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Consumer VC episodes
- Mike Duboe (Greylock) - Learnings as Head of Growth at Stitch Fix & Tilt, The Importance of Saying No, and Analyzing Health of Acquisition
Mike Duboe joined Greylock Partners in 2018 and leads investments in commerce, marketplaces, and consumer more broadly. Previously, he led growth at Stitch Fix, Tilt, and others and has created, scaled, led growth teams from Series A through IPO across a span of businesses. Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965. Some of their investments include Facebook, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Instagram, RedFin, Pandora and many many more.
Two books that impacted Mike were Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and The One Thing by Gary Keller
You can follow Mike on Twitter @mduboe. You are also welcome to follow your host @mikegelb and @consumervc for updates.
In this episode you will learn -
- What attracted you to leave consulting in order to pursue working on growth at startups? Lessons learned as head of growth at Stitch Fix and Tilt? The reason why Mike switched from being an operator to investor? How Mike thinks about online customer acquisition costs in today’s landscape? When should a founder make his/her first growth hire?
- How does a consumer company know when they have found product market fit? In the early stage, during the pitch, what do you like to see from founders when there isn’t much data to go on when evaluating opportunities? How he thinks about health of acquisition and customer acquisition costs?
- What are some of the challenges when evaluating consumer businesses? What are some consumer trends and opportunities that he is most excited about?
- What is something that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is one piece of advice that Mike has for founders of consumer companies?
36 min - What attracted you to leave consulting in order to pursue working on growth at startups? Lessons learned as head of growth at Stitch Fix and Tilt? The reason why Mike switched from being an operator to investor? How Mike thinks about online customer acquisition costs in today’s landscape? When should a founder make his/her first growth hire?
- David Wu (Maveron) - The Reinvention of Entertainment, The Founder Scorecard, and the Lessons Learned From Building a Houseboat and Cruising Down the Mississippi
David Wu is a Partner at Maveron. Maveron is a premier consumer-focused fund that invests in seed and Series A companies that empower consumers to live on their terms. Some of Maveron’s investments include Allbirds, General Assembly, eBay, and Coursehero.
David joined Maveron to help identify new investments in emerging direct-to-consumer brands – especially those in the hardware and tech categories. Some of David’s investments include Booster, Eargo, Illumix, Modern Fertility, and August.
If you would like to keep up to date with David, you can follow him @davewu. You are also welcome to follow your host @mikegelb and @consumervc for updates.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How building a houseboat to cruise down the Mississippi River has its parallels to building a company? What being a professional bassist taught David about himself? What attracted David to work at high growth startups? What led you to move from being an operator to investor?
- Why he is so interested in early-stage consumer investing and why is it so difficult? Traits he likes to see in founders. Advice for founders in secondary and tertiary markets that are looking to fundraise.
- What makes a good venture capital partner? What does founder-friendly mean to you? Why Maveron turned down $70 million in investment? How he thinks about the importance of ecosystems and startup hubs? What are some consumer trends and opportunities that he is excited about?
- What is something that he would change when it came to venture capital? Will an impact mission brand lead to higher margins? Maveron’s core values.
- What his most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? One company that he had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t, and in retrospect wish he did? One piece of advice he has for founders of consumer companies? How he thinks about online customer acquisition in today’s age?
43 min - How building a houseboat to cruise down the Mississippi River has its parallels to building a company? What being a professional bassist taught David about himself? What attracted David to work at high growth startups? What led you to move from being an operator to investor?
- David Wu (Maveron) - The Reinvention of Entertainment, The Founder Scorecard, and the Lessons Learned From Building a Houseboat and Cruising Down the Mississippi
David Wu is a Partner at Maveron. Maveron is a premier consumer-focused fund that invests in seed and Series A companies that empower consumers to live on their terms. Some of Maveron’s investments include Allbirds, General Assembly, eBay, and Coursehero.
David joined Maveron to help identify new investments in emerging direct-to-consumer brands – especially those in the hardware and tech categories. Some of David’s investments include Booster, Eargo, Illumix, Modern Fertility, and August.
