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

Our guest today is Steven Sashen, one of the founders and CEO of Xero Shoes. Xero Shoes produces lightweight minimalist footwear designed for walking, running, and athletics.Here are some of the questions I ask Steven:How did you discover minimalism shoes and what led you to founding Zero Shoes?Bring us up to speed. What's wrong with cushioned shoes?What has been consumer reaction? Do you find there was already a market of consumers who knew about the detriments of cushioning in shoes or did it take lots of consumer education on your end?What does going all green mean to you and true environmental impact mean to you?Why did you decide to start with sandals?One of the things I love about your shoes is that I think they are pretty affordable. I got my Prios I think for $80 and they come with a 5,000 soleWas there a moment where you thought to yourself "hey this is actually working"? If so when did that moment occur?What was your approach to your supply chain?How did you think about expanding the number of products and SKUs?Can you unpack that in terms of quality control and traditionalIt seems like there are a number of shoe companies capitalizing on zero drop, but aren't truly minimalist. Can you unpack the differences?Why did you decide to raise venture capital and what was your fundraising strategy?Now you've raised private equity, what's the dynamic like having a board of directors and your decision making process?When it comes to your own decision making process, what were a few moments that you really learned from that influenced you as a leader?What's one thing you would change about consumer perception towards our feet?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice you have for entrepreneurs?

Our guest today is Ariel Kaye, founder of Parachute. Parachute is a home essentials brand that is designed in Los Angeles and manufactured by expert craftspeople across the globe including Portugal, Turkey and the U.S. In this episode you'll learn how Ariel saw the opportunity to create a brand in bedding, approached an omni-channel strategy, managing her stores and business during COVID.You can follow Ariel on Twitter @arielkayeSome of the questions I ask Ariel:What attracted you to consumer brands?What was the insight that led you to founding Parachute?What was missing from bedding?What was the competitive stack?What the supply chain could look like?What was your approach to brand design?How did you source your product?What was your launch strategy?How did you pick which SKUs to launch with?How did you pick distribution channels?What was your approach to retail and omnichannel?Why did you choose to go direct, creating your own stores?How do did you think about organic growth vs. paid?Approach to customer retention and building a dedicated audience.How did you think about expanding into other categories?How did you have to pivot during COVID?As we come out of COVID, what's on the horizon for Parachute?What was your approach to fundraising?What's one thing you would change about 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?Don't sweat the small stuffWhat's one piece of advice that you have for founders?

Our guest today is Lindsay Kaplan, Co-founder of Chief. Chief is a private network focused on connecting and supporting women leaders. Previously, she was part of Casper’s founding team to lead communications and brand engagement. In thie episode you'll learn about the inner workings of professional networks, the opportunity she saw, why she decided to structure Chief as a for-profit scalable entity, and her approach to brand.You can follow Lindsay on Twitter @lindsaykapSome of the questions I ask Lindsay:What was your attraction to working on startups vs. corporate?Why marketing?Before you became the first hire at Casper, you worked for a few companies that didn't make it. What were some of your learnings from those experiences?What was it like being on a rocket ship at Casper?What did that teach you about yourself and how to scale a company?What was the insight that led you to found Chief?Why did you decide to raise capital?What were the main concerns from investors when you were raising your seed?How were you able to pivot during COVID?Did you find that members were frustrated they couldn't meet others in person or were excited that they could meet many more people since it's virtual?Did you decide to expand into other markets more quickly since you had to transition online?How did you approach growth?What's one thing that you would change about 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 for founders?

Our guest today is Kate Shillo Beardsley, Partner at Hannah Grey. Hannah Grey is a first check venture fund investing in founders reimagining everyday experiences to improve work and life. In this chat we went down alot of fun rabbit holes like what we could all learn from Martha Stewart, what New York was like in the late 2000s/early 2010s as VC startups were coming into the picture, the creator economy, investing in secondary and tertiary markets. Without further ado here's Kate.You can follow her on Twitter @KshilloSome of the questions I ask Kate:What attracted you to consumer brands and media?How did that influence you going to venture capital?How did Lerer Hippeau come about? What were some of your focuses?How did your operating experiences at Martha Stewart and Huffington Post help you as an investor?What were some of your learnings from that experienceWhat was the New York startup scene like in the late 00s early 2010s?What's changed most significantly from then to now?Why did you decide to leave New York?Pods of creativityCreator to communityCommunity driven commerceWhat about Colorado made you excited?What led you to founding Galvanized Ventures?You decide to start Hannah Grey right at the beginning of the pandemic. What was that like?How has investing changed during the pandemic?What are some of your focus areas or investment thesis? What's some of the differences investing in consumer vs. enterprise?Walk me through your due diligence.What's one thing that you would change about 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?There's two people who gets you on the phone and talks right awayWhat's the best piece of advice for founders?

