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

Our guest today is Abe Shafi, co-founder and 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: The founding story of IRL and the original thesis, growth, how they had to pivot their strategy during COVID, the approach to fundraising and where the company is currently at. Without further ado, here’s Abe. We discuss: Why entrepreneurship? Why did you want to create a consumer company? What was the insight that led you to found IRL? What were people using at the time? What was the pain point you were initially trying to solve? What was your approach to UI and organizing communities on your product? How did you approach growth? What did success look like/what did you want a user to accomplish when they visited IRL? During COVID, how did you have to pivot? Despite the pivot, why do you think you became a unicorn in 2021 and raise money from Softbank? What happened from that moment to now where you had to lay off 25% of your staff? What’s this change in market conditions been like for your company? With all of these transitions, what does community mean to you? How do you build community and what’s different between a community and an audience? Seems like community has become one of the main themes of Web3. How do you position IRL in a Web3 world that has this promise for different revenue streams for creators? What is the future of rented platforms i.e. social media channels and channels you own i.e. email? Will these come together? How do you think about your own position at IRL? How do you think about this transition from Web2 to Web3? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?Thích Nhất HạnhNo such thing as stability Hard Things About Things Netflix “No Rules The biggest piece of advice?

Our guest today is Ashleigh Hinde, Founder and CEO of Waldo. Waldo makes daily contact lenses without the hassle or price tag. We discuss how she’s building a brand with a product that you can’t see, how she approaches e-commerce and retail, and why she founded a contact lens company in the first place. Some of the questions I ask: What was the insight or pain point you went through that led you to founding Waldo? Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? How much do contacts usually sell for? How did you think about pricing strategy? How did you approach your supply chain/manufacturing? On the price point / margin side Efficient customer acquisition So you think about sustainability and It seems similar to what you are doing in contact lenses - making them more affordable, building a digitally native brand - it sounds similar to what Warby Parker did with eye glasses. What are some of the differences selling contacts vs. glasses? How important is having buy-in from eye doctors for customer acquisition? Does their recommendation have a big effect on the customer on which contacts they should buy from? How do you approach partnerships? How did you come to strike a big partnership with Walmart? Why? What does the customer journey look like? How do you build a brand with a product that you can’t see? What was the geographical distribution strategy? Why did you start in the UK then come to the US and how do you think about the contact lens market from a global perspective? How do you think about impact? How do you think you’ve grown since founding Waldo? What is the stickiness part of your business or how do you think about competitive advantages How did you approach fundraising? What was the biggest reason why an investor would pass or make the investment? What was the bet? What is one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?Professionally: The Hard Things About Hard Things Personally: Designing Your Life What’s the best piece of advice for founders?

Our guest today is Mike Hirshland, co-founder of Resolute Ventures. Resolute Ventures is a lead seed and “pre-seed” investor focused on backing and connecting a community of Founders who share an entrepreneurial spirit and energy. Some of their investments include Bark Box, Clutter, and Lumen. We discuss what pre-seed and seed investing is today, the opportunity within Web3, and how he builds conviction within founders. Without further ado, here’s Mike. Some of the questions I ask How did you enter venture capital? What were some of the learnings from that How did Resolute come together? What got you interested in the seed stage?How do you describe seed today? 10 financing in a year How do you think about risk in this market? Henrik Werdelin of BARK recently told Mike his "superpower is authenticity" which is what founders need now. What does that mean? Why is authenticity so important? One of your big themes is community. What’s your approach to building community, why is it so important and why did you create the Resolute DAO? How do you think about the opportunity within Web3? What are use cases that get you excited? Emotionally support Can we imagine a world where solving a problem What parts of Web3 is investible? How do you think about the current market/landscape? What’s you diligence process? What’s one thing you would change about venture capital? What’s one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally?As It Is

