each stop, they film the production lines, learn how quality garments are made, interview factory owners, and build real relationships with manufacturers who genuinely care about the products they make. They've also made a point of understanding the cultural differences between factories in places like Portugal, India, and China. Much like that conversation over drinks, Will's ability to connect with people across cultures (and generations) is one of his superpowers. Along the way, he's built a 1m+ following, largely emerging brand owners who are desperate to find a high-quality manufacturing partner.
You can watch their announcement video here.
Below is our abridged investment memo outlining why we decided to back Will, Kishan, and the entire Glass team. We couldn't be more grateful and excited to be alongside them on this ride.
— Megan
CREATOR
Will Lasry is a textile manufacturing expert with an audience of ~1.3 million (across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok) built on behind-the-scenes factory tours that document how clothing gets made. Will is the third generation of his family to make a living from the question of how clothes get made. His grandmother worked at Christian Dior, his grandfather worked in textiles, and his parents ran a fashion manufacturing business.
Will’s focus is the supply chain behind premium brands with cultural cachet. His first viral video was shot inside a Supreme factory. Since then he has filmed in more than 100 factories across nine countries. His audience is made up of designers who know how to make something people want but not how to get it produced. Will built Glass Factory around their deepest pain points in sourcing and manufacturing. It began as a paid factory directory and a consulting practice. Today it is a B2B agency and marketplace matching emerging brands with vetted manufacturing partners.
COMMUNITY
70% of Will's community are emerging fashion brands under three years old. They produce 50-200 units per style and have no prior production experience which typically excludes them from the traditional industry. Over 1,000 of his followers paid for his factory directory before Glass Factory existed. His Discord has nearly 10,000 members. The audience is also global. Will recently announced an event in Delhi with six hours' notice, and more than 100 people came. He is also developing his owned community of factory owners, many of whom are young and digitally native, having recently inherited their family businesses.
CATEGORY
Global apparel manufacturing is a $500 billion industry that is effectively closed to small brands. Finding a factory takes relationships and travel that most independent designers can't afford. The agencies that could do it for them are priced for volume. Meanwhile, the number of buyers keeps growing. Shopify alone hosts more than 830,000 live apparel storefronts. Most are run by designers who came up through Instagram and TikTok with no manufacturing network at all. More people than ever can design and sell a garment yet very few of them know where to get one made.
CURRENT BUSINESS
Will's paid directory, which ran from 2022 to 2024, proved his audience would pay for manufacturing expertise. The B2B marketplace followed after, and an AI production assistant is now in development. Within weeks of launch, the marketplace drew 8,500 users and roughly $7 million in inquiry value.