One of Amazon's earliest investors just made a $30 million bet on Hollar, the online dollar store

A year ago, David Yeom made a big bet that the dollar store experience that he loved could work online too. It sounded like a bad business idea at the time — sending a $2 nail polish across the country doesn't sound sustainable. 

But Yeom has proved the doubters wrong so far. The company's growth over the past year, from selling hundreds of thousands of plushies to raking over a million dollars a month in sales, has attracted the eye of one of Amazon's earliest investors: Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins. 

"Coincidentally 20 years ago, they backed this guy named Jeff Bezos and he did this thing with Amazon and it turned out pretty well for them," Hollar CEO David Yeom told Business Insider. 

In a year since its launch, Hollar has raised money at a break-neck pace despite an increasingly tough funding environment. On Thursday, the company plans to announce that it has raised $30 million from Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total money raised to $47.5 million. Kleiner partner Eric Feng will join the board.

"It was damn hard," Yeom said about the latest round. "It's very different out there. It's tough out there."

While Silicon Valley used to invest just on growth and potential, venture capitalists in the past year have shifted to business fundamentals when picking startups. Investors want to see not only a business that isn't losing money on every sale, but also a business that can become profitable in the long term. 

The rapid shift from "growth at all costs" to having solid financial metrics has caught a lot of startups off guard. For a startup that doesn't sell anything that costs more than $10, Hollar's new round of funding is a "testament to the business," Yeom says.

To turn an online dollar store into a business (and convince investors of it too), the company set the order minimum at $10 so it doesn't lose money shipping a $2 plush toy. Customers who spend $25 or more get free shipping. 

Guilt free shopping

Those numbers might seem hard to hit if you're designed to sell low-priced goods, but Yeom says the average order size is actually $30. 

"It’s truly guilt free shopping because nothing breaks the bank," Yeom told Business Insider.

To stay true to that, Hollar is working on developing its own line of products, everything from stationary to storage containers, for its dollar store. It's similar to how Amazon has its own line of Amazon Basics products. 

In taking another page from Amazon's book, Hollar will also be introducing an online marketplace to allow other manufacturers to sell their goods at bargain prices. However unlike an eBay or Amazon that's open to any merchant, Yeom says Hollar will be strict about who it lets onto the site. 

"We’re not going to have this free for all. We’re going to vet who is going to participate on this platform," Yeom said. "They have to be reliable both in terms of quality and shipping times. All these things that are critical to making the customer a priority."

Given the stigma around dollar stores, Hollar already has a high enough hurdle to convince customers that cheap can also be good. Instead, it wants to be the destination for bargain hunters who love a good deal. 

Business Insider's Jillian D'Onfro tried out Hollar in July to put the idea to a test. Here's how she thought it stacked up to your normal dollar store experience: