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

My guest today is Katie Shea, Managing Partner of Divergent Capital. Katie has had alot of experience on both sides of the table as a founder, operator and angel investor and venture capital. Some of her investments include Cityrow, Parade and Topicals. We discuss why and how she launched a venture fund in the middle of the pandemic, how she approached angel investing, where the bar is for digitally native brands. Without further ado, here's Katie.You can follow Katie on Twitter Here.Some of the questions I ask Katie:I think a great place to start is what was your initial attraction to consumer?Why did you decide to start a fund during COVID?You've been both a founder and early employee. What were some of your learnings in both of those roles?You've worked in marketing with companies, as an employee and consultant. I remember in our first conversation, you spoke about being much more analytical with marketing (figuring out LTV/CAC and optimization) and less brand-marketing oriented. Since we don't have the arbitrage opportunities in growth like we did in the late 00s/early 10s, what are some creative strategies that you've seen in order to have higher LTV/CAC ratios and shorter paybacks?How should a new consumer brand approach growth?As an angel investor, what is your strategy when it comes to portfolio diversification?You invest in both technology and brands. How do you think about portfolio construction?Do you have any advice on folks that are thinking of becoming angels?Divergent Venture Fund started during COVIDWalk me through your due diligence process?What are current trends that you are focused on?When should a consumer brand think about raising capital?What's one thing that you would change as it relates to venture capital?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?

My guest today is Henri Pierre-Jacques, Managing Partner at Harlem Capital. Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over 20 years. Some of their investments include Aunt Flow, Blavity, and Repeat. We discuss how to think about impact and opportunity in the early stages of investing, Harlem's thesis and why Harlem wants to be a multi-stage investment firm.And there you have it. It was a pleasure chatting with Henri. Highly recommend following him on Twitter @hpierrejacquesHere are some of the questions I ask Henri:What made you want to transition from private equity to venture capital?Why did you choose to start your own fund instead of joining a fund?How did Harlem Capital come together?What was your process when it came to raising your first fund?What were some of the reasons why investors passed?What is some of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to emerging managers?How do you describe Harlem Capital's focus area?What are some of the particular consumer trends that you are excited about?Why do you think fund 1 and fund 2 outperform?What is your fund model do you tend to be more concentrated or more spray and prey?Do you consider yourself more of a thematic or opportunistic investor? Why?The number of founders who happen to be women or people of color that are venture-backed is extremely low - to say the least. In your years working in venture capital do you see this starting to change on the ground level?We talk about how to receive real changeI believe you recently moved to Miami. What has the venture scene been like? What are your impressions on the startup community?What were your biggest learnings from COVID?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's one piece of advice for founders?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?

Our guest today is Harpreet Singh Rai, the CEO of Oura. Oura is a smart ring that tracks your sleep and links how you sleep to your energy levels through the day. I have one, I love it. I have a bullet journal where I track all my habits and how I'm feeling throughout the day and what I learned is one of the biggest indicators to how I feel and how productive I am is directly tied to how I slept the night before. In this episode we discuss how underated sleep is, how Harpreet became the CEO of Oura and much much more.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.Some of the questions I ask Harpreet:You worked in banking for a long time. What compelled you to become an entrepreneur?Why did you decide to focus on sleep? What was the insight that led you to founding Oura?Why did you choose the ring as the type of wearable?When you were figuring out the data in the beginning, what was most surprising anWhat are the metrics/components to get a good night's sleep?What is Heart Rate Variance? How does that effect your sleep?Whilst sleep has been the positioning of Oura, how likely is it that we see fitness tracking being more of a focus?How do you calculate sleep score?How do you calculate readiness score?How does the form factor evolve from here?When do you think you found product-market fit?Why is it ring? - Accuracy and convenienceWhat was market validation to you?Rest modes - Matteo - to help save your lifeHow did you approach growth?When did you decide that you needed to fundraise?What was that process like? What was your strategy?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?

