Consumer VC

Our guest is Elaine Russell, who co-leads Greycroft's Albertsons Fund. Greycroft is one of the premier full lifecycle investors, investing out of both their venture fund and growth fund. Greycroft's Albertsons fund is one of their sidecar funds that focuses on the future of retail. Previously, Elaine was a Partner at PLG Ventures and was the Co-founder / CEO of Little Key in Chicago, an on-demand marketplace for parents to discover and book kids classes and activities.

A book that inspired Elaine is Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Here are some of the questions I ask Elaine:

1. You’ve worked on both sides of the table as founder and operator and also as an investor. What were some of the learnings from when you were a founder? What attracted you to become a VC?
2. You lead Greycroft’s Albertson’s fund. Talk to me about the structure of the fund and where the fund falls on the financial vs. corporate/strategic? How do you think about the future of retail?
3. Seems like during COVID, there has been a huge pressure on grocery to innovate very quickly when it comes to ecommerce. What are some opportunities that you are excited about or how do you think about retail tech? Has COVID changed how you think about what the in store experience within grocery stores will look like? What are the milestones that an entrepreneur has to have achieved in order for you to be interested?
4. What are some qualities within founders that you like to see? Has it been difficult to establish conviction within founders since you have to meet with them remote? In grocery tech, what has been the current fundraising climate? What’s one thing that you would change when it came to venture capital? What’s your most recent investment and what makes you excited about it?What’s one piece of advice to founders that are currently fundraising?

Our guest today is Yury Lifshits, founder and CEO of Openland. a modern social platform for communities. Yury is a serial entrepreunor, founding Zonaspace, Blended Labs and Entangled Solutions. On this episode we talk about Openland, how he thinks about the future of online social, how he thought about friction when downloading a new app, and pivots.

You can follow Yury @yurylifshits on Twitter. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Some of the questions I ask Yury -

1. What attracted you to software and then entrepreneurship? Are we in the age of community? Has audience been replaced by community? What doesn’t work when it comes to community building? What is the competitive landscape when it comes to online communication?
2. How he tackles friction when launching a new app? What’s one thing that you would change when it comes to venture capital? What’s one piece of advice for founder

My guest today is Jordan Odinsky, investor and head of platform at Ground Up Ventures. GroupUp is an early stage venture capital firm investing in pre-seed and seed stage startups in the United States and Israel. Some of their investments include Fast, Shapeshift Gaming, and Neighborhood Goods. In this episode, we discuss cult brands and unique product launches.

I highly recommend following Jordan on Twitter @jordanodinsky You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Links to Jordan's articles mentioned: The Value of a Velvet Rope: Effects of Hype and Exclusivity on Launch Strategies and Cult Wars: The Making of a Cult Brand

On this episode you will learn:

1. If a brand wants to use scarcity and waiting lists as a strategy, how should they first go about finding their early adopters? How are brands taking advantage of mimetic theory
2. On the surface, how does he define a Cult Brand? When a brand is picking their enemy, what are traits that the enemy has to have? How should a startup think about defining the enemy? How he thinks about the balancing act of why people "feel most like themselves when they are part of a group, but the initial drive to join a cult is to discover and clarify one’s individualism". If a brand is experiencing high organic growth and engagement from customers, is that early signs that they have a cult brand?
3. As an investor, does he think a company that has high organic growth as a cult brand? What's the principal reason why a cult brand might fail or a brand would never get into cult status? Does he come across early opportunities that he believes will develop into cult brands? His focus at Groundup. One thing he would change when it came to venture capital What's one piece of advice for founders?

Our guest today is Wayne Wu, General Partner at VMG. VMG focuses on investing and building iconic consumer brands. They've invested in some incredible companies like Kind Healthy Foods, Justin's, Drunk Elephant, Health Warrior, Quest Nutrition.

Disclaimer: This is the opinion of Wayne Wu, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions and thoughts of VMG Partners. Any opinions, projections, forecasts and estimates contained in this production are based on certain assumptions and may change without notice. This is not an offer to buy or sell any investments.

Here's what you'll learn -

1. His initial attraction to consumer and finance. How he ended up at VMG? How he thinks about organic vs. paid growth? His process when analyzing brands and founders? How he evaluates if the brand of a company is strong and authentic? How he thinks about portfolio construction? How does he think about thematic investing? How he thinks about investing in new categories?
2. Advice for founders that are in secondary or tertiary markets. What has been some of the changes when it comes COVID? Has it been hard establishing conviction within founders when meeting with them remotely? How he thinks about the cold email? What's one thing that he would change when it comes to venture capital? What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?

You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Thank you Soraya Darabi for the intro to our guest today Maya Horgan Famodu. Maya's the partner and founder of Ingressive Capital. Ingressive Capital is an early venture capital fund located in Nigeria and invests in founders and companies in sub-saharan Africa. Some of her investments include Paystack, AWA Bike, and Vesicash.

I highly recommend following Maya on Twitter @mayahorgan. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Excited to announce The Consumer VC Summit: October 13-15. It will be three days of discussions, talks about investing in CPG and physical goods at the early stages AND networking and mentoring sessions. Click Here to purchase your tickets.

A few books that inspired Maya personally are Why Buddism is True? by Robert Wright, Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, The Enlightened Gardner by Sydney Banks. A couple books that inspired her professionally are The Hard Things About Things by Ben Horowitz and Superforecast by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner.