Thank you Mike Ghaffary for the introduction to our guest today, Mark Gainey, the founder of Strava. Strava is the #1 app for runners and bikers and is the destination to record any activity. In this conversation we talk about how Mark's passion for sports compelled him to Strava, what focus really means as a founder and Mark has some amazing examples of that, we also talk about scaling and his approach to building community. Without further ado here's Mark.Some of the questions I ask MarkThe first company you founded was in the B2B space, which did really well Kana Communications. What made you want to build a B2C company? Finding motivation, staying inspiredWhy did you decide to focus on cycling, since I remember when we first spoke you were a very competitive runner and you were very competitive in college at crew?What was the insight that led you to found Strava?What was the initial go to market strategy and how did you think about how the go-to market ties into the vision?How did you acquire your first customers?Athletes are normally aren't one sport athletesHow did you approach the balance of focus on a core problem/customer set vs. expanding to different use cases?How did you approach growth?Growing by partnershipsWhen did you decide to not just focus on biking but to also focus on measuring other activities?What was the moment or several moments on your journey that helped made you stop and realize "ok, there's certainly something here", some type of validation?How did you think about competition and who is a competitor vs. partner?How did you approach your pricing strategy and what you to make free vs. premium?What was your approach to community? Was that always the intent?I know you were a huge athlete growing up and very competitive. How has that helped shape you as a leader and influenced your approach on how you've build Strava?How do you make sure it's decentralizedWhat's next? What do you see is next for Strava?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice for entrepreneurs?

Our guest today is Matteo Franceschetti, founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, The #1 Smart Mattress, designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. In this episode, you'll learn about how Matteo thinks about sleep, why we should optimize it, habits that help us get to sleep and where eight sleep comes into play. We also talk about his vision about being more than a sleep company. Without further ado, here's Matteo.Check out Eight Sleep and you can follow him on Twitter @m_franceschetti.Some of the questions I ask MatteoWhat got you interested in studying sleep?What was the initial insight that led you to founding Eight Sleep?How did you think about product discovery, where in sleep to focus your time?What were parts of your product that you had to iterate on?What's the ideal temperature people should be sleeping at?What was your process to validate your idea?Was it a single moment in time when you found there is consumer demand for this type of technology?What was your fundraising strategy?How did you think about your go to market strategy, focus and your company's vision?What is your company's vision?Hardware is very difficult to do. What were some of the learnings and lessons learned building a hardware company?What was that process like, finding a manufacturer and building out the whole supply chain?Break down the metrics you focus on regarding sleep.Were there any surprises from your intuition that you found from the data?didn't know you had a big wake upWhat's the biggest part about sleep that is most misunderstood by consumersWhat was the impact of COVID? Especially since people couldn't try out the product in one of your show rooms and it's quite a high price point.How do you balance working a fast moving, high growth company but still making sure all your employees get the right amount of sleep per night since that is part of your mission for everyone to do?Softbank just came in with a $100 million investment. I know it's a recent partnership, but what has that been like receiving that amount of capital injection in the company?What's Eight Sleep's vision in the next 5-10 years?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?

