The World’s Most Ruthless Food Startup: The Inside Story of How HelloFresh Clawed Its Way to the Top

• Investors liked subscriptions because they appeared predictive: They could input certain assumptions—customer acquisition costs, margins, the number of subscribers who would likely quit over time—and then model their return on investment. Within this framework, all marketing expenses, from social media ads to direct mail to salespeople stalking people on street corners, were the price of buying customers.