Consumer VC

By Mike GelbBusiness Investing

Consumer VC episodes

October 26, 2021Carter Reum (M13) - Why LA is the Place to Build a Consumer Company, His Approach to Fund Differentiation, and Starting a Venture Capital Fund with you Brother
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Our guest today is Carter Reum, Co-Founder of M13. M13 is one of the largest LA-started venture capital fund. Some of their investments include Lyft, Tonal, Classpass, Daily Harvest. Previously Carter founded VeeV, the alcohol grain spirit brand. This was a fun conversation where we discuss how to build a modern venture capital consumer-focused fund, technology thesis, and evolution from fund 1 to 3.
Some of the questions I ask Carter
What was your attraction to venture capital?
How did M13 come together?
Build a platform - what does that look like?
How then do you think about distribution
What's the opportunity you are seeing in consumer technology?How has your thesis evolved from fund 1 to fund 3?Why have you shifted your focus away from digitally native brands?
I've talked with investors who don't want to have a significant increase in the AUM of their fund and specialize. You have seemed to take the opposite approach as each new fund has grown quite significantly. What is the strategy?
Why are you bullish on LA?What's most misunderstood about LA as a startup hub?
What were your learnings through the pandemic?
Great seed investors, but nowDid this change your approach to specific sectors?
Today there is so much money in venture capital and the private markets. It's extremely competitive for deals. How do you think about price discipline, speed and diligence in today's market?ConcentrationDiligence cycle
How do you think about fund differentiation?Propulsion Firm - how can I help
How do the various parts to your fund interact with one another?Since you also launch companies from your studio, when do you think about building vs. buying a piece of another company?
What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What was your biggest learning during COVID?
What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?Assessing and evolving growth vs. fix mindsetNeeds to be a story teller
Is it tough working with your brother Courtney?
What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
53 min
October 21, 2021Will Schmitt (Miroma Ventures) - Investing with a value add, considerations before heading to retail and pulling the right levers for growth
Presented by Ferret: Ferret is the first relationship intelligence tool for all business savvy investors to know, for the first time, who they can trust
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Presented by Gorgias: Gorgias is the #1 helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce stores, and can turn your customer support into a profit center.If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.
Click Here to get started.
Our guest today is Will Schmitt, Head of Venture Strategy at Miroma Ventures. Miroma just launched a $100 million fund focused on consumer and media brands. Previously he was at Naturaza and led investments in OROS, Yellowbird - If you remember the founder of Yellowbird, and Cleancult. He also previously co-founded Trail Post Ventures with Nick Mindel. We discuss how Will thinks about fund differentiation, starting a business online vs. retail, and pulling the right levers for growth. Without further ado, here's Will.
Some of the questions I ask Will:
What was your attraction to finance and consumer?
What were doing before Miroma Ventures?
How did you end up joining Miroma?
How do you think about fund differentiation?
When do you typically like to partner with companies?
I've had on investors who say for digitally native brands, don't touch paid marketing until you get to $1 million in sales via word of mouth. I've had other investors who say the bar is so high that you should only really be thinking about raising venture capital if you have a $10 million revenue run rate. How do you think about the right growth levers, when to use them and if a company can be venture backabl
When are early signs that a consumer brand has gotten past the noise?
Community has become a bit of buzzword. How have you seen brands build community?
One of your missions is to invest in under represented founders, particularly female founders. As Claire Diaz-Ortiz said on her episode if you don't have a biast, you actually aren't human and the biasm in venture is people typically invest in people who look like them. i.e. overwhelming majority of VCs are white males, so the majority of founders that get funded are white males.What do you do differently? How do you think about breaking that mold and make sure you have a diverse network?
How do you think about diversification?
What does a great exit look like for you?
I've had on Ernesto Schmitt (related?) and he said that brands are heading into retail way too early. I then had on Andy Dunn from Bonobos who thinks you should start in retail from the very beginning. When do you think is the right moment to head into retail?
What are some of the particular verticals or trends that you are excited about?
What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
What's one piece of advice for founders?
48 min
October 19, 2021Doug Hudson (Tend) - The First Dentist You Look Forward To Visiting
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Presented by Gorgias: Gorgias is the #1 helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce stores, and can turn your customer support into a profit center.If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.
Click Here to get started.
My guest today is Doug Hudson, founder and CEO of Tend. Tend has reimagined the entire dental experience with transparent pricing, modern studios & no judgment ever. Previously he founded several consumer health companies. In this chat we discuss building companies in regulated sectors, why he decided to focus on disrupting the dental industry, and how he approaches expansion.
Some of the questions I ask Doug:
You've built multiple businesses in heavily regulated industries, what was your attraction to heavily regulated industries?
When you founded Tend, what was the fresh perspective and opportunity that you saw?What was the opportunity in dental?When you say direct to consumer when it comes to dentistry, what do you mean by that?How does the online experience relate to the in-store experience?How you go about building a brand around a patient journey
The NPS score for dentists are generally, very low. How did you think about improving that score in the category with Tend?
So once you decided this was the next opportunity, what were some of the first steps to building Tend?How did you pick the first location?How do you think about retail design and ambiance for each location?How did you approach building a brand?
What was your approach to attracting customers?
How do you think about the different components of Tend?What's the decision making process like when launching new products?
What's your approach to city expansion?
Why did you decide to fundraise from venture capitalists?
What was your approach to fundraising?What was your process?What was the biggest reason why investors past?
What's one thing you would change about the fundraising process?
What's one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally?
What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
What's one piece of advice for founders?
44 min
October 14, 2021Claire Díaz-Ortiz - Why solo female founders are underserved, investing early in LATAM, and getting the Pope on Twitter
Presented by Ferret: Ferret is the first relationship intelligence tool for all business savvy investors to know, for the first time, who they can trust
Click Here to jump to the top of the waitlist. https://www.ferret.ai/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=consumervc&utm_campaign=Q4
Presented by Gorgias: Gorgias is the #1 helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce stores, and can turn your customer support into a profit center.If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.
Head Here to get started. https://www.gorgias.com/?gspk=bWlrZWdlbGI4MTk3&gsxid=h9iBxY4DHuTn
My guest today is Claire Díaz-Ortiz, who is a venture capitalist and author of 9 books including twitter for good and design your day and is based in Argentina. She was one of the early employees at Twitter who has been dubbed "The Woman Who Got the Pope on Twitter" and Claire has also been named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company.
In our conversation we discuss her early blogging days and the rise of social, how to back more diverse founders, evaluating solo founders and Latin America.
Some of the questions I asked Claire:
What was your initial attraction to technology and how did you end up as early employee at Twitter?
What were some the initiatives did you
How did you get the pope on Twitter
What are some of the strategies that you've seen work for entrepreneurs when it comes to growing their business on social media, particularly Twitter?
How do you think about the future of social?
We've talked about on this show how brands of today are founder driven, meaning the founder's story and ability to story tell can be a large part of what's resinating with consumer. When you are underwriting, how do you think about the separation from the founder and the business?
You invest in both Latin America and the US. What are some of the biggest opportunities in the the latin American market within B2C facing businesses?What's most misunderstood about Latin America by U.S. investors?
Walk us through your due diligence process. How do you evaluate opportunities?
One of the parts of venture capital is bringing more diversity to the table, especially women, and investing in more women founders. What has to change in order for this to happen?
I believe even before the pandemic, you were a proponent on using Zoom and online communication tools as a way to meet new people and invest. Now we've seen an acceleration of this during COVID, but how does this change where venture ecosystems exist?
What's one thing that you would change about venture capital?
What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
What's one piece of advice for founders?
45 min
October 12, 2021Andy Dunn (Bonobos) - How he created Bonobos, why they sold to Walmart, the current state of DNVBs, and a sneak peek of what he's doing next
Presented by Ferret: Ferret is the first relationship intelligence tool for all business savvy investors to know, for the first time, who they can trust
Click Here to jump to the top of the waitlist - https://www.ferret.ai/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=consumervc&utm_campaign=Q4
Presented by Gorgias: Gorgias is the #1 helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce stores, and can turn your customer support into a profit center.If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.