Our guest today is Bri Kimmel, Founder of Worklife Ventures. Worklife is the first fund designed for builders, creators & individual contributors. Some of her investments include Clubhouse, Hopin and Italic. We focus this conversation on how having fun is serious business, the ins and outs of the creator economy and evaluating companies where a celebrity is a cofounder.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.Questions I ask Bri:How did Worklife VC come together? What compelled you to become an investor and move to the other side of the table?Build a community to make entrepreneurshipZendesk - support leadership forum; large scale community eventsHow do you define a creator? Tech more approachable for local small businesses onlineWhy did you want to specialize in investing in products that help builders, creators, and individual contributors thrive? Cash drops -Year at home, alot of people starting small businessesI bet people will seek shelter and go to stable companiesHealth insurance problem / back office in starting a businessWhat are nuances in the creator economy that you think most people might not understand?What unique ways are you seeing creators build communities?What type of products and needs haven't been met yet for creators?How are you imagining the future of social?What do you also make of celebrities founding companies? Is that going to be the future for launching consumer products? The hardest part is to bring the audience todayWhat are the downsides of having a celebrity co-founder?What were your learnings from how Dispo unfolded?As we come out of this period of COVID, what are you focusing on when it comes to change of consumer behavior?What's your due diligence process when you analyze companies?What's one thing you would change when it came to venture capital?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 that you've said the most amount of times?

Thank you Brian Reilly for the introduction to Haley Rosen, Founder of Just Women's Sports. Just Women's Sports is the first media company solely focused on bringing Women Sports directly to you. Haley is also an athlete. She was one of the top soccer recruits coming out of high school and played on the Stanford team as well as having a professional career. In this episode you'll learn how Haley's decides what type of content to produce, the opportunity she saw and how she views the relationship between athlete and the media plus much much more.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.You can catch Haley on Twitter at @RosenHaley.Questions I ask Haley:What was your initial attraction to soccer and sports?Why did you want to create a media company for women's sports? What was the opportunity that you saw in women's sports?What was the first type of content that you started with?What was the initial reaction?What types of other content did you then roll out?What mistakes did you make?What's the hardest part about starting a media company?How has being so driven in sports and the routines you developed in sports translated in business?How do you think about the sports media landscape currently? You now have alot of networks that are creating their own sports media businesses, do you think there is saturation?I read your article "Letting go of being perfect". When you think of founding a business, what role does perfection have?Has gambling become a gateway for some people to get into women's sports?When did you decide you needed to fundraise?What was that experience like?What was the biggest reason why investors said no?What was your process?What's the most misunderstood about women's sports?Lifestyle angleWhat's the vision and the next step for Just Women's Sports?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?The opportunity comes when peopleWhat's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?

Thank you Ben Zises for the introduction to our guest today is Jordan Nathan. Jordan is the Founder and CEO of Caraway. Caraway crafts well-designed non-Toxic Ceramic Cookware Thoughtfully Designed For Any Type Of Home. On this episode, we discuss why he decided to start a cookware brand when the market seemed saturated, his approach to growth, what it was like raising his first round of fundraising and much much more. Without further ado, here's Jordan.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.Question I ask Jordan:What was your attraction to ecommerce?What was your role at Mohawk group? What were some of your learnings?Did you have an attraction to cookingWhat are the nuances to building a brand on Amazon that most might not get?What was the insight that led to Caraway?How did you approach design and your supply chain?What was the go-to-market strategy?Did Caraway benefit from the pandemic since people weren't eating out all the time?How did you approach distribution?How would you characterize your brand and what was your approach to brand positioning?At what point did you believe it could be a big business?Why did you fundraise?What was your fundraising strategy?What was the biggest hang up from investors?What's next on the horizon for Caraway?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice that you have for founders

Thank you Tyler Mincey for the introduction to our guest today's guest Ben West. Ben is the founder of Spark Grills, which is precision charcoal grilling meaning it's the best of both worlds. You get the amazing flavor since you're cooking on charcoal, but the ease and temperature precision that's typically associated with gas grills. Previously, Ben founded EcoZoom, which brought efficient cookstoves to areas of the developing world plagued with indoor air pollution. We discuss some of the differences building a company that is tailored towards the developing world vs one that is focused on the developed world, the two groups he considers as Spark Grills target audiences and what it was like launching during COVID.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.Questions I ask Ben:What was your attraction to entrepreneurship, wood stoves and grills?What led to the founding of Eco Zoom?What were some of the challenges building a company in developing countries?What inspired you to start Spark Grills?What was the insight?How did you go about developing the product?Why did you think people needed a charcoal grill?How did you think about the competitive set?What was the transition like creating a premium product for developed nations vs. a product for people in emerging countries?How did you decide the channel you wanted to sell on?How do you approach building your brand?didn't have the performance, lifestyleWhat was the go-to-market strategy?Democratize the joy of grillingDemocratize in terms of making grilling easyWhen did you realize you needed to fundraise?What has been the effect of COVID on Spark Grills?What's one thing that you would change about the fundraising process?What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?

