Brit + Co

Based in San Francisco, California, Brit + Co is a digital media and e-commerce company that provides creative content, online classes, and do-it-yourself project tutorials targeted primarily at a demographic of women. The platform integrates educational resources with retail operations, offering instructional materials and consumer products across lifestyle categories such as crafts, cooking, and fashion. The enterprise has raised over $50 million in venture capital funding and previously reported reaching 130 million monthly users with more than 1.2 billion total pageviews. Following a period of financial restructuring in 2019, the organization's corporate headcount was reduced to approximately 52 employees. The company's financial backers include prominent institutional and angel investors such as Oak Investment Partners, Intel Capital, Verizon Ventures, and Marissa Mayer. Brit + Co was founded in 2011 by Brit Morin and Anjelika Temple.

High-Level Overview

Brit + Co is a digital media, e-commerce, and lifestyle brand targeted at women, offering DIY projects, online classes, creative content, kits, and products to inspire creativity and build confidence in making.[1][2][3] Founded in 2011 by Brit Morin, it serves a massive community of primarily millennial and Gen Z women, solving the problem of low "creative confidence" by providing accessible inspiration, education, and tools for DIY crafts, home decor, cooking, and lifestyle projects.[1][3][6] The company grew to reach over 175 million users online and across platforms, blending media with commerce through partnerships like Target and events, though it faced challenges including 2019 layoffs and restructuring after exhausting $45 million in funding.[1][3][7]

Origin Story

Brit + Co was founded in late 2011 by Brit Morin, a former product manager at Google and Apple, who left tech giants after noticing her non-creative girlfriends lacked confidence in making despite the rising "maker movement" fueled by Pinterest and Etsy.[1][3][5][6] Co-founder Anjelika Temple joined early, and the idea emerged from Morin's passion for merging technology with hands-on creativity, starting as a content hub to educate and inspire real women.[3][5] Early traction came quickly: seed funding of $1.25 million in 2012, followed by $6.3 million Series A led by Oak Investment Partners in 2013, and $20 million Series B from Intel Capital in 2015, enabling the acquisition of DIY app Snapguide.[1][4] Pivotal moments included launching experiential events like the Re:Make conference (peaking at 15,000 attendees in 2016) and Holiday House pop-ups.[1]

Core Differentiators

• Content and Storytelling Focus: Highly stylized "how-to" guides, videos, and user-generated stories with a distinct visual style and authentic voice, driving engagement and brand partnerships by humanizing products, especially for tech companies seeking personal connections.[2][6]
• Media-Commerce Blend: Seamlessly merges free creative content (hundreds of pieces monthly, tens of millions of video views) with e-commerce like DIY kits, online classes, and exclusive lines such as Brit + Co for Cheeky® tableware at Target.[2][3]
• Community and Experiential Ecosystem: Builds a participatory culture reaching 175 million+ via an "everywhere" social media strategy, events like Re:Make and Selfmade accelerator (launched 2020 for pandemic-impacted women), fostering loyalty among creative women.[1][2][3]
• Founder-Led Mission: Brit Morin's personal DIY ethos differentiates it, expanding creativity beyond crafts to career, home, and life skills for dynamic women.[3][5]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Brit + Co rode the early 2010s maker movement and social media explosion (Pinterest, Etsy, Instagram), timing perfectly with millennials' DIY revolution amid digital content consumption shifts.[2][3][6] It influenced women's digital media by pioneering creator economy hybrids—content as commerce—while navigating publisher challenges like platform dependency through multi-network programming.[2] Market forces like rising female entrepreneurship and post-pandemic self-reliance (e.g., Selfmade) favored its growth, though funding exhaustion highlighted VC risks in media startups; its 175 million reach and Target partnerships amplified the ecosystem for women-led creativity and e-commerce.[1][3][7]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Post-2019 restructuring, Brit + Co persists as a creativity powerhouse, leveraging its 10+ year community (celebrated in 2021) for sustained media-commerce plays amid evolving trends like AI-assisted DIY and short-form video dominance.[1][5] Expect expansion into personalized tools, deeper retail partnerships, and Web3 creator economies, shaping women's empowerment in a post-cookie digital world. Its resilience ties back to Morin's original spark: proving every woman is creative, positioning it to thrive as the maker movement matures.