Head Here to get started - https://www.gorgias.com/?gspk=bWlrZWdlbGI4MTk3&gsxid=h9iBxY4DHuTn
Thank you Susan Lyne for the introduction to our guest today, Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos. Bonobos was one of the first digitally native brands to exist. They eventually sold to Walmart for over $300 million. In this episode, Andy shares the founding journey of Bonobos, how he thinks about the current state of digitally native brands and a clue about what he's up to next. Without further ado, here's Andy.
Some of the questions I ask Andy:
What was your initial attraction to entrepreneurship?
You started Bonobos at Stanford. How did you meet your co-founder Brian Spaly?
Did you have other business ideas? How did you land on pants? What was the insight?
What was the customer feedback?
What was first step for testing out this idea?
Why did you decide to move the business to New York instead of staying the bay have access to tech talent?
How did you find your first customers and gain early momentum?
We talk on this podcast about doing things that don't scale in the early days. What were some of the activities you did that wouldn't have scaled?
When did you decide to sell online?
When did you decide to raise capital? Who was your first investor?
What are the aspects of Bonobos that resonated with them?
Who was your target customer?
How were you able to get to your customer?
Why did you decide to move the company to New York?
Why weren't you ready for a Series A?
Was it hard to recruit tech talent in New York?
How did you approach hiring? How were you able to attract talent?
How did you build culture?
How did you approach growth vs. profitability? When did you decide (if you decided) to focus on profitability?
Didn't know how to build the tech stack?
How did you approach hiring tech talent?
When and how did you develop the concept for guideshops? What was your omnichannel strategy?
What was your approach to leadership?
When and how did you develop the concept for guideshops? What was your omnichannel strategy?
When was the moment when you knew the trajectory of Bonobos was looking good?
What was your approach to leadership?
When did you decide to do paid marketing?
What were some of the challenges and trials you had to face while you were building Bonobos?
What were some of the mistakes that you made during Bonobos?
What was the process like selling to Walmart?
I know you also invest as well. How do you describe the current landscape of DNVBs?How do you evaluate brands and founders?
What's one thing you would change about the fundraising process?
What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
What's one piece of advice that you have
51 min
October 07, 2021 Rui Ma (Tech Buzz China) - Chinese Crossover Brands, C2M Supply Chains and Future of Livestreaming
Presented by Ferret: Ferret is the first relationship intelligence tool for all business savvy investors to know, for the first time, who they can trust
Head to [ferret.ai](http://ferret.ai/) using promo code: CONSUMERVC to jump to the top of the waitlist.
Presented by Gorgias: Gorgias is the #1 helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce stores, and can turn your customer support into a profit center.If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.
Head [Here](https://www.gorgias.com/?gspk=bWlrZWdlbGI4MTk3&gsxid=h9iBxY4DHuTn) to get started.
Our guest today is [Rui Ma](https://twitter.com/ruima), who is the founder of [Tech Buzz China](https://www.techbuzzchina.com/) and helps funds identify tech investments in both the U.S. and China. Tech Buzz China is a podcast and a community for those interested in China tech. I've been a fan of Tech Buzz China for a long time and learned so much about the ecommerce innovation that's happening in the east from Rui. As you might be thinking, we're going to discuss the Chinese cross over brands in this episode and talk about C2M businesses and how supply chains have changed over the past few years.
1. What was your initial attraction to technology?
2. You've worked as an investor for a long time, what propelled you to also found Tech Buzz China?
3. What are some of the differences in consumer behavior in China and the United States?
4. What needs to happen in order to bring livestream to the masses in the west?
5. Do you think the creator economy is going to develop like it has in China with livestreamers considering to IPO?
6. How do ecommerce platforms test new features?
7. What do you make of Chinese brands coming to the west and having success?
1. Do you believe Chinese consumer brands today are facing an opportunity like Japanese brands in the 70s (on the cusp of becoming global)
2. If you are an American brand is it more difficult to gain a presence in China?
8. You mention that now it's a super efficient time to build brands in China. Why is this so?
9. Unlike startups in the US may choose to bootstrap and grow their business slowly, many businesses in China just want to make a quick buck, they usually get involved in raising very early. Do you think CPG startup bootstrapping stands any chance in China?
