How do venture capital companies decide who to fund? What mistakes do brands make when trying to raise venture capital? In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Michael Lee of Lee Commerce Ventures as well as Yelitsa Jean-Charles, the founder of Healthy Roots Dolls. Listen in to learn about venture capital companies evaluate deals, why it’s important to get a “no”, and how Yelitsa generated funds through Kickstarter and got her doll company started.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Michael got into the investing scene

An investment that generated internal controversy

How to evaluate a deal once proposed

Why it’s important to get a “no”

How Michael’s firm got involved with Thursday Boot Co

The four things Michael looks at in today’s consumer brands

The most common mistakes by brands raising venture capital

Yelitsa’s story

The customer for Yelitsa’s dolls

Whether Yelitsa is seeing repeat order behavior

Whether Yelitsa has begun to explore different commerce infrastructure tools

How Yelitsa’s Kickstarter generated funds

Yelitsa’s shipping horror story

How Yeltisa approached manufacturing

Capitalizing on going viral

Maintaining a luxury price point

Advice for today’s entrepreneurs

Resources:

Michael Lee

Yelitsa Jean-Charles

Healthy Roots Dolls

How do venture capital companies decide who to fund? What mistakes do brands make when trying to raise venture capital? In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Michael Lee of Lee Commerce Ventures as well as Yelitsa Jean-Charles, the founder of Healthy Roots Dolls. Listen in to learn about venture capital companies evaluate deals, why it’s important to get a “no”, and how Yelitsa generated funds through Kickstarter and got her doll company started.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Michael got into the investing scene

An investment that generated internal controversy

How to evaluate a deal once proposed

Why it’s important to get a “no”

How Michael’s firm got involved with Thursday Boot Co

The four things Michael looks at in today’s consumer brands

The most common mistakes by brands raising venture capital

Yelitsa’s story

The customer for Yelitsa’s dolls

Whether Yelitsa is seeing repeat order behavior

Whether Yelitsa has begun to explore different commerce infrastructure tools

How Yelitsa’s Kickstarter generated funds

Yelitsa’s shipping horror story

How Yeltisa approached manufacturing

Capitalizing on going viral

Maintaining a luxury price point

Advice for today’s entrepreneurs

Resources:

Michael Lee

Yelitsa Jean-Charles

Healthy Roots Dolls

Where do brands get started with venture capital? Is a cold email to an investor worth it? What is it that you need to know about debt vs. equity? These are some of the questions that today’s guest will address. Ajay Agarwal is a partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Listen in as he shares his knowledge about venture capital, brands and technology, and e-commerce.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Ajay’s work with Build.org

Metrics that brands should focus on in the early stages

How brands know if VC is right for them

Differences between fundraising rounds

Emails from first-time founders

Debt vs. equity

Brands disrupting e-commerce

Positioning products for investors

Crowdfunding as an effective option

How quickly VCs want a return

Evaluating ROI

Investments that turned out to be less risky than originally thought

Ajay’s number one piece of advice

 

Resources:

Ajay Agarwal

Where do brands get started with venture capital? Is a cold email to an investor worth it? What is it that you need to know about debt vs. equity? These are some of the questions that today’s guest will address. Ajay Agarwal is a partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Listen in as he shares his knowledge about venture capital, brands and technology, and e-commerce.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Ajay’s work with Build.org

Metrics that brands should focus on in the early stages

How brands know if VC is right for them

Differences between fundraising rounds

Emails from first-time founders

Debt vs. equity

Brands disrupting e-commerce

Positioning products for investors

Crowdfunding as an effective option

How quickly VCs want a return

Evaluating ROI

Investments that turned out to be less risky than originally thought

Ajay’s number one piece of advice

 

Resources:

Ajay Agarwal

ShipBob is a company that helps new brands and startups, but it was also new at one point itself, so when learning about new businesses, ShipBob’s story is important as well. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Dhruv Sexena and Todd Bills of ShipBob. Listen to the interview to hear about how ShipBob got started, what benefits a merchant might see from using ShipBob as opposed to a different type of service, and what convinced them that ShipBob would make it. 

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How ShipBob got started

Whether ShipBob is startup-friendly for newer brands

The benefits for a merchant of using a service like ShipBob

The biggest challenges for ShipBob right now and how to address them

Why ShipBob limits SKUs

Fulfillment center expansion

Fulfilling non-prescription medications

Where it’s better to fulfill from

The event that led Dhruv and Todd to believe their venture would work

Mistakes in the early days of ShipBob

Whether ShipBob’s warehouses are air conditioned

The situation with USPS

Dhruv and Todd’s number one advice for direct-to-consumer brands

Resources:

Dhruv Saxena

Todd Bills

How did things start, and how are they going? How does testing factor in? Listen to today’s episode to hear more about these subjects. Joining the podcast today is Lanie Depaquale of Kopari Beauty and Anastasia Allison of Kula cloth. Listen in to learn more about the production, marketing, and shipping of these products. 

 

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Allison came up with her idea

What the Kula cloth is made from

What the price of the Kula cloth is

The odor resistance of the Kula cloth

Where Alison was a park ranger

What Lanie has seen from Kopari

Historic and current bestsellers for Kopari

Where Lanie manufactures

Where Anastasia manufactures

Getting a big order that’s out of the comfort zone

Whether to use a digital marketing firm

Handling creative content and ensuring consistency

The budget for marketing each month

How Lanie found her agency

Time and money-saving effects of a shipping partner

How to decide which products to sell on which channels

Handling customer communication

Managing international shipping

How influencers charge

Number one advice for other entrepreneurs

 

Resources:

Lanie Depasquale

Kopari Beauty

Anastasia Allison

Kula Cloth