Illustrations: Eva Cremer

The Cutthroat Battle Between S’well and Its Bougie Water Bottle Copycats

Entrepreneur Sarah Kauss built a thriving $100 million business — but she never imagined the hell she’d find on the other side

Stephanie Clifford

Published in

Marker

22 min readNov 25, 2019

--

Sarah Kauss makes water bottles. Those bottles hold liquid. That’s it. That’s what your average person might think. But when Kauss…

Stephanie Clifford

Written by Stephanie Clifford

Writer for

Marker

Journalist covering criminal justice and business; novelist (NYT bestseller Everybody Rise). Latest: https://marker.medium.com/inside-the-surreal-and-emotional-

More from Stephanie Clifford and Marker

Stephanie Clifford
in
Marker

What Really Happens When You Become an Overnight Millionaire?

Peter Rahal started RxBar out of his mom’s kitchen — then sold it for $600 million. Life on the other side of the entrepreneurial fantasy.

13 min readSep 30, 2019

--

Peter Shanosky
in
Marker

America Has Become A Three-Caste, Medieval Economy

Upward mobility is gone. Income inequality is continually rising. Welcome to the new economy.

7 min readFeb 17, 2022

--

Bryce Covert
in
Marker

Why Have So Many Breast Pump Startups Flamed Out?

Despite years of hype, these entrepreneurs are finding it’s nearly impossible to survive

12 min readJan 6, 2020

--

An illustrated collage of MacKenzie Bezos.

Stephanie Clifford
in
Marker

The Inside Story of MacKenzie Scott, the Mysterious 60-Billion-Dollar Woman

Amazon’s first employee, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, and one of the world’s richest women is rewriting the philanthropy playbook

22 min readOct 7, 2020

--

See all from Stephanie Clifford

See all from Marker

Recommended from Medium

Unbecoming

10 Seconds That Ended My 20 Year Marriage

It’s August in Northern Virginia, hot and humid. I still haven’t showered from my morning trail run. I’m wearing my stay-at-home mom…

4 min readFeb 16, 2022

--

The PyCoach
in
Artificial Corner

You’re Using ChatGPT Wrong! Here’s How to Be Ahead of 99% of ChatGPT Users

Master ChatGPT by learning prompt engineering.

7 min readMar 17

--

Lists

Business 101

25 stories61 saves

Company Offsite Reading List

8 stories10 saves

How to Find a Mentor

11 stories39 saves

Intro to People Ops: Not Your Mama's HR

8 stories5 saves

four cartoonish images of a white woman in business wear. i like this image because it looks like 4 different social media profiles.

Zulie Rane
in
The Startup

If You Want to Be a Creator, Delete All (But Two) Social Media Platforms

In October 2022, during the whole Elon Musk debacle, I finally deleted Twitter from my phone. Around the same time, I also logged out of…

8 min readApr 19

--

Aleid ter Weel
in
Better Advice

10 Things To Do In The Evening Instead Of Watching Netflix

Device-free habits to increase your productivity and happiness.

5 min readFeb 15, 2022

--

Alexander Nguyen
in
Level Up Coding

Why I Keep Failing Candidates During Google Interviews…

They don’t meet the bar.

4 min readApr 13

--

Chris Davidson
in
In Fitness And In Health

Looking Better Than 99% of People Over 40 is About One Thing

Not workouts, diet, supplements or any ‘hack’. Once you nail this there’s no stopping you.

5 min readApr 17

--

See more recommendations

Help
Status
Writers
Blog
Careers
Privacy
Terms
About
Text to speech