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

Hey Friends,

This is a recording of a live interview I did with Ty Haney last month in Austin, TX. Ty is most famous for founding Outdoor Voices, the technical apparel brand whose on a mission to get the world moving. My apologies in advance, we had a lot of technical issues on the day and the quality of the recording is not great. I really appreciate Ty for being incredibly open about her journey.

We discuss:

* The origin of Outdoor Voices

* Why she left OV and what went wrong

* Her introduction to crypto

* How she founded Joggy, a plant-based / CBD brand for activity

* Her platform TYB and why community-led brands are the future

* Scaling a digitally-native brand today & much more

Thanks for listening.

Hey Friends,

Our guest today on The Consumer VC podcast is Jesse Pujji, Founder of Gateway X and Ampush. Gateway X is a venture studio and holding company founded by Jesse Pujji. Ampush is a growth marketing partner that crafts holistic strategies and executes throughout the funnel.

We discuss:

* Why he left Goldman Sachs to start a performance marketing company

* Why he was bullish on Facebook ads early on

* How early brands should approach social media marketing today

* The biggest mistakes companies make in customer acquisition

* What is a venture studio

* His process for incubating companies

* When to raise money vs. bootstrap

* Future of performance marketing

I hope you enjoy!

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Marcos Gonzalez, Founder & Managing Partner of VamosVentures. VamosVentures is committed to creating a pipeline of diverse VC investors. Their investments include Stix, DRNXSMYTH, and Suma.

We also discuss:

* How he invests in both software and consumer businesses

* Approach to portfolio construction

* How to increase the number of diverse founders who are venture-backed

* His diligence process

* Why he’s bullish about Los Angeles

* Latin American products that will be adopted by the U.S. & much more

Thank you for listening.

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Hey friends,

Thank you Tige Savage for the introduction to our guest today, Steve Case. Steve is the co-founder / former CEO of AOL. He also founded Revolution & Rise of the Rest. Revolution focuses on early-stage venture capital investments in technology-enabled businesses in the growth, venture and seed stages.

Rise of the Rest is a nationwide bus tour to work with entrepreneurs in emerging startup ecosystems. We focus this conversation around his latest book “The Rise of the Rest”.

We discuss:

* What Steve did after he left AOL in the early 2000s

* The origin of Revolution Ventures

* What inspired him to found a bus tour

* The most surprising lessons he’s learned when visiting non-obvious startup ecosystems

* How Rise of the Rest’s seed fund is structured and how it’s performed

* Why he’s optimistic about innovation in America

* What leads to a vibrant entrepreneurial community & and much much more

Thank you for listening.

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

Hey friends,

There’s a new Consumer VC podcast episode! Thank you Connor Ryan for introducing me to our guest today, Joe Welch, Founder & CEO of In Good Taste.

In Good Taste allows you to explore the world of wine with their eight 6-ounce bottle wine flights.

We discuss:

* Why he left tech to start a wine company

* Can you make money in wine

* His focus on packaging and what he set out to accomplish with In Good Taste

* Zoom wine tastings during COVID

* His approach to retail

* Wine subscription businesses

* Creating his own tasting locations

I hope you enjoy listening

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

Hey friends,

Our guests today are Wayne Hu (Partner) & Josh Constine (Venture Partner & Head of Content) at SignalFire. SignalFire is the first Venture Capital firm built from the ground up as a technology company.

We discuss:

* The promises of the creator economy & how to invest in it

* Which Web2 media company is best positioned for Web3

* The current state of the NFT market

* What is the metaverse

* Where does venture capital fit into Web3 communities

* What is the future of owning the connection to your audience & is it something different to email

Thank you for listening.

Our guest today is Ben Jones, CEO of Haus Labs by Lady Gaga. Haus Labs by Lady Gaga is Lady Gaga’s clean artistry makeup brand powered by innovation.

Big shoutout to Cristina Nuñez for contributing thoughtful questions to the episode.

We discuss:

* How Ben met Lady Gaga

* Why Ben wanted to work in beauty

* The original launch of Haus Laboratories

* Why they rebranded and relaunched as Haus Labs by Lady Gaga

* Lady Gaga’s involvement with the brand day to day

* Are consumers fatigued by celebrity-led brands

* Formulations and product

* Approach to retail partnerships and growth

I hope you enjoy listening

Hey Friends,

Our guest today is Katlin Smith, founder and CEO of Simple Mills. Simple Mills are clean, nutritious foods for a better life - it’s that simple.

We discuss:

* The inspiration behind Simple Mills

* Her approach to fundraising and her cap table

* How Simple Mills releases new products

* How food preferences have evolved since founding the company 10 years ago

* How she thinks about food that is not only better for people but also for the planet

* And much more

Thank you for listening.

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

Hi friends,

Our guest today is Eze Vidra, Managing Partner of Remagine Ventures. Remagine focuses on a cluster of these interconnected sectors, specifically media, entertainment, sports, commerce and data.

We discuss:

* Why he left Google Ventures to found Remagine

* Why Israel has become one of the centers of innovation

* How Israeli companies approach market expansion

* Different use cases for VR & AR

* Investing in gaming studios

* What the metaverse means & how to invest in it

* His due diligence process

* And much more

Thank you for listening.

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

Hi friends,

Our guest today is Abraham Shafi, co-founder & CEO of IRL. IRL is your group messaging app where you can chat, create polls, post photos, and coordinate plans with your friends.

We discuss:

* Abe’s original thesis when creating IRL

* The initial pain point they wanted to solve

* How they grew in the early days

* Pivoting their strategy during COVID

* Their approach to fundraising

* How they partner with social media applications

* Web3 applications

Thanks for listening.