Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Melissa Urban, Founder of Whole30. The Whole30 program eliminates cravings, improves physical energy and quality of sleep and has changed millions of people’s lives.

We discuss:

* How Melissa changed her lifestyle completely when she got out of rehab

* Why she started a blog and ran a 30-day diet experiment

* When she decided to quit her day job and devote all her energy to Whole30

* Her approach to content and how she thinks about diet

* How she approaches partnerships with CPG brands that fit the Whole30 identity

* What led her to launch her own CPG products

I hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

✓

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Jordan Gaspar, the Managing Partner at AF Ventures. AF Ventures is dedicated to growing the next generation of brands, having invested in Circul, By Heart and Harmless Harvest.

We discuss:

* How she transitioned from law to investing in consumer brands

* How has AF Ventures evolved over the past few years?

* What are the most recent trends among consumer she is most passionate about?

* How has COVID impacted her outlook

* Does a product need to work in retail for her to invest?

Enjoy listening!

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Nick Saltarelli one of the Co-Founders of Mid-Day Squares. Mid-Day Squares is the first functional chocolate bar. Nick founded the company with his wife, Leslie, and brother-in-law Jake.

We discuss:

* How and why his family wanted to start a chocolate company

* Approach to creating content and why their first hire was a videographer

* Why they built their own chocolate factory instead of outsourcing manufacturing

* What long-term thinking means to him

* His process to raising capital

* The truth about entrepreneurship

I hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Michael Duda. Michael is the Managing Partner at Bullish. Bullish is a consumer-only venture capital fund and creative agency. Some of their investments include Sunday, Spark Grills, Harry’s and Peloton.

We discuss:

* What’s his process for identifying a nascent consumer insight?

* How to identify brands that serve the early majority

* The distinction between trends vs. fads

* What has to happen in order for a trend to become big?

* What’s often misunderstood about investing in consumer-oriented companies?

* When does it make sense for a DNVB to expand into retail?

* If the bet is right when it comes to a trend, how important is having a competitive advantage in your product?

I hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Sumi Das, who is a Partner at CapitalG. CapitalG is Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Some of their investments include Airbnb, Lyft, and Duolingo.

We discuss:

* CapitalG’s relationship to Google, Google Ventures, and the advantages of a single LP structure

* Differences when investing in companies serving emerging markets vs. United States

* The two big consumer opportunities within consumer tech

* When growth investing begins

* What technology is transferable to different markets

I hope you enjoy.

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC is Nuno Gonçalves Pedro, General Partner at Chamaeleon. Chamaeleon typically invests at the seed and series a level principally in product-led technology companies. Some of their portfolio companies include Draftkings, Robinhood and Keepsafe.

We discuss:

* Consumer technology that is transferable from Asia to the west

* Do companies make new markets?

* Why he chose to found Chamaeleon

* How he analyzes teams

* What’s the next consumer platform after the iPhone?

* The principal reason why he might pass on a consumer technology company

I hope you enjoy listening!

Hey friends,

Today’s episode is about investing at the intersection of deep tech and consumer and am delighted to be joined by Bilal Zuberi, Partner at Lux Capital. Some of their investments include Happiest Baby, Citizen, Carbon Health, and Duck Duck Go. Bilal also founded GEO2 Technologies and comes from an extensive technical and science background.

We cover:

* What is deep tech

* Why do investors over-index on business model innovation vs. technological innovation

* Examples of product-led competitive advantages

* Timeline horizons for deep-tech companies

* How he diligences founding teams

Enjoy!

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Thank you Erin Grant for pitching this as an episode idea and making it happen.

This episode is all about how to build powerful brands through storytelling. To tackle this topic, I’m joined by Jeff Cantalupo who is the founder and General Partner at Listen Ventures and Brentos Fernandez, Head of Creative at Listen Ventures. Listen Ventures Backs and builds the brands of tomorrow including Calm, Kiwi Co, Factor, Catch Co, & Slumberkins.

We discuss:

* How do you craft a good story? What are the elements?

* What do young brands do right vs. incumbents?

* How do you analyze brands that have a face to them vs. brands that don’t?

* How do you shape the persona of the brand?

* When brands come to you, what is normally missing?

* How do you define community?

* How have brands leveraged their authentic story for growth

* What’s an example of an inauthentic story

* After a brand gets acquired, what must incumbents do in order for keep that brand authenticity alive

Thanks for listening.

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Thank you Radha Kapoor for the introduction to our guest today Michele Romanow, Co-Founder and CEO of Clearco. Clearco offers fast, affordable funding for ecommerce companies to fund your inventory or marketing needs. Michele is a serial entrepreneur and also one of the dragons on Canada’s Dragon’s Den.

We discuss:

* What’s misunderstood about scaling eCommerce companies

* When venture capital makes sense vs. revenue-based financing,

* Her “aha” moment on Dragon’s Den that led to founding ClearCo

* The top three marketing metrics for DTC brands

* When accepting VC money makes sense for founders

Thank you for listening!

Welcome to The Consumer VC, a newsletter about venture capital and consumer startups delivered straight to your inbox. If you aren’t subscribed, come and subscribe below.

🎧 You can also listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast players.

Hey Friends,

Today’s guest is McKeever “Mac” Conwell II, or how as he’s most well known – Mac the VC. Mac is the founder of RareBreed Ventures and invests in entrepreneurs at the pre-seed stage.

We discuss:

* How he became a software engineer

* Learnings as a 2x founder

* Why he started posting on Twitter

* The stories of two entrepreneurs that inspired him to found Rarebreed Ventures

* His approach to building relationships & his network in VC

* Why understanding customer acquisition strategy is important in his due diligence process

* His approach to sourcing

* How he uses Twitter to help conduct diligence on companies

I hope you enjoy listening!