If you would like to keep up to date with David, you can follow him @davewu. You are also welcome to follow your host @mikegelb and @consumervc for updates.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How building a houseboat to cruise down the Mississippi River has its parallels to building a company? What being a professional bassist taught David about himself? What attracted David to work at high growth startups? What led you to move from being an operator to investor?
- Why he is so interested in early-stage consumer investing and why is it so difficult? Traits he likes to see in founders. Advice for founders in secondary and tertiary markets that are looking to fundraise.
- What makes a good venture capital partner? What does founder-friendly mean to you? Why Maveron turned down $70 million in investment? How he thinks about the importance of ecosystems and startup hubs? What are some consumer trends and opportunities that he is excited about?
- What is something that he would change when it came to venture capital? Will an impact mission brand lead to higher margins? Maveron’s core values.
- What his most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? One company that he had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t, and in retrospect wish he did? One piece of advice he has for founders of consumer companies? How he thinks about online customer acquisition in today’s age?
43 min - How building a houseboat to cruise down the Mississippi River has its parallels to building a company? What being a professional bassist taught David about himself? What attracted David to work at high growth startups? What led you to move from being an operator to investor?
- Rick Heitzmann (FirstMark Capital) - The Future of Marketplaces, Why investing in B2C companies is different to B2B companies, Investing in Secondary and Tertiary Markets
Rick Heitzmann is a founder and partner of FirstMark Capital and focuses on consumer and enterprise investments. Rick has led investments in market leaders such as Pinterest, StubHub (acquired by eBay), Riot Games (acquired by Tencent), Airbnb, Shopify and much more.
Prior to founding FirstMark, Rick was an entrepreneur including being a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage which he helped grow and sell to First American. Rick has been recognized by CB Insights and the New York Times as a Top 100 Venture Capitalist globally. He serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.
If you want to follow Rick on Twitter, you can do so here @rickheitzmann. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
New episodes released every Monday and Thursday. If you would like to follow along, you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review.
- What attracted Rick to venture capital and high tech? What types of qualities in a founder he looks for? What makes investing in consumer difficult and different than investing in enterprise? FirstMark Capital’s competitive advantages.
- How founders should conduct due diligence on VC funds? What is the cadence of communication amongst founders in his portfolio? How he thinks about product market fit? What are the kinds of new marketplaces that Rick is paying attention to?
- How Rick thinks about online customer acquisition costs today? What are some consumer trends that Rick is excited about?
- What is something Rick would change when it came to venture capital? What Rick thinks about entrepreneurs building companies in secondary and tertiary markets? What is something that founders could believe is a competitive advantage, but Rick feels actually isn’t? When should a founder focus on profitability and sustainability rather than growth?
- One company that Rick had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t and in retrospect wish he did? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies.
35 min - Rick Heitzmann (FirstMark Capital) - The Future of Marketplaces, Why investing in B2C companies is different to B2B companies, Investing in Secondary and Tertiary Markets
Rick Heitzmann is a founder and partner of FirstMark Capital and focuses on consumer and enterprise investments. Rick has led investments in market leaders such as Pinterest, StubHub (acquired by eBay), Riot Games (acquired by Tencent), Airbnb, Shopify and much more.
Prior to founding FirstMark, Rick was an entrepreneur including being a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage which he helped grow and sell to First American. Rick has been recognized by CB Insights and the New York Times as a Top 100 Venture Capitalist globally. He serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.
If you want to follow Rick on Twitter, you can do so here @rickheitzmann. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
New episodes released every Monday and Thursday. If you would like to follow along, you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review.
- What attracted Rick to venture capital and high tech? What types of qualities in a founder he looks for? What makes investing in consumer difficult and different than investing in enterprise? FirstMark Capital’s competitive advantages.
- How founders should conduct due diligence on VC funds? What is the cadence of communication amongst founders in his portfolio? How he thinks about product market fit? What are the kinds of new marketplaces that Rick is paying attention to?
- How Rick thinks about online customer acquisition costs today? What are some consumer trends that Rick is excited about?
- What is something Rick would change when it came to venture capital? What Rick thinks about entrepreneurs building companies in secondary and tertiary markets? What is something that founders could believe is a competitive advantage, but Rick feels actually isn’t? When should a founder focus on profitability and sustainability rather than growth?
