Consumer VC

My guest today is Justin Kolbeck , CEO and co-founder of Wild Type . Wild Type is on a mission to create the cleanest most sustainable seafood on the planet, starting with salmon. This is the first founder of a cell based food company I've had on the show and as someone who didn't know much about cell base food or commercial fishing, this was quite eye opening for me. We talk about the cur...

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 yo...

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...

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 scalabl...

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 creato...

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...

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. Withou...

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...

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...

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...

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 @ryangnesin Here's som...

My guest today is Dan Reich , who is a serial entrepreneur. Some of the companies he founded are Spinback, TULA and Troops.ai . TULA started as a digitally native health and beauty brand where Dan served as CEO from inception to over $1mm in sales in less than one year. Troops is a B2B technology company that is building a mobile-first, intelligent CRM. Since Dan has extensive backgrounds in both...

My guest today is Robin Li , Principal at GGV Capital . GGV is a global venture capital fund that invests in seed to growth stage companies. Some of their companies include Airbnb, Poshmark, Alibaba, and Peloton. We discuss how GGV makes decisions on a global scale, what opportunities in consumer internet Robin is most focused on, and bringing small businesses online. You can follow Robin on Twitt...

Thank you Rick Desai for introducing me to today's guests Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard , founders of Slumberkins . Slumberkins is a leading children’s educational brand on a mission to promote early emotional learning through a combination of creatures and story telling. We're going to learn what they believe was missing in a child's development, how they scaled organically, and...

My guest today is Andrew Dudum , founder of hims & hers . Hims and hers is a telehealth company that sells personal care products, subscriptions and and over-the-counter drugs online. We discuss our current healthcare system, what customer transparency really means, his fundraising strategy and what led him to take his company public via SPAC. One book that inspired Andrew is: Creativity Ink....

Thank you Arie Abecassis for the introduction to our guest today Eric Doty , founder of Loupe . Loupe is a free app built for the modern sports card collector. We talk about box breaks, how he thinks about the sports card collecting market, solving the classic chicken or the egg, supply/demand trap early on and his approach to leadership. A couple of books that inspired Eric: Educated: A Memoir by...

Thank you Samara Hernandez for the intro to our guest today, Monique Woodard . Monique is the founding Partner of Cake Ventures. Cake invests in companies that address the needs of a world undergoing massive demographic changes. We break down the three layers of Cake or themes that Monique focuses on, how she thinks about geography and future of work and her learnings as an operator and from 500 S...

My guest today is Sara Deshpande , Partner at Maven Ventures . Maven Ventures is a consumer focused micro-fund that focuses on investing in seed stage companies. Some of their investments include Zoom, Wild Type, Angellist and Nuggs. What I most enjoyed about this conversation was looking at what types of businesses were being built on top of Zoom and the opportunities in telehealth. Without furth...

My guest today is Morgan Hirsh , CEO and founder of Public Goods . Public Goods is your one stop shop for healthy, sustainable, everyday essentials you can trust. This episode helps to demystify or understand what sustainability means or could mean for consumer products. I also loved learning about his approach to building Public Goods in multiple categories rather than just one category. In this...

My guest today is Alex Fine , founder of Dame Products . Dame is the home of phenomenally fun toys for adults, that helps people to upgrade their self care with toys for sex. They were also named one of the most innovative wellness companies in 2020 by Fast Company. We touch on alot of areas in both sexual wellness and femtech that have been traditionally heavily stigmatized and her journey guidin...

My guests today are Aditi Dash and Joe Hovde from CircleUp . CircleUp Growth Partners is an early-stage consumer fund that takes a data-driven approach investing in compelling companies. Aditi is one of the investment partners and Joe is one of the data analysts. This is a fascinating conversation about building a data base for the private markets and using that data base as a tool to help make in...

My guests today are Wendy Tsu who is a partner of new business ventures at AlleyCorp and Susannah Shipton , Head of Platform and investor at AlleyCorp . AlleyCorp was founded by Kevin Ryan and both founds and funds companies in New York. On this particular episode, we're going to focus more on the founding / incubation side of AlleyCorp, which I thought was truly fascinating. Some of the compa...

Thank you Elizabeth Edwards for introducing me to our guest today. Leigh Radford , the Senior Vice President, Founder & General Manager of P&G Ventures . We discuss what is corporate venture capital, how P&G partners with brands, and the advantages for aspiring brands. Without further ado, here's Leigh. Some of the questions I ask Leigh What was your initial attraction to consumer...

My guest today is Carey Smith . Carey is the founder of Big Ass Fans , which in less than two decades he took the company from 0 to $250 million in revenue, without the help of investors. Following the sale of Big Ass Fans, Carey started Unorthodox Ventures , where he partners with extraordinary founders, providing capital and expertise to build companies faster. Their portfolio includes Fit Joy,...

Thank you Katie Shea for introducing me to today's guest Helaine Knapp , founder and CEO of CITYROW . CITYROW is a boutique fitness studio which started in New York City that specializes in a total body, high-intensity, low-impact workout using a water-based rowing machine and strength-training exercises. They have since launched Cityrow go, taking the boutique rowing experience into your home...