If you’ve ever tried to build a premium CPG brand in a crowded category, the story of Coterie is a masterclass in clarity, performance, and timing.
Last week, Mammoth Brands, the modern consumer goods company behind brands such as Harry’s, Flamingo, and Lume, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Coterie. The deal could value Coterie at over US$1 billion, subject to earn-outs tied to performance.
Their public announcement noted Coterie’s net revenue topped US$200 million over the prior twelve months, reflecting nearly 60% year-over-year growth.
This is not just a success story. It is a playbook. Let’s break it down.
The Origin Story
Coterie launched in 2019 with a focused mission: build diapers and baby-care essentials that outperform legacy options.
Freakin nuts. Coterie was founded less than 6 years ago.
The founders saw that in many households the diaper category was treated as commodity, tolerated rather than loved. They chose to invest in product engineering, better materials, stronger performance, and brand quality. They didn’t just brand a diaper. They built one worth talking about.
The Growth Era
Coterie’s growth came from three clear levers:
Product differentiation – They claimed superior performance, cleaner materials, and better design in a category that rarely differentiates.
Direct-to-consumer strength – They built a subscription base and word-of-mouth community before relying fully on large scale channels.
Omnichannel & scaled distribution – With the product and community in place, they executed expansion into broader channels. The deal with Mammoth positions them to accelerate into adjacent baby-care categories.
By the time of the deal announcement, Coterie had built a strong foundation: true revenue scale, growth momentum, and brand credibility.
The Exit
Mammoth Brands signed the agreement on October 16, 2025.
Under the terms:
The deal could value Coterie at over US$1 billion, subject to closing conditions and earn-outs.
Mammoth paid with a mix of cash and stock.
Coterie’s executive team will remain with the company and the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2025.
This transaction signals something important about modern brands: differentiation that is real still wins, even in highly competitive categories.
What You Can Steal From Coterie
Here are questions every founder should ask themselves after studying this acquisition:
1. Are you solving a real pain?
Coterie took a category people buy every day and asked: how can we make it meaningfully better?
Ask: What pain point is my product eliminating or alleviating?
2. Does your product actually perform better?
In crowded categories the product has to earn attention before the brand story can scale.
Ask: If I removed my brand name, would the product still stand out?
3. Is your positioning razor sharp?
Coterie repeatedly affirmed one simple promise: premium performance in baby-care. All their messaging backed that.
Ask: What is the single promise my brand delivers—and do I repeat it relentlessly?
4. Are you thinking about the growth channels effectively?
Coterie used DTC to build the brand and then scaled distribution with bigger channels on their terms.
Ask: When is it the right moment to expand channels, and under what conditions?
5. Are you building a brand with a real moat?
Mammoth acquired Coterie not just for growth but for differentiation, loyalty, and momentum.
Ask: What defensible advantage is my brand building that a bigger competitor cannot instantly copy?
The Bigger Picture
Coterie didn’t win because they were loud. They won because they were ruthless about making something better then building from that foundation.
For founders of DTC or premium-positioned brands this story matters. Because in macro-terms the category may seem locked but the brands that break through often do it by changing the product foundation.
-Parker Burr