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

My guest today is Ben Sun, co-founder and general partner at Primary Venture Partners. Primary focuses on investing in companies at seed that were founded in New York and has the largest seed stage portfolio impact team. Some of his investment include Jet.com, Coupang, K Health and Mirror. Previously he co-founded community connect, which was one of the first social networking companies. We discuss the evolution of social, why he's so bullish of companies coming out of New York, being anti thesis and a macro analysis of the current seed market. Questions I ask Ben: What was your initial attraction to entrepreneurship? How did you go about founding Community Connect? What made you decide to become a VC? How did Primary come together? What was your reaction then to Facebook starting off in high school I understand you invest in New York companies, which we will get to, but how did you end up investing in Coupang? Why the focus on New York? How has Silicon Alley transformed in the past 15 years? Why seed investing? New York City Summit? Process to figure out if a person could be the right founder? How do you approach this current market when it comes to price? It seems like lots of VCs are building out services and a platform for portfolio founders. How do you think about Primary's advantage when it comes to your own platform? Are you finding that many investors that traditionally invest in Series A or when a company has PMF are coming down to seed? I know you are an anti-thesis investor, would you mind unpacking that? How do you process and analyze when founders pitch ideas to you? Has any of your processes changed when it came to COVID? What's one thing you would change about VC? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? What's one piece of advice for founders?

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort   Our guest today is Brett Thomas co-founder of CAVU Venture Partners. CAVU Venture Partners builds brands for a healthier world. Some of their investments include WHOOP, Poppi, and Once Upon a Farm. We chat about his transition from hedge funds and the public markets to early stage companies, how his introduction helping companies was getting on billboards and the impact of that channel and how he came to found CAVU. Without further ado, here's Brett. In this episode you will learn: What was your initial attraction to consumer brands? How did you end up at Scout Capital? How did CAVU come together? What's the differentiation at CAVU? When do you typically get involved in startups? Should startups pay more attention to offline What were you learnings from COVID When does it make sense to go to retailHow do you find where the consumer is going How do you get to conviction within a company? How do you think about brand? What makes a compelling brand? What's the main reason why you pass? How do you think about product differentiation? When does it make sense for companies to start omnichannel from the beginning? How should a company think about their channel marketing mix? What's a successful marketing campaign to you? What's one thing you would change about venture capital within consumer? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? Steven Schwartzman - What It Takes What's one piece of advice for founders?

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a recap episode of my conversation with Sarah LaFleur, Founder & CEO of M.M. LaFleur.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a highlight episode of my conversation with Madeline Haydon, founder & CEO of nut pods.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a highlight from my conversation with Jeremy Cai, Founder & CEO of Italic

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a highlight of my conversation with Denise Woodard, Founder & CEO of Partake Foods.

Mark Gainey, Founder of Strava, shares his journey of starting a business, the challenges of B2B and B2C companies, targetting the cycling market, Strava's commitment to software, and reflections on sports and entrepreneurship.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This episode is a highlight from my conversation with Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This episode is a highlight from my conversation with Alex Fine, Founder and CEO of Dame Products. To listen to the full episode, Click Here. 

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort Thank you Charlie Hanna for the intro to our guest today, Denise Woodard CEO and founder of Partake Foods. Partake Foods is produces super delicious cookies are made with real, healthy, and safe ingredients that everyone can enjoy gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO and free of the top 14 allergens, our super delicious cookies are made with real, healthy, and safe ingredients that everyone can enjoy. We discuss the origin story of Partake and inspiration from Denise's daughter, that decision of leaving Coca-Cola, how she managed to get into grocery stores and raise capital. A few questions I ask Denise Why did you decide to leave big corporate CPG and your job at Coke in order to start Partake Foods? How did you approach experimenting with ingredients, tastetesting and finding the right formula? How did you go about building your supply chain? What were some of your learnings working for Coke that helped you build Partake Foods? Once you had your product what channels did you start off with? When did you realize you were on to something? When and why did you decide to raise venture capital?What was your fundraising strategy Once you got into retail, what was the strategy to expand? How did COVID affect Partake Foods? Since you grew and are growing so fast, how do you think about leadership and building/hiring a team? What's the future of Partake Foods? What's next on the horizon? What's one thing that you would change about venture capital and fundraising? 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? What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?