Daniel McCarthy 
Assistant Professor of Marketing | Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Atlanta, GA, UNITED STATES
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Biography
I am an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta School of Business. My research specialty is the application of leading-edge statistical methodology to contemporary empirical marketing problems. My research interests include customer lifetime value, missing and aggregated data problems, and the marketing/finance interface.
My research specialty is “customer-based corporate valuation” which brings together all of these research interests. It is a methodology for valuing companies from the “bottom up” by predicting what those companies’ customers will do in the future. My work in this area has been featured in major media outlets such as the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, FT, Fortune, Barron’s, Inc Magazine, the Economist, and CNBC. I won the Don Lehmann Award, the MSI Alden G. Clayton, ASA, ISMS, and Shankar-Spiegel Dissertation Proposal Competitions and was a finalist for the John A. Howard/AMA, JM Hunt/Maynard, and MSI H. Paul Root Awards for this work. I am grateful to Adobe Corporation for $50,000 in research support for it.
My research has been accepted and published in top-tier academic journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of the American Statistical Association: Theory and Methods, Statistica Sinica, and the Annals of Applied Statistics.
In 2015, I co-founded a predictive analytics company, Zodiac, where I was the Chief Statistician. Zodiac was acquired by Nike in March 2018. I subsequently co-founded Theta Equity Partners to commercialize my work on customer-based corporate valuation.
Areas of Expertise (7)
Missing Data
Customer relationship management (CRM) using Digital Marketing and Analytics
Customer-Based Corporate Valuation
Marketing-Finance Interface
Customer Lifetime Value
Bayesian Computation
Valuation
Education (3)
University of Pennsylvania: PhD, Statistics 2017
University of Pennsylvania: BSc, Economics 2006
University of Pennsylvania: BAS, Systems Science Engineering 2006
Links (2)
Media Appearances (10)
Why Peloton Stock Dropped More Than 10% After ‘Sexist’ Ad Backlash
Forbes online
2019-12-05
Daniel McCarthy, an assistant professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, attributes the stock price volatility directly to the ad.
Costs Catch Back Up With Wayfair
The Wall Street Journal online
2019-05-02
"... while in the fourth quarter the company’s customer-acquisition costs hovered around $77 per customer, in the first quarter it shot up to $88 per customer, a new high, according to Daniel McCarthy, a marketing professor at Emory."
Wayfair shares plunge 12% as losses widen, hurt by high costs
Yahoo! Finance online
2019-05-02
"The company is also spending a lot to acquire new customers, according to Daniel McCarthy, an assistant professor of marketing at Emory University. He has been warning about this trend for some time. In the first quarter, customer acquisition costs were $88 per customer."
The World's Most Ruthless Food Startup: The Inside Story of How HelloFresh Clawed Its Way to the Top
Inc. print
2018-06-28
HelloFresh blew past 100 competitors to become the No. 1 meal-kit company on the planet. The German startup is winning--but not by playing nice.
Upstart meal-kit companies may need a new recipe for growth
The Economist print
2018-04-14
Competition from supermarket chains is eating into their profits
The Wayfair Riddle
The Wall Street Journal print
2018-02-12
A recent study by marketing professors Daniel McCarthy of Emory University and Peter Fader of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that Wayfair spends about $69 to acquire each new customer, but only earns $59 back from each acquisition. Using a method of valuing publicly traded retailers that focuses on customer retention, Professors McCarthy and Fader conclude that Wayfair is overvalued by 84%.
A new study shows Wayfair is losing money...
Market Insider online
2017-09-27
In a lengthy paper released late last week, Daniel McCarthy, an assistant professor of marketing at Emory University, and Peter Fader, a marketing professor at Wharton, present a new method of valuing publicly-traded retailers that focuses on customer retention. Wayfair is an unfortunate guinea pig example.
Blue Apron Holdings Inc. is struggling to win over investors in its initial public offering, a disappointing development for a U.S. IPO market that has been on the rebound.
The Wall Street Journal online
2017-06-28
Blue Apron Holdings Inc. is struggling to win over investors in its initial public offering, a disappointing development for a U.S. IPO market that has been on the rebound.
Blue Apron Slashes Potential IPO Price; Blame Amazon and Whole Foods?
Barron’s online
2017-06-28
Looming competition and weak fundamentals seem to have put a damper on Blue Apron’s IPO plans.
Why and How to Transition to a Subscription Business
CFO online
2018-10-02
Such benefits as predictable recurring revenue, easier borrowing, and strong cash flow are just for starters. However, there are risks as well.
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