10. Would love your take on valuations / multiples of a traditional business vs a software business. It seems a much more traditional business (like a Starbucks, which has a sizable digital retail component) than a software / platform / digital business?
11. What do you think Americans most misunderstand about the Chinese consumer tech?
12. What's one book that impacted you professionally and one book that impacted you personally?
13. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
45 min
October 05, 2021 Andrea Hippeau (Lerer Hippeau) - Investing in Pet Care, When a Digitally Native Brand Should Head Into Retail and Raising from Family Offices vs. VCs
Ferret is the first relationship intelligence tool for all business savvy investors to know, for the first time, who they can trust
Head to [ferret.ai](http://ferret.ai/) using promo code: CONSUMERVC to jump to the top of the waitlist.
Our guest today is [Andrea Hippeau](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-hippeau-64658227/), Partner at [Lerer Hippeau](https://www.lererhippeau.com/). Lerer Hippeau is a New York based early stage venture capital fund with some of their investments include Allbirds, Chubbies, Cotopaxi and Glossier. We discuss how to invest in pet products, measuring environmental and sustainability, and what makes a digitally native brand venture backable.
Some of the questions I ask Andrea:
1. What was your initial attraction to venture capital?
2. Difference between family office vs. venture capital?
3. What interests you in consumer brands?
4. How do you think about regulation?
5. How do you measure environmentally and sustainability?
6. In an era where you don't have those growth marketing arbitrage opportunities on FB and Google, what makes you excited about investing in brands today?
7. One of your areas of expertise is the pet space. How do you dissect such a large market?
1. What particular sub segments are you most fascinated by and growing?
2. What areas do you think are over saturated?
8. What were some of your biggest learnings during COVID?
9. I had on Ernest Schmitt from The Craftory who made the case that digitally native brands are hitting retail way to early. When do you think it's appropriate to go into retail?
10. Has Figs going public changed any of your perception of the scale relating to digitally native brands?
11. What are the typical gross margins, CAC/LTV ratio or pay back period you like to see in a company today?
12. What make a digitally native brand venture backable?
13. How do you analyze companies and figure out if a company has gotten past the noise and could be venture scalable?
14. As we (hopefully) come out of COVID soon, what questions are you asking yourself relating to how consumers are going to spend their time and money?
15. What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
16. What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
17. What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?
18. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
35 min
September 30, 2021 Kevin Campos (Fifth Wall) - Why Landlords Should Love Tech Enabled Tenants, Omnichannel Strategy For DNVBs and Growing Up in Retail
My guest today is [Kevin Campos](https://fifthwall.com/team/kevin-campos), Partner and Head of Retail at [Fifth Wall](https://fifthwall.com/). Fifth Wall manages the largest fund specialized in real estate technology. On the retail side, some of their investments include Allbirds, Cotopaxi and Foxtrot. This was an awesome conversation about Kevin's upbringings in retail, how that shaped his career, the changes in retail during COVID and why landlords should be open to tech enabled tenants and their advantages. Without further ado, here's Kevin.
Some of the questions I ask Kevin:
1. What was your attraction to retail?
2. What were some of your learnings from your parents since they were both business owners?
    1. Summer Camp Campos was working in the
3. What attracted you to work at Fifth Wall and on the investing side of retail?
    1. Operating ideas
    2. Ideas vs. execution
4. How do you think about investing in consumer brands in this current environment?
5. We've talked on this show about the changes in retail during COVID, which were drastic. How has (or has) that changed your thinking when you're advising companies if/when they should go into retail?
6. Recently I had on Ernesto Schmitt, co-founder of the venture fund The Craftory and he said that he believes alot of digitally native brands are heading into retail way to early. How do you make of the current market?
