As she has experience as a founder -- of fashion brand Bow & Drape, launched in 2012 -- Aubrie Pagano, a general partner at venture capital firm Alpaca VC, is adept at identifying whether or not a founder is worth investing in. 

“It's understanding what your customer needs from the brand and how you can augment the brand with that founder voice,” said Pagano, on the latest Glossy Podcast.

Pagano founded Bow & Drape at a time when customization, whether of a Chipotle bowl or a T-shirt, was growing in popularity. “We were super excited about creating more personal, expressive fashion,” said Pagano. She set out to focus on the millennial demographic at the time. “[We] launched our sweatshirt that became an eponymous product,” she said, referring to Bow & Drape’s best-selling style that reads "Goal Digger" in gold lettering. It was sported by Serena Williams in 2015.

Although Pagano sold Bow & Drape in 2019, the seven years she spent growing it allowed her to experience the evolution of brands.

When Bow & Brand entered the retail space with companies like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom in 2015, “It was a symbiotic opportunity at the time,” she said. The brand gained a platform, while the retailers were able to engage customers in a new way.

Now, “The future of brands is omnichannel,” said Pagano. “It's going wherever your customers are, whether that's live commerce or retail, or online through a traditional PDP.”

As Pagano has shifted from founder to investor with Alpaca VC, she’s also found that tenacity and magnetism are key traits when gauging a founder’s potential.

“Alpaca is an early-stage fund focused on the intersection of the digital and physical worlds, where people are using technology to transform daily life,” she said. Pagano was drawn to the firm because of the team’s understanding of “the entrepreneur journey” and its “research-driven approach to how we invest in companies.”

One of the areas that Pagano has invested in at Alpaca is the “re-commerce space,” or the reuse of goods. It has to do with the fact that “consumers, especially Gen Z, are saying, ‘There’s too much stuff,'” Pagano said. Live commerce, returns and cross-border commerce are also areas that Pagano deems worthy of investment.

“The internet has allowed culture to atomize in such a way that you can speak very specifically to a very vertical audience,” said Pagano. “Speaking to a specific audience and having an affinity and community who you speak to is paramount.”