Our guest today is Mike Senackerib, CEO of Dewey’s Bakery. Dewey’s Bakery was founded in 1930 in Winston-Salem and was famous regionally for their baked goods. Fairly recently they opened a CPG line with lots of treats. Their cookies are incredibly delicious, not just saying that because Mike came on the show. We discuss the history of Dewey’s, why they decided to start a CPG line, approach to baking and manufacturing, brand positioning and how Mike became the CEO. Some of the questions I ask – Why did a bake shop decide to create a CPG brand? What’s the history of Dewey’s? Why did you decide to join Dewey’s and let your brand be acquired by the company? What did you think was missing within the cookie and biscuits category? What are some of the challenges taking a bake shop and building out a line of packaged goods products? What are some of the benefits being vertically intergrated? Were you able to not have as much disruption due to the supply chain crunch? How do you also think about the positioning of Dewey’s and sales channels? Given Walmart and Target are featuring more premium products, do you see yourselves as a brand for conventional grocery? There’s been lots of better for you products within cookies and the dessert/snack space. How do you think about what consumers want in a modern cookie company? What did you learn from COVID? What has been your biggest lessons learned about ecommerce? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received?

Our guest today is Mike Mayer, Co-CEO of Windmill. Windmill is the smart, quiet AC unit that looks nice. As you can imagine, we discuss the wonderful world of air conditioning. How he co-founded Windmill with his brother if he had any intention of getting into the air condition business, his approach to getting Windmill off the ground, fundraising, new revenue streams, and releasing new products. Some of the questions I ask: Did you always want to be an entrepreneur and start a business with your brother? Competing clothing brand called Peaches What was the insight that led you to founding Windmill? How did you build out your supply chain? How do you approach industrial and brand design? What are some of the regulations? Talk about all your different revenue streams? Why do seasonal business How did you think about your sales channels? Why did you do retail out the gate, how did you get into retail as your first channel? What was the process of convincing investors? How have you grown since founding Windmill? Changes in COVID We saw with high AOV products the repeat purchase rate isn’t very high. How did you think about additional products you could sell or even being able to build a subscription business?How do you use software coupled with the physical product? What’s one thing you would change about fundraising? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?Unbroken

Our guest today is Matt Gibson, co-founder and CEO of New Culture. New Culture makes animal-free dairy products that stretch, melt, and taste like the real deal through fermentation. We’re going to discuss why he made animal free cheese, what makes cheese cheese, how it’s different to other cheese alternatives, and his go to market strategy, which I think is quite unique. Some of the questions I ask him: What inspired you to want to make animal-free cheese? You had a passion for food did you come from the food industry? What is Microbial fermentation? Did you decide to use a co-packer or vertically integrate? Why? What was your process for raising money? Why did you have to raise twice before launching? What have been some of the challenges in bringing New Culture to market? You’re set to launch in 2024? What’s your launch/distribution plan? Will you hit retail from the beginning? Will you only do ecommerce? How do you describe your ideal customer? What is the future of cheese? Within food tech, we’ve talked and debated on this show about better for you vs. better for the environment and how some of the animal meat-alternative products are better for the environment, but aren’t exactly better for you. How do you think about this at New Culture? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Our guest today is Noah Gray, co-founder CEO of Onda. Onda is a sparkling tequila brand famously co-founded by Shay Mitchell. We discuss how Onda came to be, how Shay became involved, the intersection of celebrity and consumer, his fundraising and retail strategy. Without further ado, here’s Noah. I ask him: How did you end up in the beverage space? What attracted you to build an RTD tequila brand? Was the plan to always offer a product with zero sugar/carbs? Was it your consumer asking or was the market already going that way and you felt it necessary to offer a SKU that offered zero sugar/carb Drinking to enhance What was the insight that led you to founding Onda? What was missing from the market? How did Shay Mitchell become involved? Many celebrities and athletes are wanting to be associated with a consumer product, ranging from beverage to cosmetics. What has Shay done for the brand aside from her social media responsibilities? What’s your advice for founders who might partner with talent? How did you think about distribution? When did you think Onda started to resonate with consumers? What was your approach to raising capital? Of course, the category continues to grow and with low barriers to entry, there are a lot of players. Seems like Onda has raised considerably more capital than many of the other brands. How is that money being put to use? Are you simply buying distribution/customers or how does that convert to velocity? What was the most non-obvious thing you’ve learned since founding Onda? Vice clauses Better-for-you What do you think about the competitive landscape? How do you think about competition? What’s one book that has inspired you personally and one book that has inspired you professionally?Professionally: Mission in a Bottle - Seth and Barry Personally: Paul Anderson - Liquorice pizza What’s one piece of advice for entrepreneurs?