In this episode you'll learn -

1. What inspired her to found Ingressive? What is special about founding a fund that seeks to invest in a frontier market like Sub-Saharan Africa? What are the particular opportunities and problems. What are some of the biggest opportunities that you focus on? What are some of the challenges when starting a technology company in Nigeria. Is finding exits difficult? I remember you mentioned how lots of folks talk about Kenya and the incredible innovation that's happening there, but 75% of those companies were founded by ex-pats. How do you see the process of building a local Nigerian, entrepreneurial community?
2. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about a frontier region, like West Africa? What are some of the differences when it comes to your due diligence process and what milestones does a company have to achieve in order for you to be interested? What's one thing that you would change when it came to venture capital?
3. 10 day silent meditation retreat - passana
4. Helped takeaway preconceived notion
5. What's your most recent investment and what makes you excited about it?
6. What's one piece of advice for founders? Should more of them be looking at Africa?

Our guest today is Nate Cooper, partner at Barrel Ventures. Barrel is seed stage fund based in the heart of the midwest. Some of their investments include Haus, Olipop and Clove. Previously, Nate founded L3 Hospitality Group and Wise Apple.

If you want to keep up to date on him, follow him on Twitter @Nrcoope. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Excited to announce The Consumer VC Summit: October 13-15. It will be three days of discussions, talks about investing in CPG and physical goods at the early stages AND networking and mentoring sessions. Click Here to purchase your tickets.

A couple books that inspired Nate is Now, Discover Your Strengths by Gallup and The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore.

In this episode you will learn:

1. His initial attraction to food and bev? His learnings as an operator when he founded L3 and Wise Apple? Why he started Barrel Ventures?How are you thinking of the seed stage landscape during these times? Have investments slowed down? Is there a shift towards new categories? His due diligence process?If it's been harder to find conviction within founders when meeting them online?
2. Advice for founders located in secondary and tertiary markets? Consumer trends he's focused on right now. One thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? His most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? What's one piece of advice that he has for founders?

Thank you Soraya Darabi for the intro to today's guest Sarah Kunst, managing director of Cleo Capital. Cleo Capital is an an early stage VC fund focused on the preseed & seed stages. Some of their investments include 42 Birds, Athena and Lovewellness. She's also a contributing editor at Marie Claire Magazine and previously served as a senior advisor to Bumble.

A couple of book that Sarah recommends is Attached by Amir Levine and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown.

Click here to sign up for Lunchclub.

You can follow her on Twitter @sarahkunst. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

In this episode we discuss -

1. What initially attracted her to venture capital and investing in consumer facing companies in particular? How did Cleo Capital come together? Her diligence process. Is it harder to find conviction when meeting founders online? How do you think about the early stage landscape during these times? Her thoughts around raising a seed fund vs. series A during COVID.
2. Her advice for companies in secondary and tertiary markets. Her thoughts around the warm introduction. Consumer trends that you are excited about and maybe leaned more during COVID What's one thing that she would change when it came to venture capital?
3. Her most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? One piece of advice for founders?

Our guest today is Sunny Dhillon, one of the Managing Director of Signia Ventures. Signia invests at the seed & series A stages in great entrepreneurs that are applying new technologies and innovative business models to old industries. Sunny's investments include Manscaped, Boxed, and MomentFeed.

Previously Sunny cofounded Barstool, one of the first dating apps in the App store.

Feel free to follow Sunny on Twitter @sundhillon. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

What you'll learn on this episode -

1. What initially attracted Sunny to venture capital and entrepreneurship? Some of the changes he's seeing and will continue to see in the grocery store model. How he's thinking about the current landscape when it comes to beauty, especially as it relates to trying new products and the sales process since folks aren't really going to stores/many stores aren't open?
2. Has it been harder to find conviction in founders when he's meeting with them remotely? His due diligence process. The DTC channel during COVID. Other consumer trends that he's focused on. One thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? One book that inspired him personally and one book that inspired him professionally? His most recent investment. What's one company you had the opportunity to invest in, didn't and in retrospect wish you did?

Our guest today is Hilary Quartner, one of the founders and Co-CEOs of Hilma. Hilma creates natural remedies for your medicine cabinet that are backed by science. Previously Hilary worked at The Wonderful Company, FIJI Water and was part of the founding team at Jet Black.

You can Hilary on Instagram @hilarykquartner and Hilma @hilma_co. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

A book that inspired her professionally is Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen and two books that inspired her personally are Educated by Tara Westover and The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley.

Here's what you will learn:

1. What attracted Hilary to consumer brands and entrepreneurship. How Hima came together and the opportunity her and her co-founders' saw. How they thought about differentiation. Lessons learned in developing "The Clinical Herbal" category.
2. Decision making process when you have co-CEO business structure. How she thinks about organic growth. Some of the early mistakes when founding Hilma. What was most critical to her success? Why they chose to fundraise? Some of the effects COVID has had on their business? One piece of advice for founders

Thank you Fernando Gentil for the introduction to today's guest, Alix Peabody, CEO and founder of Bev. Bev is a wine company that is breaking down barriers in the heavily male dominated alcohol space.

Feel free to follow Alix on Instagram and Bev @alixpeabody and @drinkbev. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

One book that inspired Alix personally is The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz and one that inspired her professionally is Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek.

Here's what you'll learn:

1. What attracted her to entrepreneurship? What was the insight that she saw that led her to starting Bev? Why she chose to raise money. How she was able to position herself to VCs? Her fundraising strategy.
2. What worked and what didn't? What parts of her business did investors care about most? How she established her supply chain? What parts could she control? How she approached brand strategy? How did she think about growth?
3. How has COVID changed her strategy or affected Bev? How did she think about product-market fit, where her customers spend their time and distribution? How she's thinking about growth vs. profitability now? What was the most surprising thing that she learned since founding Bev?
4. What's one thing that she would change when it came to fundraising? What's one thing she would change in the fundraising process? What's one piece of advice for founders of B2C businesses?