- One company that Rick had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t and in retrospect wish he did? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies.
35 min - Susan Lyne (BBG Ventures) - Why Investing in Women Founders is Still an Untapped Market
Susan Lyne is the co-founder and Managing Partner of BBG Ventures, a fund that invests in visionary entrepreneurs building the next generation of market-defining consumer products and services. Every company in their portfolio has at least one female founder. Some of their investments include Zola, Blueland, Beautycon, and NextGenVest (acq. by CommonBond)
Susan began her career in the magazine industry, where she founded and led Premiere Magazine. She spent almost a decade at Disney, rising to President of Entertainment at ABC. She was the CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; CEO and then Chair of Gilt.com; and she led AOL’s Brand Group, overseeing such brands as TechCrunch, Engadget and Moviefone, immediately before launching BBG Ventures.
A couple of books that Susan recommends are The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer
You can follow Susan on Twitter Here @smlyne, where she posts lots of great content on startups. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
New episodes released every Monday and Thursday. If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review.
In this episode, you will learn -
1. Why Susan decided to leave her prestigious career in media, television, ecommerce and as an operator for some of the world's biggest companies to start her own fund?Her mission when founding a venture capital fund and some of her learnings as an operator.
2. Does she think venture capital is moving quickly enough to bridge the gap between the number of women founders that are able to fundraise compared to male founders that are able to fundraise? What are some of the things that need to happen to help empower women entrepreneurs?
3. When should startups optimize for profitability rather than growth? How does she think about price and evaluation in today's climate?
4. In her due diligence process when evaluating startups, how she knows if the startup is solving a real consumer pain point? How she thinks about founder-market fit? How she thinks about online customer acquisition today given the rising prices?
5. How she thinks about time allocation and cadence of communication amongst her portfolio companies. Consumer trends she is most excited about and some of the differences between millennials and Gen Z.
34 min - Susan Lyne (BBG Ventures) - Why Investing in Women Founders is Still an Untapped Market
Susan Lyne is the co-founder and Managing Partner of BBG Ventures, a fund that invests in visionary entrepreneurs building the next generation of market-defining consumer products and services. Every company in their portfolio has at least one female founder. Some of their investments include Zola, Blueland, Beautycon, and NextGenVest (acq. by CommonBond)
Susan began her career in the magazine industry, where she founded and led Premiere Magazine. She spent almost a decade at Disney, rising to President of Entertainment at ABC. She was the CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; CEO and then Chair of Gilt.com; and she led AOL’s Brand Group, overseeing such brands as TechCrunch, Engadget and Moviefone, immediately before launching BBG Ventures.
A couple of books that Susan recommends are The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer
You can follow Susan on Twitter Here @smlyne, where she posts lots of great content on startups. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
New episodes released every Monday and Thursday. If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review.
In this episode, you will learn -
1. Why Susan decided to leave her prestigious career in media, television, ecommerce and as an operator for some of the world's biggest companies to start her own fund?Her mission when founding a venture capital fund and some of her learnings as an operator.
2. Does she think venture capital is moving quickly enough to bridge the gap between the number of women founders that are able to fundraise compared to male founders that are able to fundraise? What are some of the things that need to happen to help empower women entrepreneurs?
3. When should startups optimize for profitability rather than growth? How does she think about price and evaluation in today's climate?
4. In her due diligence process when evaluating startups, how she knows if the startup is solving a real consumer pain point? How she thinks about founder-market fit? How she thinks about online customer acquisition today given the rising prices?
5. How she thinks about time allocation and cadence of communication amongst her portfolio companies. Consumer trends she is most excited about and some of the differences between millennials and Gen Z.
36 min - Caitlin Strandberg (Lerer Hippeau) - How To Identify Consumer Pain Points, The D2C Investment Landscape, and The New York Ecosystem
Caitlin Strandberg is a Principal at Lerer Hippeau, the most active early-stage venture capital fund in New York. The firm has more than 250 active portfolio companies with investments in leading consumer and enterprise companies, including Allbirds, Casper, Guideline, and K Health. Lerer Hippeau invests across all sectors, backing founders with product vision, customer insight, and a keen instinct for brand building.