Our guest today is Brent Vartan, Managing Partner of Bullish. Bullish is an investment firm and Brand Agency designed for consumer businesses living early in an S-curve. Some of their investments include Peloton, Harry’s and Warby Parker. Bullish just released their report “Bullish On Consumer: Operationalizing Demand-Side Themes for Better Outcomes”. We will dig into the report and their three cultural themes within consumer. Click Here to Download Bullish’s Consumer Report Some of the questions I ask Brent: What’s the origin and purpose of creating this report? How was the report constructed? What was the starting point? Walk us through how you thought about human desires relates to cultural themes? How did you come out with your three themes What was most surprising to you from this research? How do these themes translate to different age demographics? I’ve had on investors who aren’t thematic in consumer. Who knows they don’t have crystal balls they don’t think about themes or trends, it’s understanding the insight that the entrepreneur brings to the table, researching that insight along with the founder. How can this report help your decision making when finding new companies? What do you think is still misunderstood about investing in early consumer brands? You had this line of should be businesses vs. could be businesses. What’s an example of a could be business or are there certain themes out there that you’ve noticed that you think will bear a bunch of could be businesses that don’t have alot of legs in the future? Do you think this changes how brands are constructed at the get go? For example, if you are appealing to a specific theme, like in the uncompromising self for example. You had Public Goods in there, which went multi-category fairly early on. Now I had on the founder of Public Goods who said he had a really hard time fundraising because they were multi-category. .When I asked a PE investor on this show if they would invest in Public Goods, they said no because the exit potential wasn’t there. Do you think you will see more of these?

Our guest today is Cristina Nuñez, Co-founder and General Partner of True Beauty Ventures. Some of their investments include Maude, Crown Affair, and K18. Today’s episode focuses on how to invest and build a beauty and personal care brand. Without further ado, here’s Cristina. Some of the questions I ask her: Why start a fund only focused on beauty and personal care? What do you look for? Does a company have to be omnichannel from day 1 in order for you to be interested? How do you think about this intersection of influencer x brand What makes great packaging great that pops in retail? What’s amazing about beauty and personal care products from an investor's perspective? How do you make DTC work as a beauty and personal care? What are some of the trends that you get excited by? How do you think about added value? What’s the initial check size do you underwrite? What does differentiated distribution mean to you? What does product innovation mean to you? Does the product need to have product innovation in order for you to invest? What’s the case for having a vertically focused fund? What’s the long term goal? What do generalist/non-vertically exclusive funds tend to not understand about your category?Realized that people take care of themselves What has worked in the beauty and what doesn’t work in beauty? What has to be right in order for you to invest? Why a concentrated portfolio? What’s one thing you would change about VC? What’s one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally? What’s one piece of advice for founders?

Our guest today is Alison Cayne, who is the founder of Haven’s Kitchen. Haven’s Kitchen is a cooking school and a sauce brand that creates fresh sauces in easy-squeezy, lightweight pouches. In this episode we discuss: Why she wanted to teach others how to cook Founding Haven’s Kitchen in NYC Why she decided to launch your own sauce line Her approach to packaging and brand positioning How she got into retail The current fundraising environment in CPG