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 Michael Ronen, Co-Founder and President of Branded. Branded acquires and partners with top-performing Amazon sellers. Previously, Michael was one of the Managing Partners at SoftBank Vision Fund 1.

We discuss:

* The opportunity within eCommerce while at SoftBank vs. Branded

* Why buying Amazon brands could lead to big returns

* His due diligence process when acquiring brands

* Verticals he's focused on

* Are there synergies and cost-saving opportunities when you acquire multiple brands

* The competitive landscape amongst aggregators

* How to build a brand off of Amazon

* How he chooses to partner with entrepreneurs

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,

Last week we had our first LIVE podcast event during SXSW at Cosmic Coffee & Beer Garden in Austin where I chatted with Jason Karp. Thanks for hosting Marc Nathan & Wake up! CPG - Austin.

If you were there - thank you for coming out! I’m certainly looking to do more of these in different cities.

Jason is the founder of Hu Kitchen, Hu Chocolate (acq. by Mondelēz) and HumanCo. HumanCo is a holding company invested in healthy living.

HumanCo currently has three brands - Snow Days, Cosmic Bliss and Against the Grain. This was a pretty timely conversation as they just rebranded their ice cream brand Coconut Bliss to Cosmic Bliss and introduced dairy as an ingredient.

We discussed:

* How his personal health journey led him to found Hu Kitchen

* Why the success of Hu Chocolate was a total accident

* The structure of HumanCo & their approach to incubating and buying brands

* Why he rebranded Coconut Bliss to Cosmic Bliss

* Is there a bifurcation within better-for-you products

* His food value system

* Has “plant-based” become a catch-all term for healthy

* Why people buy premium products

* The future of HumanCo

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,

Today’s guest is Ksenia Yudina, Founder/CEO of UNest, the first mobile app that makes it easier than ever for parents to open a simple and affordable tax-advantaged investment account for their kids.

We discuss:

* How & why she immigrated to the U.S.

* Her attraction to finance

* Why she decided to leave her dream job to become an entrepreneur

* The different types of tax-advantaged accounts for parents

* How parents are thinking about their child’s portfolio

* Her approach to fundraising and hiring a technical team

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 Eric Kinariwala, founder and CEO of Capsule. Capsule is the pharmacy that delivers your prescriptions, the same day, for free.

We discuss –

* How a miserable experience to the pharmacy was his aha moment

* Why Capsule was a combination of his previous work experiences

* How he was able to raise his first round of funding

* Approach to finding real estate for his first location

* How he thinks about experience, omnichannel and design

* Expanding beyond NYC

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,

Thank you Nagraj Kashyap for the introduction to our guest today Joe Kudla, founder and CEO of Vuori.

Vuori is performance apparel built to move & sweat In, yet styled for everyday life.

It was really fun having Joe on the show as we discussed:

* What he thought was missing from athleisure apparel

* How they differentiate themselves from Lululemon

* Pivoting in order to find product-market fit

* Why he started with men’s clothing

* Why a brand needs to have a point of view in order to be relevant

* How Vuori’s messaging has evolved

* Approach to growth & how he’s remained profitable for a few years

* Why SoftBank invested

* Retail expansion & how he builds community in-stores

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 on Consumer VC is John Foraker, co-founder, and CEO of Once Upon a Farm. Once Upon A Farm produces fresh snacks with immune-boosting probiotics to keep your little one's wellness top of mind. Before, John was the CEO of Annie’s Inc.

We discuss:

* Why John Foraker left Annie’s to become the CEO of Once Upon A Farm

* How Jennifer Garner became interested in the business

* The excitement and challenges of building a new category

* What’s the secret for building authentic brands

* How they scaled nationally in retail

* His advice to entrepreneurs

Two books that have inspired him personally & professionally:

* The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

* Ramping Your Brand by James Richardson

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 on today’s episode is Brandon Yahn, co-founder, and Partner of Convivialité Ventures. Convivialite is Pernod Ricard’s venture arm, the second largest wine & spirits company in the world.

We discuss:

* His lessons learned as an entrepeneur

* What it means to be a strategic investor

* Why Pernod Ricard invests in consumer technology

* His consumer investment thesis

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 Avrum Elmakis Founder/CEO of CLMBR. CLMBR is an at-home the first vertical climber with a touch screen and on-demand, instructor-led classes. It’s a full-body and one of the most efficient workouts you can do.

Avrum is a serial entrepreneur, who previously founded TDBBS (Top Dog Best Bully Sticks) which became a major pet food company. He also owns two climbing gyms.

We discuss:

* How he got interested in climbing

* What made him want to create an at-home vertical climber

* The challenges of building a new fitness category

* How he was able to raise capital from Jay-Z, LeBron James, Novak Djokovic and other celebrities

* How COVID shifted his sales and distribution strategy

* Approach to growth

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 Abigail Cook Stone, Founder & CEO Otherland. Otherland transforms your home into an immersive world that never stands still with its amazing scented candles.

We discuss:

* Why she’s been fascinated by candles since she was little

* What was missing from the market

* How she approached sourcing her product

* What VCs found attractive about Otherland

* How she created a strong community

* Her thoughts about brand, market positioning, and the competitive stack

* Growing a DNVB today

Please 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 is Nagraj Kashyap, Managing Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund. SoftBank Vision Fund is one of the largest venture capital funds in the world. Nagraj leads their consumer practice for investing in North America.

It was really fun chatting with Nagraj about how Vision Fund 2 is different from the first Vision Fund. We also touch on:

* His three consumer investment theses

* The strategy behind fund 2

* What it takes for a consumer company to succeed

* Why they recently invested in Vouri

* How Waze became successful

* The difference investing in non-tech product businesses vs. tech businesses

* Analyzing price in today’s market

I hope you enjoy!