The once famous vape giant

Once upon a time, Juul was the leader in the U.S. vape market, with unlimited success. However, what is incredible is that in just a few years, it fell from the top to the bottom. Now Juul is struggling and suffering a lot, which really proves the saying: how beautiful it was in the past, it is so miserable now.

Juul is the pioneer of nicotine salt e-liquid. The vape equipped with nicotine salt e-liquid has been very popular with the public as soon as it was launched. In 2018, Juul, which was only three years old, secured the top spot in the U.S. vape market, with a market share of more than 70%. Annual revenue has reached US$2 billion, and the number of employees has grown from 200 to 1,500. In July of that year, Juul completed US$650 million in financing, with a valuation of US$15 billion. Five months later, U.S. tobacco giant Altria spent $12.8 billion to acquire a 35% stake in Juul, valuing Juul at $38 billion.

Altria is the former Philip Morris Group, which owns many traditional tobacco brands such as Marlboro. The reason why they are so eager to hold shares in Juul is obviously because they hope to lay out the vape market in advance and open up the market for their vape product Markten Elite.

. At that time, Juul was the sixth-largest startup in the United States by market value, and its valuation even exceeded that of SpaceX. With billions of dollars in cash, they are also the most established startups. After receiving investment from Altria, Juul subsequently spent $400 million to buy an office building in San Francisco. Juul’s subsequent actions shocked Silicon Valley even more: they decided to allocate US$2 billion as year-end bonuses to 1,500 employees, equivalent to an average income of US$1.3 million per capita.

However, these were also the last good days for Juul. In the past four years, Juul has always been the number one target of regulatory authorities, whether it is local government or federal government, whether it is the Trump administration or the Biden administration. Injunction after injunction, investigation after investigation, lawsuit after lawsuit. The endless regulatory nightmare is never far away from Juul.

Now it seems that Juul's project developers and early employees are lucky. They sold Juul at the highest point. Philip Morris, who took over the business, is the miserable one. Not only did he spend huge sums of money and continue to lose money, but there are also a lot of regulations blocking the way. Not only is it difficult to move forward in the market, but he also has no prospects.

Looking back at the rise and difficulties of Juul, we can't help but think: How did a startup reach its peak in just a few years, and how did it fall from its peak? This involves many factors such as market opportunities, financing strategies, product innovation, and policy environment. From Juul’s case, we can learn valuable experience and lessons. For entrepreneurs, it is important to choose markets with potential and continue product innovation, but at the same time, they must also pay close attention to changes in the policy environment and prepare response strategies.

In the financing process, how to choose the right investors and how to conduct effective capital operations are also key factors affecting the company's development. For companies that have reached their peak, how to maintain sustained growth and respond to market changes and policy challenges is a long-term and arduous task. Only by constantly learning and adjusting strategies can we remain invincible in market competition.

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