Thank you Mereces Bent to the intro to our guest today, Amir Nathoo. Amir Nathoo, is the founder of Outschool. Outschool is an education marketplace/platform that offers a variety of engaging, small-group classes online that gives kids the unique opportunity to explore their interests in-depth. They were also one of the fastest growing tech companies during COVID. It was great chatting with Amir as we explored topics that we haven't covered often on this show like the effects COVID had on traditional education and where Outschool has become a complimentary part of kids lives. We talk about impact, legacy and Amir's unique distribution model when he first founded the company.You can follow Amir on Twitter @amirnathoo.Some of the questions I ask Amir:What was your attraction to technology, entrepreneurshipWhat was the opportunity that you saw in education?What was the aha moment or series of instances that led you to founding Outschool?I remember in our first call you spoke about how you learned a lot more in those experiences outside of school rather than in the classroom. what do you mean by that?How did you plan to replicate those experiences with Outschool?When you were thinking of starting this business, what were the big question marks or big problems that you knew you had to solve in order for Outschool to work?Fundraising.What was the moment you realized you needed to raised capital?How did you go about raising? What type of partners were you looking for?How has COVID hit your business? Did you go through a supply crunch?Did you have to change any part of your strategy due to COVID?What's your vision for the future of Outschool? What can we expect in the next 5-10 years?What's one thing you would change about the fundraising process or venture capitalWhat's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice to founders currently building?

Thank you Alison Ryu for the introduction to our guest today, Madeline Haydon. Madeline is Founder and CEO of nutpods. nut pods is a dairy-free half and half alternative made from almonds and MCT-rich coconuts in a convenient, easy to use coffee creamer. What I most appreciated from this conversation was how open Madeline was about the beginning days of nut pods, starting the company without any food and bev experience, taking on alot of risk and now leading the business to incredible heights.Some of the questions I asked Madeline -What attracted you to entrepreneurship? Especially Dairy Free creamersWhat attracted you to the world of creamers and what was the insight that led you to founding Nutpods?Walk me through the process of developing creamers in your kitchen to actually having commercial manufacturing?How did you go about building your supply chain?What was your approach to distribution early on?Daily free vs. non-sweenerWhat was that moment like when you knew you were on to something / wanted to take this full time and put everything you had into Nutpods?When and why did you choose to raise capital?What was your approach to fundraising?What were some of the challenges / biggest hurdles you had to overcome?What are some of the differences fundraising from VCs vs. private equity groups?When did that transition start for you?What was your approach to board construction?What would you like to see change in the fundraising process?How did the pandemic change nut pods? Did you have to pivot your strategy, channel mix?What has been your approach to new distribution channels, partnerships and product extensions?When you take a look back at all of what you've accomplished with nut pods, what were some of the key reasons why you've been so successful?What's your vision for nutpods in the coming years?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 the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?

My guest today is Elizabeth Galbut, one of the founding partners of SoGal Ventures. SoGal Ventures is the is the first female-led, next generation venture capital firm. In this episode we discuss how Elizabeth's interests led to thinking about consumer innovation, how she started a fund, the biggest arbitrage opportunity of her lifetime, and managing a two person global fund. Without further ado, here's Elizabeth.Some of the questions I ask Elizabeth:You were originally in healthcare. What prompted you to make this transition to become a venture capitalist?How did SoGal Ventures come about? What's your typical check sizeI know Pocket is located in Asia, you're located in the United States and you are a two GP, how do you think about where to focus on investing since you are quite global and have a small team?Walk me through your due diligence processWhat categories do you spend the most time on? How do you analyze categoriesWhat has to stand out when you talk to founders?I know part of your focus is looking at products that serve the upcoming generation. What are you most surprised by Gen Z?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 the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice for founders?

My guest today is Ryan Gnesin, founder of Elevate Brands. Elevate Brands buys consumer-leading Amazon FBA brands and elevate them to their full potential. This is a little bit of a different episode as the focus is creating and scaling brands on Amazon and how you can leverage Amazon across other channels.And there you have it, it was awesome having Ryan on Twitter at @ryangnesinHere's some questions I ask Ryan:Looking at your resume, you were in life insurance and commodities trading. What was your attraction to ecommerce and Amazon?What was the insight that led you founding at the time Recom Brands and what was the opportunity did you see?Walk me through your due diligence process when analyzing Amazon brands?What are typically the multiples and how do they change from brands who are omnichannel?How do you go about building a brand on Amazon?What's your approach to portfolio construction and category?Why was $55 million the right amount for your fund (congrats on fundraising!)?What's your ideal (realistic) return when you acquire a brand?Do the brands you acquire typically also have their own DTC channel?Once you acquire the brand, is your value add consolidating the supply chain / cutting costs or is it revenue growth?Do you ever have your brands go omnichannel?Do you ever get nervous about copy cats? Either from Amazon or competitors?How do you analyze different Amazon markets and think about market expansion?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice for founders?