Building a consumer brand looks very different depending on where you start.

Jeremy Evans of Era Ventures joins In The Money to break down how they invest in seed-stage consumer brands across the U.S., Australia, and the UK, and why geography shapes everything from founder psychology to capital strategy.

This episode dives into global consumer investing, capital efficiency, omnichannel strategy, and what it really takes to build a $100M brand.

We cover:

• Why Australian and European founders tend to be more capital efficient

• The venture constraint: why some great businesses shouldn’t raise VC

• When profitable brands raise capital anyway (and why investors still matter)

• Leading vs co-investing in global consumer deals

• Case studies from Era’s portfolio:

  • Seed, science-backed probiotics that scaled to hundreds of millions in revenue

  • Pillar Performance, a premium athlete recovery brand built through specialty retail

• Why brand and community are often the real moat in consumer

• The challenges of measuring performance in retail vs online

• Subscription economics in wellness brands

• The role of athlete and celebrity ambassadors in brand building

• Trends Era is watching in 2026:

  • Wellness optimization (protein, creatine, collagen)

  • Biomarker tracking and personalized health

  • The convergence of beauty and wellness

• What Jeremy looks for in founders at the seed stage

• The biggest Meta growth lever today: massive volumes of creative testing

• Capital planning mistakes founders still make in today’s fundraising market

If you’re building a brand, investing in consumer, or thinking about global expansion, this episode is packed with useful lessons.