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 There,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC podcast is Rex Woodbury, who is a Principal at Index Ventures. Index Ventures is one of the largest and prestigious VC funds in the world, Some of the companies they've invested in Robinhood, Roblox, and Glossier.

Rex focuses his time on thinking how people, culture and technology intersect. He has an amazing weekly newsletter called Digital Native where he shares what he's observing around these pillars.

In this episode, we focus on the metaverse - what it is and how the creator economy, crypto, NFTs, web 3.0 all tie into it as well as different use cases of how people are creating their own digital identities.

I hope you all 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 There,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC is Allon Bloch, founder of K Health. K Health is where you can get personalize health answers and fast. It's the closest doctor's office is in your pocket, Trusted by over 4 million patients. Allon is also a serial entrepreneur who founded two companies that went public - Wix and Vroom.

In this episode we discuss:

* His approach to entrepreneurship

* Learnings from founding Wix and Vroom

* Why he chose to innovate within health

* The complexities of healthcare

* The perception vs. reality of A.I.

* Route to market for K Health

* Partnering with primary care doctors

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 there,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC podcast is Ali Hamed, co-founder, and Partner of CoVenture.

Ali is one of the more unique guests we've had on the show because he underwrites both equity and debt into technology startups. So in this episode, we discuss traditional venture capital, but also different models to fund a business as well.

We also talk about:

* Amazon vs. Shopify rollups

* Which social media platforms are winning the battle for creators

* Why credit is an underused source of capital for startups

* The future of media and content

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 there,

Our guest today is Paul Hsiao, co-founder and General Partner at Canvas Ventures.

Canvas is one of the leading Series A firms having invested in Zola, Thrive Global and Roofstock. In our chat we discuss:

* How the data economy is transforming consumer businesses

* The ingredients that make a spectacular marketplace business

* How the state of Series A has changed quite drastically

* Lessons learned from COVID

* The differences investing in enterprise vs. consumer companies

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 there,

Our guest today is Sam Corcos, co-founder and CEO of Levels. Levels makes it easy for people to see how their diet is affecting their health and lifestyle in a quantifiable way using continuous glucose monitoring.

In previous episodes, we’ve discussed optimizing our sleep, exercise, and mental health. Here, we focus on measuring what we eat to learn what makes us healthier and happier.

We also unpack:

* The current metabolic crisis

* Why Sam started Levels with five co-founders

* Approach to finding early adopters

* How Sam organizes his days

* Sam’s methodical approach to fundraising

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 there,

Our guest on The Consumer VC podcast is Ben Savage, General Partner at Clocktower Technology Ventures. Ben focuses on investing in the next generation of financial services.

When I first chatted with Ben, he asked me where I banked, the type of credit cards I used, and how I invested in the public markets. What he pointed out is the majority of the institutions I used were the long-serving financial incumbents. When he asked me where I shop for clothes, the majority were digitally native aspiring brands. This is the opportunity Ben sees for Fintech - a shift from the incumbents to the digitally native agile institutions.

We also touch on:

* Fractional ownership opportunities

* Where frictionless payments will thrive

* Why LATAM is underbanked

* Verticalizing financial services

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 There,

Thank you Samara Hernandez for the intro to our guest today on The Consumer VC. It was great chatting with Katie Shea, Founding Partner of Divergent Capital. Divergent Capital is a fund Katie founded Lucy Wang during COVID. Katie is also a prolific angel investor, having invested in Bombas Socks, Haus, Cleancult, Topicals, Parade and many many more.

In this episode, we focus our attention on how the world of digitally native brands has changed from an investment perspective. Some of the additional points we touch upon:

* Real product competitive advantages

* Milestones brands have to achieve in order for her to be interested

* Why she decided to start a fund during COVID

* How brands are growing today vs. 5 years ago

* Why she loves founders who are close to the customer

Thank you for listening!

- Mike

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 there,

Our guest today is Henri Pierre-Jacques, co-founder and Managing Partner at Harlem Capital.

Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over 20 years. They are 31 investments in and just getting started. Some of their investments include Aunt Flow, Blavity, and Repeat.

We discuss:

* Measuring impact in the early stages of investing

* Why he decided to start a fund

* How to increase diversity within VC

* Raising fund 2 in the middle of the pandemic

* Why Harlem wants to be a multi-stage fund

* Opportunities and verticals he’s most bullish on

* Transitioning his career from PE to VC

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.

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

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If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.

Hey There,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC podcast is Harpreet Singh Rai, Founder of Oura.

Oura is a smart ring that tracks your sleep and links how you sleep to your energy levels throughout the day. I have one and I love it. Every morning I wake up and look at my sleep and ready metrics.

We discuss:

* Why he decided to join Oura

* Why they chose the ring as the wearable form

* The most surprising part to sleep

* Will we see fitness tracking and other verticals become more of a focus

* Partnering with the NBA during COVID

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.

Today’s Consumer VC is brought to you by Gorgias.

Gorgias is the #1 helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce stores, and can turn your customer support into a profit center. Brands like OLIPOP, Death Wish Coffee and Steve Madden have reduced their response times and increased efficiencies by using Gorgias.

If you’re looking to increase your retention for your business, mention Consumer VC and get 2 months of Gorgias for free.

Hey There,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC podcast is Bri Kimmel, founder of Worklife Ventures. Worklife is the first fund designed for builders, creators & individual contributors. Some of her investments include Clubhouse, Hopin, and Italic.

As you could guess from the title, in this episode we focus on the creator economy:

* New ways creators are monetizing

* How the job market shifted during COVID

* How creators are building community

* Pluses and minuses when you have a celebrity co-founder

* New social platforms she’s excited about

Enjoy listening!