Thank you Marc Nathan for the intro to our guest today Max Niederhofer. Max is a Partner at Heartcore Capital. Heartcore Capital is europe's consumer tech VC focusing on investing in happiness investing in seed and Series A. Some of his investments include Italic, LastFM, and One Fine Stay. Previously Max was an investor at Accel and founded MyBlog. In this episode, we focus on investing in communities, the meaning of consumer, and some of the differences when investing in Europe vs. U.S. Without further ado, here's Max.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.And there you have it. It was pleasure having Max on the show, highly recommend following him on Twitter @maxniederhofer.Some of the questions I ask Max:What was your initial attraction to startups and innovation?Internet in 98 became part of your life?Interested in sub communitiesWhat are some of your learnings since when you founded Myblog and Qwerly?What does consumer investing mean to you and why did you choose to focus on it?What are some of the regions punch above their weightExcellent talent in Europe, it is raw.Way you build talent organicallyAfter you sold your companies, why did you decide to become an investor?Why do you enjoy investing at the early stages vs. growth stages?How do you analyze foundersFor American investors who want to invest in Europe - especially consumer focused companies - what have been some of the biggest misconceptions?How has the European startup ecosystem evolved since you began investing?Are there certain regions that have grown faster than others?What are some of the hurdles when investing in European consumer focused companies?How should European based companies think about growth expanding to other parts of the continent?What makes Europe complex?There's been alot of influx from American VC money into Europe. Do you think there's going to be a rise of more domestic based funds.Has Brexit changed anything so far related to the startup landscape?What are categories and markets that you think are big opportunities in technology that haven't come online?When you think about trends, do you think about what is exciting and interesting in other parts of the world that could be translated and work for Europe?What's your approach to analyzing consumer behavior and habits?How do you analyze founders?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?What's the best piece of advice you have for founders?What is next in consumer, what are you excited about

Our guest today is Tige Savage, co-founder and managing partner of Revolution Ventures. Revolution a venture capital fund based in Washington, D.C. Some of their investments include RunKeeper, Homesnap, Framebridge, and LivingSocial. This episode really hit home for me. I'm originally from the DC area and love the area. It's probably bad form it's taken me this long to have an investor that's based there on the show. In this conversation you'll learn how Revolution invests in companies that are outside of the bay area, how Tige views risk at the early stages and how he thinks about brands that are sustainable.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.Some of the questions I ask Tige:What was your attraction to venture capital?How did Revolution come together?What are the three investment funds that Revolution invests out of?What's interesting about the DC startup ecosystem?Life of revolution - off the beaten path of geographiesSpending time on the roadHow did you think about sourcing, and different regionsWas alot of community buildingReferences were more important than they ever have before?Traded the risks of unknown for pricing risksWhy don't you make investments in the bay area?How do you currently think about price in this market?When investing in pre-product market fit, what are qualities you look for in founders?Are there particular themes in consumer that you focus on or are you more opportunistic?What did you learn from COVID?Digitally native brandsWhat's one thing you would change about venture capital?What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?

Our guest today is Ernesto Schmitt, Co-Founder and Arch Craftor of The Craftory, a $375 million global investment fund that invests exclusively in CPG brands. Some of their investments include TomboyX, Hippeas, and Edgard & Cooper. Previously, Ernesto was a serial technology entrepreneur who has had successful exits to Twitter, Snap and Intel. You'll learn why Ernesto believes digitally native brands are heading into retail too early, expectations at the series A and B, and his approach to analyzing founders globally.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.Some of the questions I ask Ernesto:What was your initial attraction to technology?What made you want to become an entrepreneur?How did Peoplesound come together? Did you plan on heading into the music world?After being a founder all these years, why did you decide to become an investor and raise a fund?How did The Craftory come together?Why did you only focus on CPG where it seems like most of your experience dealt with technology?How do you evaluate founders and brands?What's your due diligence process like?Do you look at American brands differently than European brands? Are there macro consumer trends in CPG that are different in Europe vs. USA?Has Brexit changed the way you invest or look at companies?When do you think it makes sense for DNVBs to hit the shelves and go into retail?What are opportunities that you are seeing in CPG?What's an example of an investment conflict in CPG?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice you have for founders?