Previously, Caitlin was an early employee at LearnVest (acquired by Northwestern Mutual) and Behance (acquired by Adobe), as well as served as Vice President of FirstMark Capital.
You can follow Caitlin on Twitter Here, where she posts lots of great content on startups. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
Two books that Caitlin would like to recommend are The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon by Brad Stone and Ready Player One by Earnest Cline.
In this episode, you will learn –
- What attracted Caitlin to startups and venture capital? The learnings and takeaways from being an operator at early-stage startups to venture capital?
- The challenges when investing in consumer startups at the early stages? How she evaluates opportunities and identifies if a startup is solving a real consumer pain point?
- Is the DTC area the golden age of brand? How she thinks about margin in relation to DTC? How much do consumers care about sustainable, eco-friendly products in relation to price? After investment, the cadence of communication among founders.
- What makes New York special? How she thinks about online customer acquisition today. What is one company that she is excited about investing in? What is one company she wishes she invested in? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?
If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram
22 min - What attracted Caitlin to startups and venture capital? The learnings and takeaways from being an operator at early-stage startups to venture capital?
- Caitlin Strandberg (Lerer Hippeau) - How To Identify Consumer Pain Points, The D2C Investment Landscape, and The New York Ecosystem
Caitlin Strandberg is a Principal at Lerer Hippeau, the most active early-stage venture capital fund in New York. The firm has more than 250 active portfolio companies with investments in leading consumer and enterprise companies, including Allbirds, Casper, Guideline, and K Health. Lerer Hippeau invests across all sectors, backing founders with product vision, customer insight, and a keen instinct for brand building.
Previously, Caitlin was an early employee at LearnVest (acquired by Northwestern Mutual) and Behance (acquired by Adobe), as well as served as Vice President of FirstMark Capital.
You can follow Caitlin on Twitter Here, where she posts lots of great content on startups. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
Two books that Caitlin would like to recommend are The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon by Brad Stone and Ready Player One by Earnest Cline.
In this episode, you will learn –
- What attracted Caitlin to startups and venture capital? The learnings and takeaways from being an operator at early-stage startups to venture capital?
- The challenges when investing in consumer startups at the early stages? How she evaluates opportunities and identifies if a startup is solving a real consumer pain point?
- Is the DTC area the golden age of brand? How she thinks about margin in relation to DTC? How much do consumers care about sustainable, eco-friendly products in relation to price? After investment, the cadence of communication among founders.
- What makes New York special? How she thinks about online customer acquisition today. What is one company that she is excited about investing in? What is one company she wishes she invested in? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?
If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram
50 min - What attracted Caitlin to startups and venture capital? The learnings and takeaways from being an operator at early-stage startups to venture capital?
- Ajay Kamat (Pear VC) - Clarity of Thought, Future of Audio, and Today's Investing Landscape
Ajay Kamat is a Partner at Pear, one of the premier early stage venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. Prior to Pear, Ajay founded Wedding Party, which was acquired by Instacart. Pear was founded by Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad, who were early investors in Dropbox, Lending Club, Zoosk, Addepar, Path and many others. Some of Pear's notable investments include DoorDash, Philz Coffee, Instaread, and Memebox.
You can follow Ajay on Twitter Here. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow @mikegelb and the show @ConsumerVC
In this episode you will learn:
- Ajay's journey from biomedical engineering to founding Wedding Party. Some of the lessons Ajay learned from being a founder and how it has influenced him as a venture capitalist. The importance of grit when founding a company.
- The importance of complementary skills and vetting co-founders. The reason why he switched from being a founder to a venture capitalist.
- What qualities Ajay looks for from founders at the pre-seed and seed level? How he evaluates startups building products in markets that don't exist yet?
- The advantages of being in Silicon Valley. How he thinks about customer acquisition costs in today's age.
- What industry consumer verticals he's excited about the most? One company that he is excited to be an investor in? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?
If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram
29 min
About Consumer VC
From the publisher's feed
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…
fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place.
Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription.
Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch.
This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled.
For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.
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