7. What are some creative growth strategies you've seen brands incorportate?
8. How important is Amazon to a brand strategy?
9. How will the retail store change as we come out of COVID?
10. Do you have to be a sustainable brand to win?
    1. Also, what does sustainability mean to you?
11. Are there certain markets or parts of certain cities within the U.S. that you think are destined to become a retail destinations?
12. When does it make sense for a brand to create their own stores as opposed to go wholesale when thinking about expanding into retail?
13. What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
14. What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
15. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
43 min
September 28, 2021 Gabby Etrog Cohen & Tehmina Haider (Harry's) - Building Harry's Portfolio of Brands
Thank you Mike Duda for the intro to our guests today, [Gabby Cohen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabby-etrog-cohen-b91a635/) and [Tehmina Haider](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tehmina-haider-9081614/). Gabby is the Global head of intergrated marketing at [Harry's Inc](https://www.harrys.com/en/us). and Tehmina is Head of Harry's labs. It was amazing learning about the evolution of Harry's from a razor and shaving company, developing products in new categories and creating a portfolio of brands by both building and acquiring other consumer brands. In this episode you'll learn their approach brand development, the types of brands they look to acquire and how they think about different sales channels. Without further ado, here's Gabby and Tehmina.
Some of the questions I ask Gabby and Tehmina:
1. What attracted each of you to work and be part of Harry's?
2. Gabby - How would you describe or pitch Harry's brand to someone who had never interacted or heard of Harry's?
3. How does Harry's approach innovation?
    1. Are there macro trends or consumer behaviors that might be an umbrella or a north star
    2. What is Harry's Labs?
    3. Is there a shared customer
    4. When does it make sense to have more of an
    5. What types of companies do you look to acquire?
    6. How do you make that decision of building in house vs. acquiring?
    7. What's Harry's advantage and what could brands gain when acquired?
4. When you build new brands like Flamingo, Cat Person and Headquarters, how do you think about sales channels to sell product (DTC vs. wholesale) and channel mix?
5. How would you describe this current era of DNVB?
6. Has COVID changed which categories you want to focus on when it comes to innovation?
7. What's one thing you would change about the perception of consumer brands?
8. What's one book that inspired each of you personally and each of you professionally?
9. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
10. What's one piece of advice for founders building brands?
11. What's one book that inspired each of you personally and one book that inspired each of you professionally?
38 min
September 21, 2021 Neil Sequeira (Defy) - When to invest before the Series A, the verticalization of social and the future of celebrity co-founded business
Our guest today is [Neil Sequeira](https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-sequeira-76739a40/), Co-Founder & Managing Director at [Defy](https://defy.vc/). Defy backed exceptional entrepreneurs at the early stages. Some of their investments include Fable, Triller, and Boom Sports. Previously, Neil served as Managing Director of General Catayst and has been a venture capitalist for the past 20 years. I had a blast chatting with Neil about the current state of VC, celebrities cofounding consumer companies, the verticalization of social and categories he's comfortable writing the first check in. Without further ado, here's Neil.
Some of the questions I ask him:
1. What was your initial attraction into venture?
2. How did you make your way into venture capital?
3. You've had a ton of experience investing in consumer technology and consumer goods companies. How do you think about the market today? When things are tough
4. What's your approach for looking at opportunities?
5. What's your due diligence process?
6. How do you think about fund differentiation?
7. How do you approach price and ownership?
8. When I talk to investors, deals are closing really fast. Their wish is for the market to actually move slower. Have you had to alter at all your due diligence process at all to get to conviction faster?
9. What makes a good board member?
10. What does an entrepreneur really want?
11. Do the things that makes their life easier
12. What has been your biggest learning from COVID?
13. How are you seeing the world of startups and venture capital as the world begins to open up?
14. How has venture capital changed?
15. What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
1. Very diverse firm
2. People invest in people who look like them
16. What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
17. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
18. What's one piece of advice for founders currently building?
48 min

About Consumer VC

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Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the…